Faith Hope Love by King's X (CD, Oct-1990, Megaforce)

I have a theory; hear me out.
Classic rock, the real stuff, you know before 1980 and the hair bands, had a different feel, a different texture, a different air. People continue to label anything older than 20 years as classic rock, but that really isn't fair. Like Motown, classic rock was the good old rock & roll of the 60's and 70's.

Now, to get to my point. This album is more classic rock than any other I have heard since the end of real classic rock. The reason? Almost every track is at least 4 minutes long, with huge guitar and bass solos and music that is undeterred by vocals. Think about it. Classic rock had a lot of music and a lot less to say.

This album is like that. Songs like "Moanjam", "Faith, Hope, Love", "We Are Finding Who We Are", "It's Love", "Fine Art of Friendship", "Talk To You" and "We Were Born To Be Love", all have long vocal pauses where the guys just play; like I say in my review title, it's like being at a jam session in Doug, Ty or Jerry's garage. It's just good music.

Not every song on the album is great, but the majority are. All those listed above are standouts as well as "Mr. Wilson", "I Can't Help It", "Everywhere I Go", and "I'll Never Get Tired Of You".

The only low points on the album are: "Six Broken Soldiers" which is a bit odd and, I have to admit I don't understand where they were going with this one; and "Legal Kill" which I understand is an anti-abortion song and is probably important to them, but is just kind of a downer that really never does anything to me personally.

Anyway. This album tends to get panned by even the King's X faithful and that is my theory on why. I love classic rock, you know, real classic rock, and I love this album.

In this cd, King's X continues to find out who they are. While their soul-searching might have implications for some listeners, here it is sometimes sounds monotous. This cd is a bit of a disappointment and definitely not better than Gretchen before it. If you get a good deal, only is it then worth having.
It's Love continues to be one of their best songs and most radio accessible. It is a great rock anthem based on an obscure Proverb.
Their Beatlesque harmonies are great but not in the line of 80's hair metal. This is a thinking-man's band. This cd is not as rocking as others and though quite introspective, the cd as a whole gets boring after awhile.
The members trade instruments, with little success. The drummer should just not sing lead vocals ever again. The experimentation here gets annoying after awhile, as talented as they all are.
Legal Kill is a thought-provoking ballad about abortion. Just as all human life is precious, this band continues to be respectful of other's opinions, yet is able to express their own in insightful and colourful ways.

This could be better if it would have had better production. I love Ty Tabor but his solos never "cut" on this album like they do on some of their other disks.
"It's Love" has that awesome Ty Tabor tone that I love, "Moanjam" has a killer solo section that is held back because the guitars are not set up enough in the mix, "I can't help it" is all Kings X, killer guitar tone, killer bass tone, vocal harmonies it's got it all. My favorite song on the disk from my favorite all time band.
If you like Kings X it's a must have. I don't think it's as good as Gretchen goes to Nebraska or Out of the Silent Planet though.

When "faith hope love" was released, it was following, arguably, what is still the best cd they have made to date, "gretchen goes to nebraska". They had such a unique and exciting new sound which they have maintained to this day. They got some commercial success from the track "it's love" which was good, because it enabled them to continue on and have a long career that some young bands dont get a chance to do without any early notoriety. The real treat for fans of "King's X" are their live shows. I've been to many and the refreshing thing about the band is, they still take the time to have meet and greets after they're done (most of the time at least) and give fans a chance to say hi and get an autograph from them (and they dont act like you're annoying them while doing it!) I definitely recommend getting "faith hope love" and go see them live if they come close to your area. I guarantee you will enjoy it immensily!

Good production. Good levels and tones. This music is sort of a metal based artsy kind of style. Fantastic guitar work and tight bass/drums connection. Very well constructed songs. Good vocal melodies and harmonies. Has a bit of a grunge structure to some of the songs, but a way higher level of musicianship. Go for it and buy it, you'll be happy. The single It's Love got quite a bit of airplay in its' day.