The Alternative Number Ones: Faith No More’s “Midlife Crisis”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

"Cuh mawn an wring mah nyeckk!" "YUH MEN! STREW-WAY! TIN HAWWWT!" "MED-LAWWWF CRAWWW SYESSS!" Sometimes, shit is so self-evidently awesome that I don't even know what to say. Like this: In 1992, a San Francisco funk-metal band finally got around to following up the freak mainstream hit that they made a few years earlier. There was suddenly a whole lot more attention on heavy alternative music, even though nobody quite knew what that meant, and this band got the opening slot on the summer's biggest rock tour. So what did they do? They made an oblique opaque prog-churn spine-snapper about invasive, oppressive mass culture, and they called in "Midlife Crisis." They did virtually everything in their power to prevent 12-year-olds from loving them, and 12-year-old me thought it was the coolest shit in the world. 12-year-old me was right, too. "Midlife Crisis" goes hard as fuck.