"So hold your head up high,
forgotten man.
Tomorrow's not for me and you.
And everybody's gotta try to lend a
helping hand.
For god and man, there's nothing more
to do."
from Dept. of False Hope
With most bands it's easy to pinpoint a
three-album stretch marking the bands creative peak. With punk rock
veterans Bad Religion, there is little doubt which two of the albums
are; you simply have to include their second and third album releases
"No Control" and "Against the Grain". The
question of whether their more energetic debut "Suffer" is
stronger than their very melodic fourth album "Generator"
however, can certainly spark debates among fans.
While I recognize both "No
Control" and "Against the Grain" as classics, I tend
to view the creative direction taken on "Generator" as the
start of a much more interesting path than where the group had
previously been heading, and subsequent releases "Recipe for
Hate" and "Stranger than Fiction" both sound like a
band trying to break free from a surprisingly tiny box defined by,
I'm guessing, trying to mimic the amazing success of the first two
albums.
Something happened somewhere along that
journey, though, and the group is now resting comfortably in that
same safe zone where their songs all kind of sound the same and at
the same time lack the energy of their debut album. It's a shame, but
here we are.
True North delivers on the fronts you'd
expect it to. The music sounds good, interesting, polished and
simplistic; they have always been amazing at harmonies. The lyrics
are, like always, thoughtful and intellectual. Sometimes the message
will be clear, sometimes vague or cryptic but you get the jist of it
most of the time. Governments are bad, religion is stuipd and all
that.
Where the album falls short for me, is
in that it all just feels like it's been done before. The melodies
are catchy, kind of, but not really. The songs are formulaic and
evoke no feelings except sour nostalgia for me, a reminder of a band
I used to like that I just don't get any more. I'm biased, I know,
but I just can't overcome the feeling of wondering what might have
been if the band would have stuck to innovating their sound instead
of this tired mess.
High point of the album: Nothing to Dismay
Low point of the album: Hello Cruel World
No comments:
Post a Comment