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Review Summary: Hollywood Undead’s best album. Why would someone enjoy listening to Hotel Kalifornia?
As a long time Hollywood Undead listener, the answer is obvious: This is about as solid a Hollywood Undead album as one could hope for. It’s got everything I like about the band musically mixed in, and doesn’t shy away from the hard hitting social commentary that they regularly engage in.
Chaos is pure rock, and reminiscent of songs like Pray and Tendencies. It features all of the band members and really captures the hell that so many people go through in life well. Can anyone really argue that the blind aren’t constantly leading the blind into chaos in our world? City of the Dead is less heavy, but has a solid punk rock sound, and sort of an individualism run amuck vibe to it. We sometimes run from the good that we have only to find that the crown we’ve placed on our head is worse than the life from which we’ve fled.
I know that Lion Eyes will evoke ire from many, but the tragic reality is that our social fabric is very broken and along with that comes the bitterness of relationships going wrong. The person who someone once loved and cherished all too often becomes someone who they blame and hate. It’s a depressing song, but does do a good job at capturing how many relationships unfortunately go. Then Ruin My Life (with a very catchy party beat) let’s us know how people who aimlessly wonder through this life sometimes find enjoyment, and though (as Funny Man admits) it often means that people are trouble, people feel the desire to cut loose somehow and are willing do things that they might admit are self destructive in order to accomplish that.
Happy When I Die boasts a particularly enjoyable hip hop performance by Funny Man, and lyrically finds someone running from the person they’re becoming but hoping to be happy when they die. It’s a mixture of trying to put on a cool front while being worried about the direction that one’s life is headed. The heavy rapping in Wild In These Streets is quite well delivered, especially in J-Dog’s verse, and the lyrics head in the direction of someone giving into the person that they were running from in Happy When I Die. When people are living lives that have been brought down by a lot of toxic factors, sometimes they act a fool in ways that are going to be noticed, disliked, and perhaps need to be stopped by society at large.
Hourglass is about trying to find meaning in a world where (like the lost boys from Peter Pan) perhaps you never really grew up. But just because you aren’t living in a way that fits society’s definition of adulting doesn’t mean that you can’t try to make your mark on the world and show that you have something worthwhile to offer. Then, finally, Alright is a gospel-ish song about how we are all on a journey that has weight to it and hopes that we can hold on to what matters in life. “I’m a saint, I’m a sinner; I’m a loser, I’m a winner; I’m a champion, still I’m a quitter” is where most people are probably at in life at some point, and we hope that we’ll ultimately be alright despite life’s trials and tribulations.
Is this album going to convince those who have disliked Hollywood Undead from the beginning to become fans? Probably not. But it’s about as solid a release as this fan could have hoped for, doesn’t contain any particularly cringy songs (which I’ll admit that most Hollywood Undead releases have contained), and could perhaps attract some new listeners too. There’s an unusually high amount of solid material in this album, if you’re someone who’s prone to enjoying the type of music that these guys create.
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FreakMachine (2)
A really dated crunkcore album with the occasional flourish that elevates it above its predecessors,...
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Jesus christ a 4 for this...
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Can't agree that this is their best album. For me it's far below Swan Songs, American Tragedy and Day of the Dead. However, I can see that their lyrics are more mature than on those earlier records. Still Pos'd
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Surprised they’re still around. Remember hearing these guys on PureVolume back in the day.
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is charlie scene still showing his weenie
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had to neg, sorry bro
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"Hollywood Undead’s best album."
So a 1.1/5?
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‘doesn’t shy away from the hard hitting social commentary that they regularly engage in.’
I can’t say I’m a dedicated listener so maybe I missed some insightful verses but hard hitting social commentary?
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Everywhere I go
Bitches always know
That Charlie sheen has got a weenie that he likes to show
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you'll pay for this
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Shemson,
In my opinion, they’ve been doing hard hitting social commentary since the beginning. Knife Called Lust is a good example of such a song from their early music.
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skele?
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Knife called lust is not a good example.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
ConcubinaryCode,
From Knife Called Lust:
“I'm mad at the fact that your dad is an addict
Your friend takes pills, he thinks it cures sadness
I'm not here to attack and make you kids panic
But it's just tragic, the way you kids have it
Everybody sins, and it all begins
It goes back around, nobody ever wins“
If you don’t think that there’s any hard hitting social commentary in those lyrics, then I think we disagree on what qualifies as hard hitting social commentary. That’s fine, because it is somewhat subjective. Just because I have an opinion doesn’t mean that others will necessarily share it.
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drugs are bad poverty is bad, is not nuanced social criticism in the least.
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oh i get it its like the eagles song but with a k instead of a c
awesome
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Zaruyache,
There’s more going on in those lyrics than simply saying that drug abuse and poverty are bad. Also, other lyrics in the song such as, “you're on your own from a broken home, You keep the truth inside, and it stays unknown” discuss social issues that the lyrics I quoted don’t.
I’m fine with people disagreeing with me that the song’s lyrics contain hard hitting social commentary though. What one person thinks qualifies another person might think doesn’t qualify.
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Willful ignorance is not an excuse.
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it doesn't exactly discuss those issues tho so much as imply their existence, and doesn't inspect them at all. capitalism has destroyed the nuclear family, severed community ties, and decades of reactionary social policies have strained the working class to the point where homelessness, drug abuse, and domestic violence are not uncommon but expected--is what that song seems to want to say, but it doesn't.
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When they wrote “I don’t give a fuck what you think or say, cuz we don’t give a fuck now anyway” they were actually referencing the Bush administration’s reaction towards anti-war criticisms in a subversive move to comment on the state of America back in ‘08
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Zaruyache,
The song seems more about discussing how difficult circumstances can make it more likely that people will head down bad paths (watch me thrust this knife called lust into my chest until it bursts), calling out those who judge younger generations for having struggles that were largely caused by and inherited from previous generations (you show no love and hate on us, you fucked our trust), and points to finding meaning in creativity, art, and speaking out (people say you dye your hair and wear tight jeans, that doesn't mean that you can't scream and like loud noise, you got a choice, you have a voice… hard at times like these, I’ll put you back on your feet) as ways of trying to be empowered and rise up despite very difficult circumstances.
In my opinion, it’s not necessary for them to always tie these social issues together with topics like toxic elements of capitalism for the song to be doing hard hitting social commentary.
Songs like Been to Hell (you thought these streets were paved in gold, but they're dirty and dark) and City of the Dead (welcome to the city of the dead, where we all wear crowns upon our head… she said there was a place where every single person had the same face, so she fled, and I stayed, the life in her eyes seemed to fade away, she sold all her bones for the money) do some linking of problems in society to capitalism though.
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