"Land of Sunshine" is the opening track to '' Angel Dust'', the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Faith No More Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...

. It was released as a promotional single in 1992 along with " Midlife Crisis" and has been compared in its opening style to " From out of Nowhere", the opening track and first single from the band's previous studio album, '' The Real Thing''. The song's lyrics contain, amongst other things, questions from Scientology personality tests, with one of them, the question "Does emotional music have quite an effect on you?", being described by Tom Sinclair of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' as "the perfect tag line for ''Angel Dust'' ". The song was one of the three key songs picked out by

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

from the album in his review, the two others being "Midlife Crisis" and "Midnight Cowboy".

Lyrical content

The lyrics for "Land of Sunshine" were written by

Mike Patton Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, producer, film composer and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the alternative metal band Faith No More. Noted for his vocal proficiency, diverse singing techni ...

alongside "Caffeine" during a sleep deprivation experiment and included lines taken almost directly from fortune cookies and the Oxford Capacity Analysis personality test offered by the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

. He also watched much late-night television to get into the right frame of mind. There are three lines taken from the personality test, although a fourth appears in the lyric booklet with ''Angel Dust''; question 179 "Do others push you around?". Two of the questions used were shortened slightly for their use in the song; question 27, "Do you often sing or whistle just for the fun of it?" had its end changed to "just for fun", and question 196, "Do you sometimes feel that your age is against you (too young or too old)?" was shortened to "Do you feel sometimes that age is against you?". The unchanged question 69, "Does emotional music have quite an effect on is featured during the choruses along with the phrase "Here's how to order." The lines taken from the fortunes in Chinese fortune cookies were virtually unchanged and appear throughout the first and second verses of the song. They are as follows, as they appeared on the fortunes:
:"Life to you is a dashing bold adventure" :"Sing and rejoice, fortune is smiling upon you" :"You have a winning way, so keep it" :"You are an angel heading for a land of sunshine" :"Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a handshake"

Track listing

References

{{authority control Faith No More songs 1992 songs Scientology in popular culture