The Down Lizzo:
After over a decade of hard slog, touring, growing their fanbase and writing and performing great post-grunge / metal anthems, the most successful South African rock band to ever leave our shores and kill it in the States has finally released a follow up to their epic 2007 album Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces and it’s godawful.
Seether’s material has always walked the fine line between legitimate post-grunge and wanky hero-rock and unfortunately this time around Seether have strayed a little far into the commercial cesspool that bands like Nickleback, Daughtry and Creed float in.
Sick Tracks:
The first time around “Country Song†is ok if not a little familiar. As for the rest of it, I can hardly distinguish one song from the rest to tell you what they’re actually like, but the words “plain as mud†come to mind.
The worst tracks are by far “Here And Now†which sounds like it should be on the Spiderman soundtrack and “Tonightâ€, which sounds like a really, really bad version of “Rise Above Thisâ€.
The vocal melodies, chord and strong structures and production are as predictable as the plot in a Hollywood rom com and twice as nauseating.
And don’t even get me started on the lyrics (“Save me / Even as you break me / Every time you rape me / Leave me coming all undone†– snore).
They’re so loaded with hollow sentiment and radio rock clichés it’s goddamn cringeworthy.
The only thing noteworthy about this album is how poignantly honest it’s title is.
Should You Give A Shit?
Fuck no. Let’s all just pretend that this album never happened and focus instead on the musical gems that this band has produced up to this vacuous point in their career.
Although, to be fair, if you like Daughtry and co. you’ll probably dig this album. You’ll also probably dig drinking beer through funnels, 4x4s and Rohypnol but hey, who am I to judge.
Here’s “Here And Now†to drive home my point. Enjoy.
Final Verdict: 3/10
And that, my friends,
is how you make a crap load of cash,
tour the world, and have people take your picture and give you free shit.
They have come a long way since the Nile Crocodile in Menlyn, playing to a bunch of drunk school kids.
(i barely remember falling into the monitors on the stage as i was moshing away)
Now they play to 50,000 drunk school kids.
Smart move.
I don’t feel anything for this album. At all.
Sorry, i really don’t.
But my opinion doesn’t really matter does it? I follow bands i believe in and that give me soul food.
I have no problem with bands being the best they can be (i think Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters are prime examples of this)
But i don’t get the feeling that Seether set out to make great music with this.
I think they set out to make a hit filled record, and only that.
Whatever, in the greater scheme of things, there has been worse albums, and better ones.
I’ll let all you good people lay into my album when it comes out…
You’re damn right Seether weren’t out to make great music with this, agree 100%.
They’ve run out of ideas and when a band gets to that point they either put out something that is totally weird, incoherent and obscure, sometimes accidentally writing great material but mostly just confusing the shit out of everyone or they take the safe road and just make something that will sell.
This is their highest selling album to date, something I should have mentioned in the review.
Irrefutable proof that the world is indeed completely overrun with morons.
Thanks gor the comment GJ, look forward to showcasing your work when the album’s finished 😉
-ST
Ja guys. I remember the days of Saron Gas rocking Burn in Durban… Cool songs like “Beer”, “Fine again” and “Pig” which Barney Simon used as the intro to his show on 5fm.. Those were the days…
And now they are doing the smart thing. This is the kind of album parents would a) want their kids to buy and b) want their kids to produce if they were to ever become “rock stars.” This is the kind of shit that proves that people like Nickelback, Dashboard Confessional and Hoobastank (godhelpusall) actually are the rock bands who have come to define our generation. So Seether have just gone with the smart money.
Can’t blame em. Better to be a “sell-out rockstar” sleeping on a mattress of money than a guy-that-used-to-be-in-a-band-but-is-now-an-office-worker-angrily-ranting-about-the-death-of-rock-music-from-behind-his-keyboard right?
Some people get into music because they love music, some people get into it because they love the lifestyle. Props to Shaun and the boytjies who are now, obviously, living their dream life.
the angry-office-worker-ranting-thing was self reflexive by the way…
FML