QUICK REVIEW: Life Starts Now has a good mix of softer and hard-rockin' tracks, but some of the album is so boring and unoriginal, it can only be described as mind-numbing filler.
6.5/10
FULL REVIEW: Three Days Grace is one of the biggest names in modern rock today. With the release of their second album, One-X, in 2006, this Canadian post-grunge group found mainstream success with breakout singles Pain, Riot, Never Too Late, and Animal I Have Become. While Three Days Grace has never been about complex lyrical themes and unique musical elements, there is a certain relateability that today's musical audience seems to have with the music of this hard-rock foursome. Therefore, the release of Life Starts Now had me anticipating another mainstream knockout the third time around.
The first track, entitled "Bitter Taste," finds the listener in familiar territory. Heavy guitars, pounding drums, and the easily-identified vocals of lead singer Adam Gontier climax into an extended guitar solo, something that hasn't been seen in previous Three Days Grace efforts. The lyrics, however, are more of the same: simplistic, blunt, brutal; a truly hardcore start to an album whose title would suggest a lighter side to the band. So far, so good.
The first single of the album, Break, follows. Despite mixed reviews by fans, Break sounds like an instant hit. The catchy melody and screaming vocals of Gontier seem like A-plus radio material (Plus, the word
"VAMPIRE" is mentioned, which makes it relevant to every tweenie-bopper in the world right now). Another guitar solo from the usually-conservative lead guitarist Barry Stock, a rarity. The band is starting to sound a little different now, perhaps more musically-focused. Although it's nothing ground-breaking, Break seems like another good single from our Canadian brethren.
From the start, World So Cold is clearly a darker track than the previous two radio-friendly jams. It sounds like it could've been a missing track from One-X; the melody is certainly familiar. It would seem like a good track to listen to in a dark room full of sharp objects. Emo jokes aside, World So Cold is another successful display of the raw emotion that has made Three Days Grace such a standout in the music industry. My favorite song so far; this album is measuring up to be something great.
Uh-oh. The album's fourth track is not your typical post-grunge headbanger. Clean electric guitars, poppish drum fills, and a strange twang to Gontier's usually grating vocals? Although Lost In You seems like a nice break from the intense first three tracks, the lyrics are a little too generic to make it a standout from today's muddle of standard pop/rock singles. Sounds a little bit too much like a bad imitation of 3 Doors Down (If that's possible, cough) for my taste, although, admittedly, it's not a terrible song overall, just a little cheesy.
The Good Life comes up next, and the intro sounds similar to the opening of "Riot." However, once the songs cuts to Gontier's vocals, it's clearly a transition into the lighter sound of the band. This song literally could have been stolen right from a Nickelback album (Never a compliment). It's not that the upbeat rhythm of the track isn't enjoyable, it's just too generic to stand out anywhere in the industry, especially because of it's overly-simple lyrics ("How many times can we repeat "the good life" over and over using different filters, enough to drag out a full song?"). The last two songs have been sup-par, and my expectations for the album are lowering after each second, after a strong start from the opening three tracks. By this time, I'm praying for some relief from the next song. Fingers crossed...
No More, the halfway point on the album, is... eh. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood after enduring the last two tracks, but this song just bored me. It's like absolutely no creative energy was put into this song. Listening to the almost four-minute song put me in a four-minute lull. At least the last two songs were interesting, even if they weren't exceptional. I'd have to call this one my least favorite song so far.
Oh, great, piano in a Three Days Grace song. Why don't I just sleep now? Oh, wait. This is actually pretty good. Wait, no, it's
really good. Gontier's singing is flawless, and the slow piano and acoustic strumming is actually quite well-done. Some of the notes Gontier hits seem like they would be well out of the range of a hard-rocker like himself. Was that falsetto? The song climaxes into a layered finale, and the crunching vocals show more emotion than any of Three Days Grace's previous work. The lyrics are much deeper than usual as well. I'm actually touched by the sentiment of this song, clearly it's the Never Too Late of Life Starts Now. It's definitely the best song I've heard from the band yet. If only the last three songs could have never happened...
Obviously not wanting to be picked on in the schoolyard by the likes of Ben Burley (of Breaking Benjamin), the band comes out of their softest song with a more anthemic hard-rock track, Someone Who Cares. Although it's not as intense as their usual work, Someone Who Cares sounds like a radio-fit hit (Yes, that rhymes). I could definitely see this one being as overplayed as Pain, if that's possible. It's a catchy song, and most fans of the band will be satisfied, although it's unlikely that anyone that isn't already a fan is going to start liking their music as a result of another standard Three Days Grace song.
We're three-quarters of the way through the album, and the song entitled "Bully" opens with shrieks and laughter of schoolchildren. Wait, are they cheering on a fight? Did someone just say "bust his head?" Gruesome. Oh, wait, the song sounds like it's about a kid who blows everyone in his school away. Politically correct! A pretty angry song, and despite the fact that it's about school shootings and teen suicide (a sensitive topic, right?), it's a really good song. The break three-quarters of the way is pretty intense, and I'm right back to my regular air-drumming Three Days Grace mood. I kinda would like to listen to this song again, but it's past my bedtime (7:30 PM on weekends).
The tenth song, Without You, is pretty similar to No More, my least favorite song on the album. They're both lighter, smoother pop-sensible songs, and I prefer the edgier side of Three Days Grace. It's a pretty boring song, I'll admit (I just yawned, really). Not good.
Goin' Down promises to be a pretty hardcore songs (It has an
apostrophe!). The song has a dark atmosphere, similar to Scared, from the eponymous debut album of the band, but the rhythm is much slower, and a little too polished. Although it would probably sound great live, the album version of Goin' Down is a little too over-produced for my taste (Did they really just have him laughing? Is this Hinder?). It's not a terrible song though, and it's probably around the middle of the pack overall.
The title song, Life Starts Now, is the grand finale of the album. It's an enjoyable anthem, very similar to the final track from One-X (called One-X...
genius!). Life Starts Now sounds like it's meant to be an inspiring song, but it's a little too plain to have any real connection with me. However, it's a decent ending to an album that was a mix of the good, the really good, and the plain ugly.
I'm feeling disappointed with the entire Life Starts Now album as a whole. Although there are some very good songs, I enjoyed almost every song from the first two Three Days Grace albums, and the clunkers here are almost as numerous as the government's bailout plan. Perhaps I'll warm up to some of my less-favorite songs over time, but I've listened to this album almost half a dozen times (I'm not the standard critic, who listens to half of an iTunes preview to judge an album) and they're still annoying to me. I am glad that, although the band members said that the album would show a different side of Three Days Grace, they didn't pull a Linkin Park, Minutes To Midnight bullshit and completely change their sound.
Overall, I'm giving Life Starts Now a
6.5 out of 10.
Download: Bitter Taste, Break, World So Cold, Last To Know, Bully, Goin' Down
...Meh: The Good Life, Someone Who Cares, Life Starts Now
Just Say No: Lost In You, No More, Without You
Yours Truly,
REL3ASE
