Review Summary: Are we still spiritual machines?
When after many years a band decides to release a sequel to a financially successful and/or critically acclaimed album it gives off a sense of certain desperation. Most likely by this time their popularity is limited to a small but devoted fanbase, their discography is full of misses and failures. And in an attempt to release a ‘relevant’ album they start to work on a sequel.
All of the above is pretty much spot on regarding the Canadian Our Lady Peace. Having released four solid LPs, the band led by one and only Raine Maida turned its direction towards the indistinct pop-rock territory, where it remained the last 22 years. And even though the first four albums –
Naveed,
Clumsy,
Happiness… Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch and
Spiritual Machines – do not fall into the ‘classic’ category, they have their share of strengths.
Probably the biggest mystery here is how the band managed to lose its sound so easily. Is Raine the one to blame as he shifted to more ‘traditional’ vocals, leaving behind his eccentricities? Or was it departure of guitarist Mike Turner who may have had a much larger influence on the sound of Our Lady Peace? We would never know for sure. But I digress.
So, at first glance the second part of
Spiritual Machines has many of the same ingredients. Again, there are short tracks of spoken dialog from Ray Kurzweil (this time about new developments for the humankind) interspersed among the songs. The band attempts to somehow expand on these concepts within the tracks (and yet again without any real connection between them).
But the time passed has left its stamp on the sound. There is not much in terms of alternative rock and art rock that were a part of the band’s sound in 2000. Instead they continue to operate within pop rock and its trends. Melodies were replaced with danceable and repeating rhythms that is clearly demonstrated on the album’s first single
Stop Making Stupid People Famous.
And this change in sound is not really what’s at fault here. Yes, the rock days of Our Lady Peace are long behind them. But the main failure of
Spiritual Machines II is the quality of the material, even though I would say it’s somewhat stronger than on their previous several releases. Difficult to say whether it is these repeating rhythms are to blame, but the songs on the new album leave no lasting impression. At times they feel like demos, sketches of the tracks that are yet to take a final form.
No cut here reaches the heights of
Right Behind You,
In Repair,
Are You Sad and others from Part One. While it is praiseworthy that the band did not try to just replicate the sound of the 20-year-old album, shriveled musical ambitions of Part Two leave much to be desired.
As a result,
Spiritual Machines II became a classic case of a belated sequel with the set of typical issues. Nothing here has anything on its predecessor, though there are a few decent cuts (like somber
Holes or funky
Run, for example). Incidental comparisons to the time-tested original give no points to the newcomer, however it is difficult to name it a complete failure (really, expectations were a lot lower). However, after a few spins there is not much desire to get back to
Spiritual Machines II. So, we can give credit to Our Lady Peace for the attempt, but it is far from the outright success.
