Review Summary: 3 words. Big. Fucking. Letdown.
Seeing bands you love fall from grace is like being slapped in the face. You desperately want to love the new music, but due to bad writing, production, cliché tropes, lack of passion, or whatever, you cannot love the album like you do with their old stuff. They lose credibility with you, the listener, and it takes a while and an incredible come back for you to be willing to trust them again. One such band is Orem, Utah natives The Used. For a pop punk/post-hardcore band, their discography has been very consistent, and the band has brought forth five incredibly enjoyable records from the pop-punk masterpiece of their self-titled to their popular resurgence with Vulnerable. However with their new record, "Imaginary Enemy", for the first time since buying an album from The Used, I want my money back.
Lead single "Cry" is a perfect indicator of the band's new sound. Poppy, catchy, with mediocre lyrics. "Cry" in particular is highly reminiscent of superior single "I Caught Fire" except not as well written. With lyrics like "I'm gonna make you bleed for a little bit. I'm gonna make you beg just for making me cry" Bert sounds whiny and pathetic, and not in a good way. "make Believe" is actually a decent song, but is inoffensive and played safe. The band are capable of so much better, but they let down with limp verses and flailing choruses.
Bert and co. have become eerily similar to Sleeping with Sirens, especially evident with "Overdose" and "Kenna Song". This is not a good thing. "Kenna Song"s tune in particular could have the vocals from "I'm Sorry" from SWS's last release switched, and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. "Overdose" is just a poor slower remake of fantastic Artwork B-Side "In a Needle" and falls flat on its face trying to recreate the former's glory. The album is riddled with cliché, from pseudo-angry "Cry" and inspirational "el-oh-vee-eeh" to the halfway heavy "A Song To Stifle Imperial Progression". The latter actually has a decent riff, but the chorus becomes increasingly repetitive and grating as the song progresses. Songs like the title track and "Generation Throwaway" are uneventful and pass by with little to no effect. The one-two punch of "Revolution" and "Cry" display the best songwriting on the album, but ultimately feel as forced and sad as the rest of the record.
By and large, the album just passes by inoffensively, occasionally turning a catchy phrase, guitar riff or drum line. The band has traded all of its heaviness and for pop rock choruses oriented around inspirational lyrics. Gone is the passion, gone is the anger, and gone is my favorite band. If you excuse me, I'm just going to go to my room and give their self titled or "Artwork" a few spins to renew hope in the band, if there's any left after this.
