Review Summary: A solid set of strong rock songs forgotten, ignored and ignobly dropped.
“The album was released in France and other European countries but never made the record stores in either Ireland or the U.K. In 1998 the band's recording contract was terminated by Polydor and the band members with the exception of Ned Kennedy returned to Ireland.” – Wikipedia.
This band had a huge start. Huge talent. Huge record label. Huge songs. Where did it all go wrong?
Perhaps it was the understated nature of the delivery. Perhaps it was the songs that refused permission to a single memorable catchphrase. Perhaps it was that The Driven did not fit into what the public wanted from an Irish band.
The first half of this album contains five huge rock songs with five huge rock choruses. The sound is best described as a mixture of The Pixies, and The Smiths. The acoustic guitar is a prominent texture and rhythm of the band’s sound whilst the observational lyrics narrate the musical tones like both of the aforementioned artists serve as both musical vehicle and muscular message. There are plenty of memorable tunes throughout this album. There could have been as many as ten singles from this album and no filler is evident throughout.
The second half of the album is actually stronger. Violins are added, there is a brief vocal change on
Bonehead, and the pace slows down without sacrificing the huge melodies that tie each and every song together. The Driven achieve this deceleration without ever being dull and the album is stronger for it. Some of the songs in the second half could have been developed beyond the 3:30m pop song length but the result is a wonderful arc that ends with yet another great rock song. The last song
Killer is perhaps my biggest complaint as this song should have had more personality to close the album on a memorable note(sing along choir chorus perhaps?).
Killer had previously been a B-Side on the
Jesus Loves You More Than You Can Drive single and for me had a much more powerful delivery there.
Ultimately the album did not succeed in the public realm. The lyrics at times were perhaps too vague for their own good resulting in an audience connection that is not quite strong enough to engage you fully. The Gaslight Anthem’s much lauded ’59 Sound album has a swagger of blue collar naiveté that a listener can hold on to. The Driven were sadly unable to walk the fine line of narrating their small town experience to something big city people already understood about small town people.
I strongly recommend picking this up (if you find it) if you are a Pixies fan or just plainly like good unpretentious rock music.
