As I have grown up over the last 18 years, I will listen to just about any kind of music that comes on. I will be reviewing an album that has become somewhat popular, but the band gets a lot of hate for releasing bad music. Personally, I don’t find this album that bad, especially compared to their other music. This CD is Break the Cycle, from Staind. It is arguably their best CD, and the one that is the least annoying out of the five they have released.
Staind is well known for their low tuned, baritone guitar sounding ballads, and on this album, there isn’t that many, and when they do the ballads, it sounds fairly good. Songs like
Outside and
Its Been Awhile are good examples of how they can take a baritone guitar and make it sound somewhat decent with a ballad.
Fade is another good example. But there is one thing about all three of these songs on this album that kind of bugs me. They are the three main singles, and lets just say that there are better songs to choose on this album to release as a single. Its Been Awhile gets way too repetitive with the lyrics, and Mike Mushok’s guitar playing does nothing to help that, as it stays that way throughout the album, although it shines more in other parts and really dims out in different spots. Outside is really the only good single of the three, and is probably the easiest structured song on the CD, although it sounds terrific. Lets just say that the single choices were les than stellar.
The baritone guitar is used for fast, low tuned guitar playing, and luckily the album starts us off with two great songs that use just that.
Open Your Eyes and
Pressure differ from the rest of the album, as it just opens the CD with an aggressive feel to it, making it enjoyable to listen to. Aaron does his typical singing, feeling depressed and saying that we all are bad, and stuff like that. You start to notice the same trend after the song Fade comes along, as most every song is lyrically the same, but thank God, it is musically different.
There are a few different songs (at least Musically) on the album. The guitar work and rhythm sections are noticeably different in songs like
Safe Place, Waste and
Take It. It reminds you of Staind when they released their first major album
Dysfunction and shows a good, and eerie musical effort for the most part, and makes the song interesting enough to get through a few times.
Overall, the nu-metal guitar playing of Mike Mushok saves this album somewhat, as Aaron does nothing to help, as he is just always depressed. There are still some great songs on here, but these guys need to cheer up just a little bit. I liked most of this album, as one or two songs got repetitive, but is still worth a lot of listens. Staind puts the ballad to good use on this album, unlike one of their other CD’s, entitled
14 Shades of Gray. I give this a 4/5.
Pros
Good mix up of ballads and fast songs
Bass is audible
Outside
Cons
Aaron’s singing
Guitar playing could use some help
Can be depressing at times, as you could be an emotional person. ( I am not an emotional person, I am completely fine.)
Songs to listen to first
Open Your Eyes
Pressure
Fade
Safe Place
Outside
Take It
