Oct/092
Selling out, or just creatively exhausted?
Music Review: Life Starts Now- Three Days Grace
Three Days Grace. Actually one of my favorite bands over the course of the last 5 years or so. Not only are they Canadian, but I loved their edgy, post grunge/alternative metal sound and Adam Gontier’s vocals on their self-titled debut album and then with One-X.
3 years later get their new album release, Life Starts Now. Now it’s expected that the music is radio-friendly, as it has been in the past, but it’s the edge that has made TDG who they are, with tracks like “Riot”, “Animal I Have Become”, the gem “It’s All Over”, or the radio hit “Never Too Late” (all from One-X). Life Starts Now doesn’t lack good songs… “Break”, “World So Cold”, and “The Good Life” are all solid, while “Lost in You” has radio hit written all over it, as I predict it will become (even tho I hate the song).
They just don’t have that same edge I’ve come to know and they don’t do anything new or ground-breaking. It sounds like TDG released a more mainstream-friendly version of One-X… The lyrics are so stale, and Adam Gontier tries his best to make them believeable and passionate (which he’s pretty skilled at).
7th grade lyrics, basic chord progressions, standard verse-chorus structure, and simple riffs… throw in some nice bridges and some nice solos, and it’s not bad. My fingers want to change the genre for this album in iTunes from Alternative Metal to Alternative Mainstream… but the difference is that the catchy qualities from One-X are missing this time. If you wanna make money, recycling lyrics like this might work for a big name like Three Days Grace.
Tho it’s not a terrible album, it’s lyrically and instrumentally tired (besides a few songs), and is simply a disappointment. And that’s what we have here, is an album with a handful of textbook radio hits, but nothing truly exceptional. An album that will expand their mainstream audience. And that’s what they want, right? It’s all about expanding and making more money =/
Life Starts Now is lacking in hard rock aggression, yet isn’t creative, original, or catchy enough to warrant itself as a mainstream sensation. I can sum up the entire album in two words… uninspiring and disappointing.
I think someone needs to remind TDG that life started years ago.
Bottom Line: Pirate me… 6 out of 10
Author: James
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12:37 pm on October 4th, 2009
You know, the more I listen to the album, the more I agree with this. It does seem like they’re trying to appeal to a wider audience, simply because a lot of their songs just seem a little more upbeat.
And yes, I’m not a big fan of the lyrics. I can see myself get sick of this album within the week.
Good review. 10/10
5:52 pm on October 4th, 2009
I’m gonna have to agree with the fact that One-X is awesome.
I’ve listened to the whole album about 3 times and while I do think it’s good, It’s not the best.
It’s not as hard as One-X, like you said, but I still think it’s decent.