Review Summary: They're just not funny any more.
Remember Hollywood Undead? That collective of drunken/drugged thugs that sung/rapped their way into the charts with wonderful sing-along anthems like
Undead,
Everywhere I Go and
Young. After they dazzled the world with their debut album
Swan Songs(the irony!) in 2008 they released a second 'album' in 2009 called
Desperate Measures. Although I call it an album, it is simply a collection of six live songs with three new songs thrown in, topped off with a few covers and a remix of
Everywhere I Go. Check this out.
On
Desperate Measures, Hollywood Undead have taken up their rap game again. However, if you listen to a track like
Dove And Grenade you can't help but feel that the songs sound quite empty, as if they simply rushed a few new tracks to make this cd feel like a real album.
El Urgencia just sounds silly, missing the one thing that makes most of their songs bearable, their lead singer Deuce. At any rate,
Tear It Up tops any rap song they have recorded before, especially the catchy chorus. This is actually by far the best song on the entire album.
As said, the album only features three new songs. It seems that they wanted to do something different than simply make a collection of songs (which
Swan Songs really was), so they decided to throw in a few covers and a remix. While this may sound like a good idea,(a badass version of Motley Crüe's
Shout at the Devil would have been great) the execution is far from that. In fact, the original songs seem to have been totally destroyed in the process. The covers sound like Hollywood Undead parodying themselves(yes, it's that bad), and the remix is just unbearable. I hope to God that Robert Plant never hears what they have done to Led Zeppelin's
Immigrant Song.
So, what's left of the album are the live songs. These could have totally saved the album, but they don't. In fact, they ram every tiny bit of potential this album could have had right into the ground. Hollywood Undead sound like a bunch of posers in the studio, but live, they sound truly awful. There is no energy in their performance and they can't even sing(they unfortunately do try to sing). They try so hard to sound badass, but really they just sound like a bunch of silly grownups who desperately want to relive their puberty. Not cool.
If you really want to punish yourself go ahead and try the DVD, but I'm done with this.
Desperate Measures shows what kind of band Hollywood Undead really is. Outside of the studio they mean nothing. They are just as bland, soulless and talentless as any other average rock/rap band these days. Unless you are a big fan, stay the hell away.
