Description
Check the exclusive video, showing the vinyl for sale!
Check the exclusive video, showing the vinyl for sale!
Label: Slash – 828 051-1, London Records – 828 051-1, London American Recordings – 828 051-1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Europe
Released: 1987
Style: Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Funk Metal, Alternative Metal
A1 Faster Disco
A2 Anne’s Song
A3 Introduce Yourself
A4 Chinese Arithmetic
A5 Death March
B1 We Care A Lot
B2 R n’ R
B3 The Crab Song
B4 Blood
B5 Spirit
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Slash Records
Copyright © – Slash Records
Distributed By – Barclay
Lacquer Cut At – PRS Baarn
Pressed By – PRS Baarn
Producer – Matt Wallace, Steve Berlin
Producer, Written-By – Faith No More
This version has neither the catalog number “SLAP 21” nor a label code printed on the cover.
This version has the grey and black ‘London American Recordings’ logo on the the labels of the record.
℗ 1987 Slash Records
Printed in The Netherlands
Distribution in France by Barclay
© 1987 Slash Records.
Made in Holland
Recorded by Slash Records
Original Sound Recording made by Slash Records
On spine: London/Slash 828 051-1
Barcode: 0 42282 80511 9
Price Code: BA 281
Rights Society: B.I.E.M. / STEMRA
Introduce Yourself is Faith No More’s second studio album, released in 1987. Due to the limited availability of the first album, We Care a Lot, many, including the band, once considered this Faith No More’s true debut album. Being the group’s major label debut, this album features better production than its predecessor, which is most evident on this album’s version of the song “We Care a Lot,” which also features updated, more topical, lyrics. It was the last album Chuck Mosley appeared on with the band.
Background
In late 1986, Faith No More was signed to Los Angeles label Slash Records by Anna Statman. The label had entered a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1982, ensuring a widespread release, distribution and marketing for the band’s forthcoming album.
“We Care a Lot” and “Chinese Arithmetic” were released as radio singles in the fall of 1987, in promotion of the band’s tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Music videos were later made for the songs “We Care a Lot” (released in January 1988) [A re-recorded version, with new lyrics, was included on the album Introduce Yourself and was the lead single, reaching number 53 on the UK Singles Chart] and “Anne’s Song” released (released in May 1988).
Songs
The title track was originally called “The Cheerleader Song”. It was written on Faith No More’s first nationwide tour of the United States in 1986, as they were on their way from South Dakota to Portland, Oregon, and driving through Missoula, Montana. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum became inspired to write the song when the band went to a truck stop for coffee. He came up with the lyrics on the next leg of the journey, while sitting in the passenger seat of the band’s Dodge.
Regarding the song “Death March”, singer Chuck Mosley said in 1988, “A friend of mine, doing a lot of drugs, just went out in the ocean and drowned. I used to be on the beach all the time and I got the feeling that he was so fucked up when he drowned that he doesn’t even realise he’s dead. He’s out there, still swimming around. ‘Death March’ is someone talking to their dead lover, the soul lingering on.”
Unlike with the band’s prior release We Care a Lot, much of the album has been played regularly with Mosley’s replacement, Mike Patton. However, there is only one known performance of “Faster Disco” with Patton on vocals, at a 1990 concert in Kaiserslautern, Germany. “Anne’s Song” is one of three Mosley songs to have never been sung live by Patton, with the others being “Arabian Disco” and “New Beginnings”, both from We Care a Lot.
Touring and promotion
After the album’s release, Faith No More joined fellow funk metal/punk band Red Hot Chili Peppers on The Uplift Mofo Party Tour. Faith No More opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the first two and a half months of the North American tour. Guitarist Jim Martin recalled: “We were travelling in a box van with no windows. We drove all the way to the east coast for the first show. Flea asked me if we liked to smoke weed. I said: ‘Yes’ and he said: ‘We’re going to get along just fine’. We did something like 52 dates in 56 days.” The band’s future singer Mike Patton later became involved in several controversies and disputes with Anthony Kiedis, frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. To further promote the album, Faith No More embarked on their first tour of the UK in 1988.
