For no reason in particular, the last couple weeks I have been hooked on the band Staind, a mainstream rock band which formed in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1995. You've probably heard them on the radio, most recently with their single "Believe", but they're most well known for "It's Been Awhile", "Outside", and "So Far Away". For inexplicable reasons, I haven't been able to stop listening to them these past few weeks. To me, Aaron Lewis, the lead singer of the band, has got incredible vocals, which surprisingly don't drop off at all when they play live. Staind could very well be labeled an "emo" band with depressing, and sometimes self-inflicting lyrics that focus on personal troubles and "that person" in our lives that drives us crazy but we deal with them anyway. Although I will admit right off the bat, I haven't listened to their latest album and don't really have much interest too seeing I hated both "Believe" and "All I Want", the two singles of their new CD, "The Illusion of Progress", their early stuff is some of the best hard rock I've listened too. Now, with the band seemingly on an inevitable tailspin which has already hit points of "washed-up-ness" (is that a word?), I feel it's necessary to give them proper credit for some of the great additions they gave the hard rock genre.
First Album - "Dysfunction"
Staind really showed signs of promise in their debut album, titled "Dysfunction", which was released in 1999. This is a no holds barrel attack on personal demons and the people who had disappointed Lewis in his life. The song "Just Go" features a heart-stopping, 15 second wailing chorus line that really shows the depth of Lewis's vocal power. The best tracks are early in the album, "Just Go" being a notable track, but the best being songs like "Mudshovel" (my personal favorite Staind track), "Me", and "Home" are slammed right down your throat from the start. The other tracks are cool in their own way, like "Raw", but those four tracks are Staind at their very best in my opinion. "Me" is an honest, open attack on Lewis's family life and how "pathetic" he is. This could be perceived as whiny (hence, the title of this entry), but it comes across as a genuine, extremely personal song of a very troubled individual who is upset with how he was raised. "Mudshovel" is a gritty, roaring track in which Lewis really takes aim at "that person" who betrayed and hurt him and more ways than one. "Home" is the second best track on the album, which concerns Lewis's fear of solitude. Overall, this is a very good album, surprisingly not their best in my opinion, but a good preview of what Staind would offer to the world of hard rock.Overall rating - (***1/2 out of ****)
Second Album - "Break the Cycle"
Staind's sophomore effort, titled "Break the Cycle", released in 2001, is when they would really break into the mainstream music scene. With instant classics such as "It's Been A While" and "Outside" permeating the air waves, this was Staind in their prime years. This is a complete, refreshing, and ultimately superb album. Every track is full of emotion and unrelentingly punishing lyrics geared towards parents ("For You" is the classic teen rebel track, aiming right at adults and their lack of concern for their kids feelings, again, you go one way with this track, it's whiny and offputting, or powerful and sincere), society in general ("Open Your Eyes", the chorus puts you in the shoes of a broken world where everybody is living "in their little worlds", Lewis screams), personal shortcomings ("It's Been A While", a heartfelt, self-abusive track that is full of cynicism and regret), and television shaping us ("Suffer"). The best tracks are the soft-rock hit "Outside" (the last 1/3 of the song will blow you away) and "Waste" (which features a dynamic transformation in the last 1/4 that hits you square in the mouth). Every track on this album is quality though, this CD is more than satisfactory from a lyrical and musical standpoint. Sadly, Staind would not be able to keep this form for much longer.Overall rating: (***1/2 out of ****)
Third Album - 14 Shades of Grey
Much like the fading name located in the album art, this album would provide as a sound example of a potentially great rock band possibly drifting away from their initial success. 14 Shades of Grey is not a bad album, in fact, it's an overall solid one. Unlike the first two albums however, this one starts incredibly weakly, with "Price to Pay" and "How About You", lyrically not terrible, but lacking musically, with less than stellar vocal work. Then, comes a mind-blowing third track, "So Far Away", which unfortunately fell under the "butchered" list once the radio kept playing it over, and over, and over again, is a rarity from the band. An upbeat, positive, optimistic single that is rich with emotion and fervor. There are some other touching tracks, such as "Zoe Jane", a sweet look on Lewis's baby daughter. The album picks up the pace for the most part, but the only great track located on this CD is "So Far Away". In the previous two albums, you could make a case that atleast 4-5 were incredible pieces of work. Not so here.Overall rating (*** out of ****)
Fourth Album - Chapter V
This album gets unfairly chastized for being a "terrible" album. Is it a good album? No. Is it a bad album? No. It falls somewhere in between "pretty good" and "average" for me. Although, like "14 Shades of Grey", it gets off to a bad start with "Right Here", a track that defies everything that Staind once stood for, that being the ability to walk away when Lewis was being treated wrongly, it recovers fairly quickly. However, let's take a brief look at "Right Here". If this song was made by anyone but Staind, it might've been an okay song. But the mere fact that the chorus is about staying loyal to "that person" even if they treat you like crap, that is quite maddening. Where is the brutal honesty that I heard in "Dysfunction" and "Break the Cycle"? That whole "I'm not going to take this, I don't have to be treated like this" attitude? Instead we get a whiny chorus that basically tells us, no matter what you do to me, good or bad, it's okay? WHY?! Let's look at the positive side here though, "Falling" is the strongest track on the CD, a song about addiction and how "falling is easy but getting back up becomes the problem". You can apply this song to any addiction or bad habit, this might actually be Staind's most versatile track from a lyrical standpoint. "Schizophrenic Conversations", "Paper Jesus", and "Cross to Bear" are also good tracks. Things get very messy in the second half, however, with Staind piling one forgetable track after another. It's only because the first half of the album is relatively strong (with the exception being "Right Here") that saves this from being completely missable. It definitely has it's moments, but you expect more from this band, at least, I did.Overall rating: (**1/2 out of ****)
As already mentioned, I have not listened to "The Illusion of Progress", from what I've heard, I have no interest in buying it whatsoever or indulging myself in lovey-dovey "everything's okay" lyrics like "All I Want" and "Believe" are full of. So, back to the point of this entry. Is Staind an extremely honest band, or are they just unbearably whiny? To me, they WERE an extremely honest band that were at their best angry and morbid. Now, they've just become another unbearably whiny mainstream rock band that should saddle up with another crappy, overrated band like Nickleback and write bad lyrics and normal mainstream garbage rock songs together (what a horrible thought). It's sad to see a band that opened up with such promise defy their origins and set such a completely opposite tone. Staind should've learned from Metallica, when you make something like St. Anger, return to your origins, and blow the crowd away with what made you so special, which is what Death Magnetic features and some. Will Staind ever flip back the switch to "awesome" mode? I fear not. Staind is yet another excellent example of a band who showed so much promise from the beginning, but ultimately became lazy and forgot what made them so special to begin with.
Staind frontman Aaron Lewis