Before I begin this review, let me say that I am a huge Faith No More fan, so any ‘best of’ collection for me is always going to have contentious choices. However this one is pretty damn good and really does show FNM in a great light. Of course, there have been a few collections from FNM over the years, but I’m only going to focus on this one rather than compare to any of the others.

Whoever chose the content for this one really likes ‘Angel Dust’ because on the first CD, eight of the eighteen songs are from the album, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but a person could just get that with the other 6 excellent songs on it and leave this CD alone.

CD 1 begins with ‘The Real Thing’ which is a great song but I am personally unsure if it is worthy of a ‘best of’ album? And if the reason is because it’s the title of the first Mike Patton fronted album, then why not include ‘King for a Day’ or ‘Introduce Yourself’ which are both far superior songs? One criticism for the first CD is that perhaps if less ‘Angel Dust’ tracks were put onto it then the single ‘Last Cup of Sorrow’ could have been included, this is a good representation of the FNM catalogue, but CD 1 definitely misses out on a few really good tracks such the ones mentioned before and ‘Falling To Pieces’.

The second CD is what makes huge FNM fans like me happy about this collection, starting with b-sides ‘Absolute Zero’, ‘The Big Kahuna’ & ‘Light Up and Let Go’, all awesome tracks and ones that are pretty hard to get ahold of if you don’t want to trawl eBay for the individual singles they originally appeared on. Also on CD 2 are a couple of b-sides which were only released on the original FNM Greatest Hits CD and if you can’t get a copy of that album then they are another reason to go out and buy this album. Furthermore there’s the bizarre yet highly entertaining song ‘Das Schutzenfest’ along with the real golden nuggets of the collection, ‘Sweet Emotion’ and ‘New Improved Song’, which I had never heard before reviewing this album.

’Sweet Emotion’ was originally released onto a 1989 Kerrang cover CD before appearing 2 years later in a different form as ‘The Perfect Crime’ on the ‘Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey’ soundtrack while ‘New Improved Song’ featuring Chuck Mosley on vocals first appeared on a 1988 Sounds magazine cover CD and then reappeared a year later with Mike Patton singing vocals on ‘The Real Thing’, ironically this was an even newer and more improved version but the name had since been changed to ‘The Morning After’.

Finally, there are also two iTunes exclusives in the form of ‘Spanish Fly’ which is another title I don’t have, so I feel an online shopping trip coming on and the cover of ‘I Started A Joke’, which really shows Mike Patton’s vocal range is nothing short of awesome.

VERDICT:

Definitely a good buy for fans, don’t worry about CD 1 so much but sit back and enjoy the b-sides and rare tracks on CD 2.

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