Release history
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The album was originally released in April 1987 on vinyl and cassette. The album cover for this release is a centered ink splatter, with text to the extremes of the cover. The tape has a larger smear of the ink that looks more like a green spot. Bassist Billy Gould’s initial idea was a red splatter, but the color was then changed at the request of the record label. The second release of this album was on November 15, 1996, through Slash/Uni Records, and also featured the centered ink splatter. The last North American release of this album was on October 17, 2000, through Slash/Rhino Records; they later released This Is It: The Best of Faith No More in 2003. This version has a close-up of the ink splatter with the wording a bit further from the edges.
The record has garnered positive reviews from music critics, although as with the band’s previous studio effort We Care a Lot, some criticisms have been directed at vocalist Chuck Mosley. AllMusic stated that “the album is consistent and interesting, with Mosley’s out-of-tune vocals being an acquired taste to most”. In 1988, Neil Perry of Sounds Magazine referred to the album as “a breathtaking harmonisation of molten metal guitar, deadly dance rhythms and poignant, pointed lyrics”.
Legacy
Producer Matt Wallace claimed it was an “overlooked FNM record” in 2016.
Louder Sound wrote in 2020, “Introduce Yourself is an irresistibly charming record […] In the same way that Paul Di’Anno’s voice on early Iron Maiden sounds lovably rugged when contrasted with their slick later work, Chuck Mosely’s goofy, purposefully-underachieving vocals smother these songs in a huge dollop of infectious playfulness – something that Patton’s studied delivery could never quite emulate.”
While Mike Patton dismissed the band’s debut We Care a Lot as “bad hippie music”, he has admitted to having a fondness for Introduce Yourself.
Track listing
No. Title Lyrics Music Length
1. “Faster Disco” Mosley Gould, Bottum, Martin 4:16
2. “Anne’s Song” Gould, Bottum Gould, Bottum 4:46
3. “Introduce Yourself” Bottum, Mosley Gould, Bottum, Bordin, Martin 1:32
4. “Chinese Arithmetic” Mosley Martin, Bordin 4:37
5. “Death March” Mosley Gould, Bottum, Martin 3:02
6. “We Care a Lot” Bottum, Mosley Gould, Bottum 4:02
7. “R n’ R” Gould, Mosley Gould, Martin 3:11
8. “The Crab Song” Mosley Gould, Bordin 5:52
9. “Blood” Mosley Mosley 3:42
10. “Spirit” Gould Gould 2:52
Total length: 37:42
Personnel
Band members
Mike Bordin – drums, congas, backing vocals
Roddy Bottum – keyboards, backing vocals
Billy Gould – bass, backing vocals
Jim Martin – guitar, backing vocals
Chuck Mosley – lead vocals
Production
Steve Berlin – producer
Matt Wallace – producer, engineer
Jim “Watts” Verecke – assistant engineer
John Golden – mastering
Lendon Flanagan – photography
Bob Biggs – artwork
Jeff Price – artwork
Accolades
Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
1987 Sounds United Kingdom “Albums of the Year” Unordered
“We Care a Lot”
Lyrical content:
The lyrics of the song are a sarcastic parody of charity concerts such as Live Aid, especially “the popstar posing that accompanied those charitable events”, according to Steve Huey of AllMusic. The song lists a range of things about which the band sarcastically claims “we care a lot”, such as the LAPD, the “food that Live Aid bought”, the Garbage Pail Kids and even The Transformers. The original version, released in 1985, mentions Madonna and Mr. T. This was altered for social relevance in the 1987 re-release. When asked about the song’s meaning, Chuck Mosley replied:
Well, ah Roddy wrote all the things that he cared about and I just wrote the part that says, “it’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it” ’cause I figured that’s just the feeling I got. That’s the only thing I submitted. That, and the newer lyrics in the updated version.
There was a seven-second-long ad-lib of “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” by New Kids on the Block on The Real Thing-era live performances, including the Live at the Brixton Academy version.
Music video
The music video produced for “We Care a Lot”, directed by Bob Biggs and Jay Brown, was the first video produced for a Faith No More song and received moderate airplay on MTV.
