Full Circle?
For those of you that haven't yet heard, Creed, the band that basically shaped (for good or for ill) the future of mainstream "flyover" rock is back together. Their new album, "Full Circle", is set to be released tomorrow, but we're going to give you a chance to hear the album in full today at 2:00 pm on they inspire live.
Love them or hate them, you can't argue with the fact that Creed has sold more albums and made more money than god. Personally, I liked the raw breakout sound of the band (My Own Prison) much more than any of the over-produced "look we're rich" sounds that came after achieving stardom (Human Clay and afterwards). For most people, that post-success sound is the only Creed they've ever known, an in many cases, the Creed they've learned to hate. When I heard that the album was going to be called "Full Circle", I truly hoped that it meant that they were going to be going back to that raw sound of their first album.
First Impressions.
It's big. I don't mean that it's physically big, or that it's lengthy. I mean that it's full sounding, with fat and crunchy guitar riffs driving each song, which means that Mark Tremonti was allowed the same sort of freedom he'd grown accustomed to with Alter Bridge (Tremonti's post-creed project). It's not the sort of album that you queue up for easy listening background music. Unfortunately, I just didn't feel that Scott Stapp could compete with or compliment the big sound vocally the way that Myles Kennedy could with Alter Bridge, so for the entire album it just feels like Stapp is trying too hard. Maybe it's just me, but I find that it all feels a bit awkward, sort of in the same way that any of the new Pearl Jam feels awkward. Forced even. Given the bad breakup in 2004 and the limited success of Tremonti and Stapp afterwards, I can understand that each may be walking on egg-shells while also making sure that they have their equal share of the creative pie. All in all, it's resulted in a sound that feels like it lacks cohesion, and all the while, I kind of wish that it'd been an Alter Bridge album with Myles Kennedy fronting instead. I'm not giving up on the album yet, since I really only had a chance to skim it last night. It might grow on me.
What do you think of it? Tune in to they inspire live at 2:00 pm (EST) for our premier of "Full Circle".
- Tagged in: music, culture
- Category: General
Here’s the track listing for those listening. The track numbers may not match up to the IDs being reported in your streaming app since we have a couple of our station IDs mixed up in there.
1. “Overcome”
2. “Bread of Shame”
3. “A Thousand Faces”
4. “Suddenly”
5. “Rain”
6. “Away in Silence”
7. “Fear”
8. “On My Sleeve”
9. “Full Circle”
10. “Time”
11. “Good Fight”
12. “The Song You Sing”