Review Summary: The Used promise, "tantalizing, brutal, messy, and noisy", and deliver a mural of melody leaning towards a hard rock feel.
The screamo term has become run of the mill for magazines and teenager's myspace to coin many of the singing/screaming bands of the last decade. Bands that play music mostly similar to metalcore, post-hardcore, or at times pop-punk. A lot of these bands that emerged onto the mainstream in the begining of the 21st century had fallen into obscurity near the end of the decade. Save a few noteworthy bands. Thrice emerged above all their peers, evolving into one of the more innovative groups in the 2000s, and kept estranging themselves from the screamo term starting with Vheissu. The multi-vocalist band Alexisonfire developed a cult following with their first two albums, but the two following ones showed a departure towards better produced melodic post-hardcore songs. In 2002 The Used exploded with their self-titled album and continued to make fast and slow almost ambient songs that mix pop as well as metal into their arrangements. They continued this with 2004's emotional In Love and Death. 2007 marked a bump in the bands creativity though. Lies For the Liars featured a bunch of fast paced songs along with singer Bert McCracken attempting to be more brutal than ever. What was wrong though was The Used lost touch with their melodic side; not one song off of Lies For the Liars could compete in quality compared to "The Used" or In Love and Death. Two years later, under a different label and different producer for the first time ever, Artwork marks The Used showing they may still yet be one of the bands to transcend their genre.
"Blood On My Hands" is the perfect opener to Artwork, as it serves much like Thrice's "Image of the Invisible" for their Vheissu album. The song is the only one that could be greatly compared to the bands past material that was heavier. Artwork's opener does not reach an epic climax of songs such as "Maybe Memories" or "Says Days Ago", but still manages stand tall above anything that came off of Lies For the Liars. Bert McCracken and company have always mish-mashed pop and metal songs into one and have finally refined their technique. The album nearly borders on hard rock at times, but the band remains rooted to their old sound. The new change doesn't resemble the band growing up, but developing a new found confidence. Bassist Jeph Howard and guitarist Quinn Allman are working together better than ever. It would seem they may have sat down and focused more on the relationship between their instruments. "On The Cross" demonstrates this well with the trade off of start-stop riffs between Jeph and Quinn. "Come Undone" follows that up with Quinn playing one of his most atmospheric guitar leads on Artwork while Jeph drowns the song in a thickly saturated bass line.
Artwork doesn't start to show it's true colors until the latter half of the album. What began with an impressive display of improved song structures continues with The Used managing to hold on without any filler. Not only that, Artwork's best tracks are all found at the end. Bert refrains from screaming on "The Best of Me" and leaves the rest of his band to build the tension until every member lets loose at the end creating one of The Used's most hectic songs ever. The nearly epic album closer "Men Are All the Same" follows that up with Bert's best performance on record. He dominates "Men Are All the Same" commanding attention when he bursts out at the begining with, "always safe to know, what is good for taking blood stains from your clothes, like i said before when i bite your tongue out your mouth you'll know". The lyrics of Artwork, obviously, are forgetable with Bert's best attribute being his nasal, often spuradically pitched vocals. "Kissing You Goodbye" is one of the bands greatest ballads with a beautiful piano piece as well as Bert's soft crooning. The track is a drastic improvement when compared to "Smother Me" from Liars.
The Used have created a record worthy of being called their best yet. They've managed to evolve their sound by simpifying their song writing and focusing on the main instruments, instead of throwing in electronics for the sake of it. Jeph Howard's bass lines may not be the most creative, but he manages to not just follow in the shadows of Quinn Allman's intricate guitar melodies. Bert isn't screaming as much like he used to, but hasn't connected better with the rest of his band since their self-titled release. With his focus on aligning with the instruments, Artwork may be the least catchiest album. It will definitely take multiple listens for it to sink in. Artwork bridges The Used from staying stuck in the screamo scene to launching into new territory... Now Bert just needs to learn how to write better lyrics and then the band might actually be considered with more respect.
