Review Summary: With a unified and unmistakable sound, the band soothes the feathers it once ruffled.
311’s ninth album,
Uplifter, is best described as a sedative with the side effect of rocking (and a sigh of relief after
Don’t Tread on Me). To many fans and followers of the genre-mixing quintet, this album was merely an added bonus to the band’s discography. It would be wrong to label this album unnecessary, though, as it has a direction. The direction would be walking backwards. The album steps into other influences like Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder while trying to keep an eye on its primal passion. The band doesn’t try to reach amazing new heights but instead sticks to doing what feels comfortable. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but with 12 songs dedicated to ‘feeling good’, it can make you wish the songs were scattered throughout 311’s past and not all onto one album.
I’ll say it now: the band has made WAY more interesting rhythms than the ones found here. With an undeniably strong rhythm section led by educated drummer, Chad Sexton, and silky smooth bassist, P-Nut, it was easy to make anything sound golden. Chameleon guitarist Tim Mahoney does just enough to compliment the sound with exposed talent and multiformity. The band has access to the melodic Midas touch, and rapper SA Martinez joined lead singer Nick Hexum to have fun with that in the past. Now, for some reason they decided to really cool it down in order to soothe a soul. This isn’t to say the instrumentalists are always taking the back seat; P-Nut gets to show off in his breakdown in “
It’s Alright” (where it was much needed) as does Mahoney in his solo for “
Never Ending Summer”.
Uplifter, instead, seems to be created with the intent to simply show the band’s ability to cover a wide range of genres – which they do effortlessly. “
India Ink” immediately catches you with its funky verses while “
Daisy Cutter” willingly dives into being a jumpy pop song, but is worth a listen for its rocking catchiness. Hard to go unnoticed, there is a distinct lack of rapping. The good news though, is that SA demonstrates that he doesn’t need to rap in order to help the band vocally, which was arguably the strongest point in
Don't Tread on Me. In tracks like “
Golden Sunlight” and “
Too Much Too Fast”, you can tell he’s no stranger to pitches. Nick, on the other hand...well he's still the same. Neither his voice nor lyric-style has changed, which could be the biggest flaw of the album. It even sounds uncertain at points in "[b]Too Much Too Fast[/i]" which is otherwise a solid track.
Taking about a whole album to reach, “
Jackpot" comes in the way of letting you leave the album with your ass completely intact. It’s a very valuable tool in a toolbox of great songs to play live alongside
Grassroots’ “Applied Science”. Odds are this is the gem for people who adored their self-titled blue album since it’s crowd-pleasingly similar to 311’s earlier songs like “Down”.
Listening to the album’s B-sides, a question surfaces…”Why were these left out?” The 2 added songs are actually better than most of the songs on the actual album! “
Get Down” is refreshingly upbeat and satisfying for those who enjoyed
From Chaos and “
I Like The Way” has a chorus that can only be described as sexual. You can easily pick which songs to replace if you had to add these into the album.
All in all,
Uplifter did what it intended. It uplifts spirits and finds it way to being the album to go to if you’re having a bad day and need a break. Stub your toe? Have to work extra long hours? Fighting with your dear ones? Give this album a listen, then. It can be an overkill of friendliness, but it proves the ancient rule wrong that if you don’t have conflict, you don’t have a pulse. It’s an album full of messages like “it’s alright, wherever you are…” as opposed to an invitation to be “creatures for a while”, but their latest album proves that 311 can make you pump your fists whether they’re starting fires or dousing them. For a group together for 15+ years, it's nice to see that not every song has to be an emotional ballad (although they might be heading there soon enough). I’d give it 3.7 stars.
