Satan's Luau

Staind's - 14 Shades of Grey: B+/A-

STAIND ... the GRAY album ... ha
(ed.note: Cover direction by Metallica/Spinal Tap? Smell the carseat?)
(ed.note2: in all seriousness, has the potential to be one of the best hard rock CDs this year)

A new CD by the masters of Woe Is Me rock --- or what we at the Luau have termed Whine Whine Cry Rock ... well, let's get on it with it, shalll we? (or, the break with Red Cap Fred is complete, complete, complete)

Well, my ears be darned ... Staind has reinvented its sound AGAIN ... yes the melancholy and angst and whine is here again ... but the music is so listenable and catchy ... plenty of power chords and great open (rather than closed off nu-metal) guitar riffs and rhythms --- at the core, just a great listenable alternative/hard rock album, a true rarity nowadays

Price To Play: the first single of this album comes out very heavy and aggressive, power singsong/singalong chorus is really great

How About You: jangly alt rocky sound, another great heavy power chorus, number two is also easy to listen to ... nice start to this CD

So Far Away: bust out the acoustic guitars, nice guitar duet, great acousti-power ballad with orchestra in the midportion ... more easy to listen to ear candy, nicely put together song ... my instant impression is that I can feel the push for Staind to go totally mainstream and be accessible in the first three songs

Yesterday: kind of a return to the Break CD sound, but turning some of the elements inside out ... creating a great "fast" song (comparatively), great bassline drives this one/great hook/great chorus ... I sound like a broken record, don't I? ... ha ... after 4 songs, I don't really have anything bad to say

Fray: reminds of Break's "Epiphany", has a Nicklebackish feel to it yet more of a punch to it (like more guts to it) ... even uses the F-word ... yeah, the word "frock" was used, nicely in context ... ha ... great verse/great hook/great chorus ... the record is broken, and this CD is quickly moving up my best of the year list

Zoe Jane: full on alt radio friendly power ballad about Aaron's daughter ... nice song, lots of emotionally meaningful lyrics (to Aaron at least ...ha), but seriously ... another solid song

Fill Me Up: dirty crunchy guitar opening is excellent, verse is almost disappointingly ordinary, but the chorus is really uplifting hard rocky and redeeming ... very solid

Layne: tribute song to the late Layne Staley, has a Staley/Cantrellish vibe ... of course, you all know by now we loves AIC here at the Luau ... kind of average sounding compared to the other songs on this CD, nice gesture

Falling Down: most nu-mtl/alt rock sounding of the tracks so far, from the jangly alt rock mono guitar opening to the bland verse crunch crunch repeat guitar sound ... to a trippy space rock guitar bridge and chorus --- very recent Incubus-ish sounding, another average sounding song (to me at least)

Reality: ah yes, the return of melancholy ... trippy spaghetti/space western jangly guitars ... and Aaron probably at his whiniest sounding ... overall bland song, except for the vocals and harmonies on the bridge which are suprisingly amazing for the surrounding blandness

Ok, the past three tracks have really lost some of the steam built up by the first half of the CD ... so we look to the last four of this exceptionally LONG album in the era of the barely 40 minute epics

Tonight: comes in with heavy guitar crunch more hard rock in sound plus power chorus ... I think what stands out most about this song is that this is what a Staind formula song sounds like ... feels like they are only going through the motions on this one ... very average song

Could It Be: Really nice hook in the opening, this song is unique in that Staind is messing with the sound dynamics of its "formula" ... parts which normally sound soft are loud, loud is soft, you get the picture ... interesting song, first one in a while ... solid, catchy, good

Blow Away: this is the marathon on the CD ... comes in at a shade over 6 mins ... intro has a light industrial noise sound, then the pensive guitar riff with moody bass line drives the verse ... the bridge is HEAVY and the vocals very emotional (unzip my skin and leave it here --- so I can be no one again ... nice sample, huh? ... ha) ... not radio friendly or listener friendly necessarily, but if you love the emotional wringing heavy sound of Staind, this is your song ... very good, long but you don't really notice it

Intro: Really interesting intro lead-in, voxy spacey vocals, interesting verse and chorus ... very solid end to a great album

Staind has clearly made the break with the nu-metal genre that everyone wishes to group them with ... this CD is about as far from its NuM roots as it can get, and given the last 2 CDs it doesn't seem likely that they are going back to that sound anytime soon ... I think the highlight of this CD is that Staind has found its sound and it is a mostly interesting alt hard rock sound with progressive elements (without all the pretension) and a little lighter whiny emo from Aaron

Not perfect by any means, but a step away from NuM and towards relevance and longevity ... highly recommended

Other Staind CDs reviewed by the Luau:

Staind - Break the Cycle: B+

Ok, so as many of you like me suffer at the gym ... we are treated at the wonderful purple and black and red gym to music hits pumped through poor speakers ... well in 2001, at 24HR ... we were treated to truck full of Staind, well in particular "It's been awhile" and "Outside"

I bought the album (ACTUALLY when I think about it again, I got it free from BMG) on the strength of these songs --- and was overwhelmed with the overplay of them on my local FM ... but mostly because it seemed like BREAK THE CYCLE broke Staind out from under nu-metal cliches

This album brought out the emo-the whine-the pain/passion that now Staind is largely associated with (or annoys the hell out of people with ... you pick ...ha)

The strong tracks are the two melancholy radio hits that got a ton of airplay on radio, MTV, etc ... if you like melancholy, there is the even heavier emotionally ballady "Epiphany" and the crunchy power ballad "Fade"

Somewhat shocking is the turn in style to more open sounding hard rocking of "For You" which has a HEAVY guitar feel like the new Cult's Rise --- just a brilliant rock song ... "Take it" is a midtempo bass heavy grinder with a hella catchy bridge and chorus

After Dysfunction's nu metal up the asP, I don't think anyone could have even expected such a sudden shift in sound ... and what a great SHIFT it was ... it's almost transformative of the band's sound and put it into a grouping that's more alt hard rocky than nu-metal

Our final analysis in 2001, Staind matures into a great sound with some future promise and mileage beyond the limited nu-metal genre

Staind - Dysfunction: C-

Co-produced by Red Cap Fred ... does that say it all? ... it may to some
Definitely more nu-metal sounding, mostly clean vocals very little of the gorilla garble scream vocals typical of the genre ... and the origins of the whine, less pronounced on this CD as in Break, but its definitely there

We at the Luau were turned on to the album by "Mudshovel", which still is an outstanding track after all these years

Honestly, it's not an album you pull out and go WOW these guys were on to something in 1999 -- but there are some high points sandwiched in like "Just Go" (an Alice-In-Chains sounding weirdo guitar cruncher), "Home" (a heavily emotional power ballady song), and "A Flat" (which is AIC heavy, almost Godsmackish)... and an interesting acoustic MOODY/SAD hidden track at about 17 min mark of Track 9 that shows a direction they would take on with zeal in upcoming years