ARTIST: King’s X
TITLE: Faith Hope Love
YEAR RELEASED: 1990
CHART ACTION: #85 US, #70 UK
SINGLES: It’s Love (#6 US Rock), I’ll Never Get Tired of You, We Are Finding Who We Are
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: None
LINEUP: Doug Pinnick, Ty Tabor, Jerry Gaskill
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: King’s X finds their groove, releasing their most commercial record without diminishing what they do best.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: King’s X struck it rich, as it were, with “It’s Love”, a wonderful metally dose of ear candy with great harmonies and musicianship. That song encapsulates King’s X to a “T”.
Most of Faith Hope Love fits in a similar vein. Harmonies comingle with riffs and chords that aren’t your normal metal progressions nor rhythms. For the most part, the whole album works well. But at over an hour, it does get a bit long near the end as songs that are somewhat similar are lined up next to another.
The final song, “Legal Kill” is an anti-abortion song that also tries to listen to the other side of the debate (more so than most pro-life groups). That song and the positive message (and faith) of King’s X propelled this album to the Christian Music charts, even if they most all of the songs were not overtly Christian.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: “Six Broken Soldiers” contains the first lead vocals for drummer Jerry Gaskill, though he is a significant part of their vocal style.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: A-: It’s consistent, and the first 2/3 are fairly varied. They got an airplay hit without compromising, which is always a good thing.