 | Tracklist:
01. Open Your Eyes
02. Pressure
03. Fade
04. It's Been Awhile
05. Change
06. Can't Believe
07. Epiphany
08. Suffer
09. Safe Place
10. For You
11. Outside
12. Waste
13. Take It
| Ranking: #165 for 2001 | |
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On 14 Lists
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1 of 1 thought this review was well written
As I have grown up over the last 18 years, I will listen to just about any kind of music that comes on. I will be reviewing an album that has become somewhat popular, but the band gets a lot of hate for releasing bad music. Personally, I don’t find this album that bad, especially compared to their other music. This CD is Break the Cycle, from Staind. It is arguably their best CD, and the one that is the least annoying out of the five they have released.
Staind is well known for their low tuned, baritone guitar sounding ballads, and on this album, there isn’t that many, and when they do the ballads, it sounds fairly good. Songs like Outside and Its Been Awhile are good examples of how they can take a baritone guitar and make it sound somewhat decent with a ballad. Fade is another good example. But there is one thing about all three of these songs on this album that kind of bugs me. They are the three main singles, and lets just say that there are better songs to choose on this album to release as a single. Its Been Awhile gets way too repetitive with the lyrics, and Mike Mushok’s guitar playing does nothing to help that, as it stays that way throughout the album, although it shines more in other parts and really dims out in different spots. Outside is really the only good single of the three, and is probably the easiest structured song on the CD, although it sounds terrific. Lets just say that the single choices were les than stellar.
The baritone guitar is used for fast, low tuned guitar playing, and luckily the album starts us off with two great songs that use just that. Open Your Eyes and Pressure differ from the rest of the album, as it just opens the CD with an aggressive feel to it, making it enjoyable to listen to. Aaron does his typical singing, feeling depressed and saying that we all are bad, and stuff like that. You start to notice the same trend after the song Fade comes along, as most every song is lyrically the same, but thank God, it is musically different.
There are a few different songs (at least Musically) on the album. The guitar work and rhythm sections are noticeably different in songs like Safe Place, Waste and Take It. It reminds you of Staind when they released their first major album Dysfunction and shows a good, and eerie musical effort for the most part, and makes the song interesting enough to get through a few times.
Overall, the nu-metal guitar playing of Mike Mushok saves this album somewhat, as Aaron does nothing to help, as he is just always depressed. There are still some great songs on here, but these guys need to cheer up just a little bit. I liked most of this album, as one or two songs got repetitive, but is still worth a lot of listens. Staind puts the ballad to good use on this album, unlike one of their other CD’s, entitled 14 Shades of Gray. I give this a 4/5.
Pros
Good mix up of ballads and fast songs
Bass is audible
Outside
Cons
Aaron’s singing
Guitar playing could use some help
Can be depressing at times, as you could be an emotional person. ( I am not an emotional person, I am completely fine.)
Songs to listen to first
Open Your Eyes
Pressure
Fade
Safe Place
Outside
Take It
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4
Good review, but "Epiphany" deserves to be mentioned. Great song.
Digging: Placebo - Sleeping With Ghosts | | |
You focus too much on the guitars and not enough on anything else.This Message Edited On 11.20.06
Digging: Converge - Axe To Fall
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I'm glad to know that you are not an emotional person Acey.
It's Been Awhile sucks.
| | | Album Rating: 4
i agree FP
| | | Album Rating: 4
i might edit it chan, i am not sure. yeah i probably will
| | | Album Rating: 4
Make a space between pros and cons too, makes it easier to see.
| | | Album Rating: 3
I used to adore this album in middle school. I've moved on from it since then, but it's still good every once in a while.
I think I might pull it back out again though because of this review.
Digging: Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo | | |
a better improvement from your previous reviews.
btw didn't you ask for a perma-ban?
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You focus too much on the guitars and not enough on anything else. This is true, but what you have isn't bad.
I think this album is great. I listened to it a lot when it first came out but as my musical tastes expanded I kinda stopped listening to it.
I'll probably put it on in a few days.
Digging: Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
| | | Album Rating: 4
[quote=AC74]btw didn't you ask for a perma-ban?[/quote]
i did, i was just overreacting. i guess i just need to take it like a man, so we are all done with that. and thanks for the comment as well. (the first part)
i didnt want a permaban, it was just me overracting to chan's hilarious nonsenseThis Message Edited On 11.20.06
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This is probably the only Staind album actually worth owning. The other CDs you can download the one or two songs on them that are good, but this one at leasts stands out more then that.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
As many of you know, I have made numerous attempts Put a 'the' in front of the bolded two words and ya got my band name in your opening statement. Sorry caught my eye right away, anyways...I remember being into this during my middle school years as well. I heard Outside on the radio the other day actually live from a local festival. What a classic song for the group.
Digging: Between The Buried And Me - The Great Misdirect | | | Album Rating: 4
lol, that is crazy. but yeah, outside is kinda the song that still holds these guys up, if you know what i mean
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Get rid of that introduction that pertains to reviewing, it looks unprofessional and silly to people who are just browsing the site for reviews and dont keep up with "sputnik politics," as it were.
Digging: Animal Collective - Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished
| | | Album Rating: 4
i will change it
Edit: DoneThis Message Edited On 11.20.06
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Okay I'll go into a little more detail in my criticism. You've made an effort to improve, that much is evident, but you're still an average writer. When you review an album you need to focus on more than just the instruments. You do to an extent, but it's not really noticeable because you talk about the instruments way too much.
Basically all I got from this review was "They use baritone guitars and they have heavy songs and ballads."
Okay that's fine but I need to know more! What kind of guitar the band uses isn't important. It's okay to mention it, but not more than once, and it shouldn't be the basis for half of your review.
And as for not focusing on other subjects enough: You need to talk about the overall sound more. It seems like you're trying, and that's good, but from this review, all I know about the album is that some of the songs are sad. Well is the whole album like that? Compare and contrast the lighter and sadder songs.
Also, you should use comparisons more. When you make a comparison, you really shouldn't compare a band to themselves, unless their sound has changed considerably over the years. This of course is not the case with Staind. Try to compare them to other bands in the genre, or even outside of the genre if it applies.This Message Edited On 11.20.06
| | | Album Rating: 4
thank you chan for the tips, i will try to use them more effectively in my later reviews
| | | Album Rating: 4
Great review and I can certainly agree on your points. I think 'Can't Believe' deserves some mentioning as it is completely different from the rest of the album with Aaron screaming most of the time.
| | | Album Rating: 4
Great job. It's Been Awhile and Outside both own.
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