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We Care a Lot
Studio album by Faith No More
Released	November 1985
Recorded	Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California
Genre	Post-punk alternative metal funk metal
Length	34:51
Label	Mordam
Producer	Matt Wallace Faith No More
Faith No More chronology
We Care a Lot (1985) Introduce Yourself (1987)

We Care a Lot is the debut studio album by American rock band Faith No More, originally released in 1985 and distributed through Mordam Records. On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as Faith. No More. on the album's liner notes, back cover, and on the record itself.

Album information

The title track "We Care a Lot" was rerecorded for their follow-up album Introduce Yourself and released as their first single. This later version of the song was incorrectly listed as the original and the album Introduce Yourself was listed as the début in the sleeve notes for some subsequent releases, such as the 1998 compilation Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Hits.

The band is known to have re-recorded only one song from We Care a Lot in the studio with current singer Mike Patton on vocals. "As the Worm Turns" was recorded during the Angel Dust sessions.

However, a number of live recordings of songs from this album with Patton on vocals have been released over the years.

Production

The band initially started recording the album without backing from a record label and, after pooling their money, recorded five songs. This gained the attention of Ruth Schwartz (who was then forming the independent label Mordam Records) under which the band (after receiving the finances to do so) finished and released the album. It was the first official release for both the band and the label.

The album was recorded in a short space of time on a low budget. In a 2015 interview, bassist Billy Gould reflected, "There are probably things we could have done better, but at the same time I think that the performances were pretty damned good. And that had to do with us keeping focused and needing to work within those budget restrictions. We rehearsed quite a lot before we went in to record, so we were ready."

Release history

While released on vinyl and cassette in 1985, this album would not be released to buy as a CD until 1995 in Australia (on Mushroom Records) as a pink disc for the first pressing, and black disc for the second, to coincide with the tour for their fifth studio album King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, released that year. In 1996, it was reissued on CD, vinyl and cassette in the UK and Japan with slightly modified artwork, one being a purple disc. The CD reissue version of the album can be seen during a scene at a record store in the 1997 film Chasing Amy.

2016 reissue

The album was reissued by Koolarrow Records on August 19, 2016, and includes nine additional tracks, including three remixes, four demos and two live recordings from a 1986 show at the I-Beam, San Francisco. It was remastered by Maor Appelbaum

Music and lyrics

The third track "Mark Bowen" was titled after an early Faith No More/Faith No Man guitarist of the same name.

The truth behind "the Mark Bowen" song, is that prior to having a permanent singer, the band named their songs after persons, places, or things that were around when the music was formulated, rather than naming them song A or song B, etc. There were no lyrics and therefore no real song name. When the boys sent a tape to LA, so that Chuck could write some lyrics for his upcoming stint as singer, he made up lyrics for the song that was labeled as, "Mark Bowen". I had spent a day or so with Chuck prior to that, but he did not really know me. He just made up a song. I'm happy to have my 15 minutes of fame from that, ha!

— Mark Bowen

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

Select magazine, while also mentioning the roughness of production, said that the music is inexorable and "a lustful marriage of mutoid metal and dancefloor verve that owed nothing to anybody". AllMusic made repeated reference to the absence of future front man Mike Patton and criticized Chuck Mosley's vocals, calling him "often off-key, fairly monotonous, and colorless" but credited the album for having "lots of attitude", comparing it to early Public Image Ltd works. Bart Bull at Spin said "they sound like a fresh and unstudied aggregate of the crunch-rock verities—like the Stooges and Sabbath and even the MC5, but already schooled in the pragmatics of arena rock."

Mike Patton labelled the album as "bad hippie music". However, his Mr. Bungle bandmate Trey Spruance was a fan. When Spruance joined Faith No More for their 1995 album King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, he suggested that the band return to the sound they had on We Care a Lot.

Track listing

2016 reissue bonus tracks

• We Care a Lot - Deluxe Band Edition - Remastered by Maor Appelbaum

Personnel

Footnotes

1. "WE CARE A LOT | 30 Years". Retrieved July 16, 2020.
2. "Faith No More Gig Database - 1985-11-30". www.fnmlive.com. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
3. ^ Pope, Cervante (September 5, 2016). "Faith No More – We Care A Lot (Reissue)". MXDWN. Retrieved July 16, 2020. Pre-Patton Faith No More was marked mostly by their official 1985 debut We Care A Lot, where the band bestowed an incredibly mastered blend of punk, post-punk and alt metal that sounds even better on the recently remastered rerelease.
4. ^ Prato, Greg. "We Care a Lot - Overview". Allmusic. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
5. Breihan, Tom (November 10, 2017). "Chuck Mosley, Former Faith No More Frontman, Dies at 57". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 16, 2020. Mosley joined the band in 1983. He sang on their first two albums, 1985's We Care a Lot and 1987's Introduce Yourself. With those two albums, the band helped establish the sound of California funk-metal,
6. Aswad, Jem (June 1992). "Faith No More: Angel Dust in the wind". Issue 25. Reflex Magazine. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
7. ^ "Faith No More Followers: WE CARE A LOT - 30th Anniversary - Bill Gould Interview + EXCLUSIVE Album Reissue News".
8. Faith No More discography, text alternative. FNM.com. Retrieved June 5, 2016
9. Blistein, Jon (June 2, 2016). "Faith No More Plot Reissue of Seminal Debut 'We Care A Lot'". Retrieved July 16, 2020.
10. ^ "Mark Bowen". Faith. No Man.
11. "Faith No More Frequently Answered Questions".
12. Perry, Neil (September 1990). "Life in a goldfish bowl". Select. Retrieved August 23, 2008.
13. John Leland (June 1986). "Spins". Spin. No. 14. p. 35.
14. "Faith No More: your essential guide to every album". Metal Hammer Magazine. January 18, 2020. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
15. ^ "Interview with Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Secret Chiefs 3 – Culture Creature". Culturecreature.com. August 30, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2020.

• 1985 debut albums
• Albums produced by Matt Wallace
• Faith No More albums
• Post-punk albums by American artists