King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime

"Get Out":Heavy metal funk, his girlfriend or someone is no fun, so GET OUT NOW!!!

"Richochet": More metal, lyrics about kharmification, I like the writing more than the tune. There's a ton of good poetry on this album. "It's always funny until someone get's hurt--and then it's just hilarious! You can laugh at me when it misses you".

"Evidence": Now it get's really good. Funky, slow contemporarily jazzy...matches perfectly a crime scene mood, as the tale about a murderer who "didn't feel a thing" gets hounded by unemotional cops who say "you won't even feel me".

"The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies": Deranged, darkly humourous, all the good FNM ingredients. Could it be through the eyes of a bully? A son angry at his corporate father? An aggresive girlfriend towards her passive businessman boyfriend? You be the judge.

"Star A.D.": Swing/burlesque influenced hotcha, geat lyrics about how Christianity was made to keep you a slave, a "little joke that's understood", a "dead fact of history", "a legend". Sort of like "Mouth To Mouth" on Album Of The Year, except the attack is against a specified religion, hence the name.

"Cuckoo For Caca": The wildest, most insane Bunglesque number--in music and in lyrics. Paranoid of pure white, dull flowers and surfaces and gods who give people addictions to things which are the equivalent of "turds on our lips"? ME too!

"Caralhoo Voador": Soft, breezin' latin samba, but on the brink of snapping because...the song is about a classy, sexy giggolo who is sick of looking so **** cool all the time, so much he might run someone over in his hot car.

"Ugly In THe Morning": Alright, maybe this is the most insane. Angry, bad day, I look ugly, I hate the perfect, kind of thing. Screaming 'til the lunacy is gone.

"Digging The Grave": What is comfortable is not nescisarily what is good, just like selling yourself out for riches and cookies. If Fight Club appealed to you, this song will as well.

"Take This Bottle": Country styled love ballad. Comes off as being fake emotion, but with Patton you never know...

"King For A Day": This elusive dream flowin' track reminds me of the Talking Heads' "Memories Can't Wait". Both are about drinking alcohol to excess at a party, but this one is more about selling his soul for one day of everything awesome and bliss. The ending progression creates the imagery of dying, as does the Heads tune.

"What A DAy": Sounds a little like Nirvana's "Breed", or atleast the chorus. I think it's about people talking about a murderer who they knew, and saying ignorantly "I should've noticed it, I should've killed it, etc.". It could also about the thoughts and the feelings of a suicidal man, and the people talking about noticing the warning signs.

"The Last To Know": More rock influence. Alright, didn't care for it much, good lyrics...I tend to repeat words, noticed that?

"Just A Man": Just brilliant, perfecto, a Faith No More classic. "Man was born to love--though he has often sought Like Icarus, to fly high. I am just a man." The church chorus works wonderful, a narley ending. No one uses narley anymore...

ok, that is it, review over. GET THIS ALBUM NOW OR ELSE...you'll miss out on some gooooood music.


the overlooked masterpiece by the greatest band of the 90s   February 21, 2005
a reader (Washington D.C.)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Faith No More were masters of bad timing. the San Francisco quintet released the groundbreaking "Angel Dust" in 1992, just as the Seattle grunge trend was peaking. you never heard "everything's ruined" on the radio or saw "midlife crisis" on MTV.

so it's no surprise that, ten years after its release, "King for Day..." continues to line the discount bins in used CD stores.

KFAD was released as the sound embodied by bands like nirvana and soundgarden was giving way to more-polished imitators like candlebox and, um, soundgarden.

that's not to say KFAD fit into any category; indeed, Faith No More defied categorization more than any other band at the time, save perhaps Primus. but where Angel Dust took a turn for the funky, KFAD is Faith No More's rawest, most intricate, punked-out
release. and it does more than stand the test of time -- it gets better with each listen.

credit for the departure largely goes to the guitar work of trey spruance, singer mike patton's comrade in mr. bungle (another overlooked band). spruance, who was in the band only during the recording of KFAD and was out by the time it they went on tour, brings jazz inflections to FNM's characteristic hard-edged riffs -- something his predecessor, jim martin, would not or could not do. the rest of the band followed spruance's lead.

what you get is a potpourri of genres in one tightly-wound, coherent album, the ingenuity of which has yet to be repeated.

KFAD shocks the listener with the hard-rocker openers, "get out" and "ricochet," then flows into to the old-school R-and-B of "evidence." before you know it, it's on to the big-band ensemble of "Star A.D." then on to the schizoid thrash of "cuckoo for caca."

