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| REVIEWS |
Collective
Soul
Youth
(El
Music Group)
While it is easy to remember Stockbridge, Georgia rockers Collective
Soul just for their three ubiquitous hits, "Shine,"
"December" and "The World I Know" (and you
could probably put the Varsity Blues contribution "Run"
in the same neighborhood as well), one finds on further investigation
that the band has had 20 different singles scratch on one Billboard
chart or another from their first five albums. After a while,
that degree of chart success adds up to a comely cache of royalties
and valuable experience, which affords the band a rare opportunity.
Guaranteed hitmakers like Matchbox Twenty, amidst their runaway
success, don't want to leave the clarion comfort of the major
label establishment that keeps them knee-deep in basketball
arena concert dates, and countless indie bands only wish that
they had the resources to subsist on their own and maintain
a steady living.
Collective Soul, as a result of their atypically steady success,
find themselves in the unique position of having those resources,
the music industry savvy and the initiative to break out on
their own, which affords them the chance to do what every band
wishes for: To record an album on their own terms, to market
it as they see fit, and to release it on their own to a well-cultivated
fan base. While Youth isn't the grand, renegade departure
that you might expect from a band recently set free of major
label bottom lines, it becomes apparent very quickly that this
album's conception took place under a vastly different set of
circumstances. As the title insinuates, the band sounds rejuvenated,
ready to take on the world. Granted, there's very few mainstream
radio listeners they have yet to win over (they've been just
as successful in the pop world as they have in the rock world),
but after a four year hiatus, the bottled energy shows its face
in the band's melodic guitar blasts and vintage anthemic choruses,
which are just as good if not better than they've ever been.
Ed Roland has never gone out of his way as a songwriter to be
particularly abstract or aloof, but his lyrics have always possessed
a broad, universal appeal, evading the base angst that plagues
the large majority of current rock bands who are still mining
their Nirvana records. The opening rocker "Better Now,"
spiked with some saucy saxophone fills, serves as the band's
emancipation proclamation, with Roland invoking the line "The
world's done shaking me down" as the lyrical centerpiece
in its bridge. "Home" nods to Roland's glancing sense
of spirituality and purpose, and "Under Heaven's Skies"
employs a majestic metaphor to describe a new love. "How
Do You Love" is Youth's "The World I Know"
ballad, and album closer "Satellite" follows much
the same pace. New guitarist Joel Kosche ably fills in the void
left by the departed Ross Childress, procuring a solid foundation
for guitar-heavy jams like "There's A Way," "General
Attitude" and their current hit "Counting The Days."
Youth as a whole is playful more often than not, and
it's very representative of Roland's ability as a producer and
arranger to find a palatable middle ground between commercial
viability and artistic vision. Collective Soul's brand of guitar-intensive
pop-rock isn't groundbreaking by any means, but it stands out
on its own because they do it better than most, and it's not
difficult for even the most hard-bitten rock snob to partake
in their earnest, genuine songs. While second generation post-grungers
like Nickelback and Hoobastank might be flying high in an era
of radio consolidation where their deep-fried angst is gobbled
up like so much Thanksgiving turkey, leave it up to the old
vets in Collective Soul to show the latecomers how it should
be done. Youth is a lean, low-carb rock record that spares
the guilt and doesn't sacrifice any flavor.
Reviewed by
Luke Daniel Rush
November 29th, 2004 |
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