Description
Faith Hope Love is the third album by the American progressive hard rock band King’s X, released on Atlantic Records in October 1990. Front cover illustration by Randy Rogers who designed many of the classic covers of Petra.
“Faith Hope Love” and “Mr. Wilson” feature Galactic Cowboys on background vocals and “Legal Kill” features Kemper Crabb of ArkAngel and Radiohalo fame on recorder. The album featured the single “It’s Love,” which is the band’s highest charting single, peaking at No. 6 on Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1990.
One of the jobs of the reviewer, I guess, is to describe an artist stylistically without succumbing to superlatives. King’s X is the ultimate challenge: this trio, often referred to as metal, spans the gamut – White Album Beatles in the melodies and harmonies, King Crimson complexity throughout the instrumental breaks, ZZ Top’s Texas blues boogie mixed with Boston school new jazz, it’s this and that and everything in between – and, words like “greatest,” “best” and “hippest” keep finding their way into my thinking. The third album from this progressive hard rock outfit continues these believers’ efforts to make seroius music that speaks the message to the gospel promise of Faith, Hope and Love to a world outside the church and its ingrown language. Doug Pinnick, Ty Tabor and Jerry Gaskill have made their strongest record yet, and in the process one of the best rock albums of 1990, bare none.
Thirteen strong songs fill Faith Hope Love by King’s X, each one a unique representation of this trio’s eclectic vision and versatile virtuosity. «We Are Finding Who We Are» and «Fine Art of Friendship» struggle to establish an identity in a culture that very seldom values Christians without putting them in a box. King’s X avoids all the usual qualifications, by rising above them. «Legal Kill» values the beauty of life and mourns the loss of any. While the lyrics express the values of the title it is done in an intelligent and perceptive manner, rather than in a patronizing or sermonic style.
Everything that was great about Out of the Silent Planet – Pinnick’s singing, Tabor’s monster guitar chops, the band’s tight rhythm changes and aggressive edge, the songs, the harmonies, the willingness to experiment – got better on Gretchen Goes to Nebraska and is even better here. One can only guess at where King’s X will be when it makes number four, but for now, this is the greatest arty hard rock album (or hard art rock album) that I’ve ever heard. [Brian Q. Newcomb, CCM, December 1990]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/faith-hope-love/301027653)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “We Are Finding Who We Are” – 4:39
A2. “It’s Love” – 4:34
A3. “I’ll Never Get Tired Of You” – 3:46
A4. “Fine Art Of Friendship” – 4:21
A5. “Mr. Wilson” – 3:39
A6. “Moanjam” – 6:05
A7. “Six Broken Soldiers” – 3:32
Side Two
B1. “I Can’t Help It” – 3:53
B2. “Talk To You” – 4:36
B3. “Everywhere I Go” – 3:53
B4. “We Were Born To Be Loved” – 4:52
B5. “Faith Hope Love” – 9:23
B6. “Legal Kill” – 4:42
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by Atlantic Records.
“We Are Finding Who We Are” (MUSIC VIDEO)
“It’s Love” (MUSIC VIDEO)
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