12. "Collide" - Howie Day: More boy-pop/boy-rock, this romantic interlude deals with self-doubt, writer's block and collisions between defenceless hearts - "Even the best fall down sometimes/Even the wrong words seem to rhyme/Out of the doubt that fills your mind/You finally find/You and I collide". Nice beats, catchy rhythm.
13. "Disappear" - Hoobastank: Obsession-romance again, rock-style, although this time it feels authentic, and well-versed, pun intended. The fear of loss, departure, and as Roland Barthes might say - the knowledge of the lover leaving before she leaves - "There's a pain that sleeps inside/Sleeps with just one eye/And awakens, the moment that you leave/And I search through every face/Without a single trace, of the person/The person that I need/Do you know, that everytime you're near/Everybody else seems far away/So can you come and make them disappear/Make them disappear and we can stay"
14. "Vitamin R" - Chevelle: There are not many songs dedicated to prescription drugs. Chevelle's "Vitamin R" evokes Ritalin, the Attention Deficit Disorder(ADD) drug. Reminiscent of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman" ("You know me, I'm your friend,/Your main boy, thick and thin./I'm your pusherman") - which is interesting, given that one deals with street drug sellers, and this one deals with the "ask your doctor if Ritalin is right for you" kind of marketing. Chevelle notes that "if they're making it/Then they're pushing it/And they're leading us along/The hassle of/All the screaming fits/That panic makes remorse". Drugs bring relief, but like other external solutions to ailments of the body, mind and soul, "Over and over a slave became".
15. "Home" - Three Days Grace: The band delivers a hard-rock eulogy for the single man and failed, lingering relationships - "I'm coming home just to be alone/'Cause I know you're not there/and I know that you don't care". The emptiness of the house/not a home and the retreat into la la land("By the time you come home/I'm already stoned") are simplistic, yet frank avowals of despair.
16. "Lady" - Lenny Kravitz: The rocker delivers a scratchy, hazy piece on love with some characteristic riffs and yells - "Never knew there was such a lady/That would make me want to straighten/Out my life at this time but I find/I'm thinkin' 'bout this pretty lady/I would love for her to have my baby/'Cause you know she's no fool/She's refined/I know she's a super lady/I'm weak and I've gone hazy yeah"
17. "I Just Wanna Live" - Good Charlotte: This song, too, builds on the theme of stars tired of their publicity, and questions, complaining that "Don't really care about the things that they say/Don't really care about what happens to me/I just wanna live." Set to an Erasure-style beat.
Article comments
1 - swingingpuss
Versatile and insightful review - one feels like listening to this CD attentively now :)
2 - Al Barger
I take it from this review that I'm considerably more jaded about pop music than you.
3 - Temple Stark
Stefani's song takes on a great meaning when you watch the video. There it's about writer's block and has an Alice in Wonderland like feel.
Writer's block brings tears to my eyes and the video does to. Weird huh.
That Frickin A's song you quote sounds great and I'm going to have to go find it. I am curious why Jessie's Girl. The original is really very good - from a soap star no less. Red, Hot and Blue Love was another of his hits.
We learn a bit more about the music here and a bit more about the reviewer with Al's post.
4 - Aaman
That's a compliment, I hope, Temple:)
5 - Temple Stark
yep.
have you watched the Stefani video?
6 - Aaman
not yet - will check on AOL
7 - Joe
I really love Gwen Stefani, but I wish she would go back to her roots and get back in the studio with the rest of No Doubt. The music that they produced together was a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the stuff she's doing on her own.