As well as the appearing on the albums We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself and Live at the Brixton Academy the song has appeared on every compilation and video album released by the band and has three different cover versions on the tribute to Faith No More compilation album Tribute of the Year. The song was later made available as a download for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the music video game Rock Band on February 5, 2008, and for Wii and PlayStation 2 versions on the Rock Band Track Pack: Volume 1, released on July 15, 2008.
Critical reception
Allmusic’s reviewer laments the song’s lack of future front-man Mike Patton, calling Mosley’s vocals “brute thuggishness” and “flat”, but also says that the song is a “fully realized effort in itself”. “We Care a Lot” was also listed in PopMatters’ 65 Great Protest Songs, citing it as Faith No More’s anti-protest song and as a “smirking account of everything that pop and political culture shoved down our throats at the height of the Reagan revolution”.
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“Anne’s Song” is a 1988 single by American band Faith No More, taken from their 1987 album Introduce Yourself. Written by band members Billy Gould and Roddy Bottum, the song describes an acquaintance of theirs from New York, and her circle of friends. The single was produced by Matt Wallace and Steve Berlin and released by Slash Records.
“Anne’s Song” was released alongside a music video directed by Tamra Davis, which featured both the eponymous Anne and an appearance by Metallica member James Hetfield. The song has met with critical appreciation in later years, drawing comparisons to David Bowie and Tom Tom Club.
Production
“Anne’s Song” was recorded in 1986 as part of the Introduce Yourself recording sessions, at Studio D in Sausalito, California. The recordings were produced by Matt Wallace and by Slash Records’ Steve Berlin. Wallace had worked with the band on their 1985 début album We Care a Lot, and the earlier single “Quiet in Heaven”/”Song of Liberty”. He recalled that the more experienced Berlin, having been a member of Los Lobos and primarily accustomed to music unlike Faith No More’s, essentially “babysat” the band to ensure their recording budget was not wasted.
We just kept playing it and playing it and, finally, the snare beat smoothed out. We always thought it would sound good on the radio.
–Billy Gould on the song’s composition
The song was written by band members Billy Gould and Roddy Bottum, and features one of the few guitar solos in the band’s canon, performed by Jim Martin. The song had existed in a “rough and ready” incarnation for several months before the recording sessions began, and had its composition completed in the studio. The song’s titular Anne is the band’s friend Anne D’Angillo, whose residence in Alphabet City, Manhattan was used by the group during their previous tour; the other characters mentioned throughout the song are all real friends of D’Angillo.[6] D’Angillo also featured in the song’s music video, shot in New York and Los Angeles by director Tamra Davis; the video also featured shots of singer Chuck Mosley trapped in a cage, tormented by the other band members and Metallica vocalist James Hetfield; bass player Gould conceived of this segment, stating “my dream for that video was that I wanted to get Chuck in a cage, from which he couldn’t escape, and I could poke him with a stick”.
Release and reception
“Anne’s Song” and the accompanying music video were released in April 1988. The single was available in both seven-inch and twelve-inch formats, with the former also available as a picture disc. The video was later included on the 1999 video compilation Who Cares a Lot?: The Greatest Videos; the song itself, however, was not included on the concurrently-released album Who Cares a Lot?
Writing in a review of Introduce Yourself for AllMusic, Greg Prato noted that the song “should have been a hit”, citing its “loopy bass and irresistible melodicism”. The Guardian’s Jeremy Allen included “Anne’s Song” in his 2014 list of Faith No More’s top ten songs, describing it as “not unlike a heavier Tom Tom Club in the verses, with a smattering of Mosley’s hero David Bowie in the chorus”. Allen felt that “Anne’s Song”, along with most of Mosley’s work with the band, was “more aligned with contemporary music than anything that came after”. In a Faith No More discography retrospective, Louder Sound wrote that the song “really delivers”, noting Mosley’s “goofy, purposefully-underachieving vocals”. Writing for The Quietus, Jamie Thomson felt that the song rewarded repeated listening, with successive playing revealing ” the angst, uncertainty and sexual politics that come with something simple as “going out with some friends””; Thomson also highlighted the “charismatic, soulful melancholia” of Mosley’s voice.
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