KFAD takes a breather with the lounge-lizard smoothness of "caralho vaodor" before jumping back into the fray with "ugly in the morning" and "digging the grave."

the only weak point on the album is the ballad that follows, "take this bottle." but it's not a bad song, just misplaced. and it's easy to skip because next up is the title track "king for a day."

this song is, in this fan's humble opinion, as close to perfect a rock song as one can get. it starts with a basic but propulsive accoustic chord progression paired with a simple keyboard melody and soon folds out into a gloriously cacophonous layering of metal guitar riffage and tribal beats before coming back down to earth and hauntingly fading out. through it all is mike patton giving the performance of his career -- and that's saying a lot, considering his stellar vocal achievements before and since KFAD.

the album wraps up with "just a man," with its quirky reggae beat and glorious use of a gospel choir to match patton's poetry.

after KFAD, Faith No More put out one more album, the wryly titled "Album of the Year," before calling it quits in 1998. while heavy and splendid in its own right, Album of the Year did not come close to the brilliance of "King for a Day..."

nor has any other band since then. so rush out to the nearest CD Warehouse and make a B-line to the "F" division of the Rock/Pop section, pay the seven or nine dollars and bask in "King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime."


Great overlooked album   March 13, 2004
Scott (NV, United States)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is another mighty fine record from a mighty fine band,
I listened to this album for like 6 weeks straight when it first came out, A lot of people talk about the Keyboards missing, don't believe it, the Keyboards are there,
They just aren't as dominent as they are in the previous records, and some songs don't have any at all, I think they are "Get Out" "Gentle Art", "Ugly in the morning" and "Digging the Grave", the rest of them have Keyboards, The album is just more guitar driven, which Trey Spruence is a Great guitar player, but I missed Jim Martins style and sound, I think that played a big part in the band. now I'll rate each song.
1. Get Out- A good rocking song, I like the chorus. B
2. Ricochet- Probably my favorite song on the album, very FNM, sounds like it could've been on Angel dust. A+
3. Evidence- Another Fantastic song, its got a real funky, jazzy upbeat lounge feel to it, great guitar work. A+
4. Gentle art of making enemies- Not one of my Favorites, its alright, I really like the verses and the choruses, and its got some cool riff in it, but theres something about the song as a whole that I'm not fond of. I still like it though. C+
5. Star A.D.- Good song, really funky feel, with horns, I like this one. B+
6. Cucoo for Caca- Great song, Very noisy, lots of screaming, weird lyrics, Great music. B+
7. Carlo Vahdor- I don't know if I spelled that right, But I dig this song a lot, its very laid back, and if you had the cassette tape, its a perfect song to end the first side. A
8. Ugly in the Morning- Another noisy song, and I love it, its got a good groove to it. B+
9. Digging the Grave- Great song, one of the best, no keyboards but it rocks and has a lot of melody A+
10. Take this bottle- My least favorite, its not bad, its just got a real country feel to it, and I'm not feelin it. D+
11. King for a Day- Excellent, Keyboards and Bass are strong in this song, its great. A+
12. What a Day- Cool begining, rocking song, nice beat. A
13. Last to Know- I really like this song, some say its boring, but the Vocals and The guitar get me into it, and I like it. A+
14. Just a man- this is different but great, the music is cool and the vocals are great. good way to end the album. B+

Considering the rough time the band was going through at the time, this is a killer album, A lot of people just don't know how to take the diversity of Faith no More, but thats what makes them great, and this album is a must have.


One of the all time greats, though often unrecognised   October 4, 2005
Mark Erikson (Australia)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

There are some albums you hear, where it is absolutely mindboggling to discover they weren't a smash hit when first released. "King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime" is probably the most prominent among them.

Faith No More remained relatively popular from the release of their "The Real Thing" album until they disbanded many years later, but they never matched the commercial success of "The Real Thing" again. Their follow up, "Angel Dust" was a bit of a flop (and it is also difficult to understand why that rocking masterpiece flopped, as most fans would consider it the superior album), and they never quite recovered, apparently.

But this album, which came after "Angel Dust", is their ultimate work. It is diverse, expertly crafted, and the tracks perfectly ordered to keep you entertained and amazed at the range and talent of this band (and the range and talent of Mike Patton, an unbelievable vocalist who will more than likely put any other singer you've ever heard to shame - even if you're a dedicated Maynard James Keenan follower).

The opening track is a bit of plain, ordinary (but good) rock. It's followed by a similar-but-different grunge piece. You're enjoying the music so far, but you haven't really sat up and started paying attention until the third track, "Evidence", a bit of delicious, loungy crooning that you really weren't expecting, but is a welcome surprise.

This album is essentially impossible to get sick of. Each track is cast from a different mould (though using the same ingedients) and ordered in such a way that you never find yourself tiring of a particular kind of music. You get comic anger and brilliant riffs on tracks like "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", silky-smooth music on "Caralho Voador", and amazing vocal acrobatics on "Cuckoo for Caca".

The highpoint of the album is undoubtedly the title track "King For A Day", which is possibly the cruisiest song I've ever heard. And it's followed by the thumping rocker "What A Day", just in case you were getting too relaxed.

The closer, "Just A Man", which features a gospel choir, is quite possibly the best closer of all time. I know you've heard some good closers in your time. But this one just fits so perfectly that you can't help but appreciate the various levels of detail that this band was aware of when they put this album together.

It is, without any doubt on my part, one of the all time, and sadly unrecognised greats.