Our Lady Peace - "Healthy In Paranoid Times"
(Columbia, 2005) * * * *
See the article as it ran in the Daily News:
http://jonathansanders.0catch.com/OLP.JPG
Oh Canada, where something lacing the water seems to give artists amazing talent with only one drawback -- unless you're a band like Barenaked Ladies, Americans will virtually ignore you. Our Lady Peace fits that mold perfectly. Their sophomore album Clumsy was their only effort to go Platinum here in the United States, on the strength of the album as a whole. But the band never again saw that kind of success here. Grunge is dead, people said, and turned their ears toward rap rock.
Oh for shame!
The band has forged on, however, and should be called the hardest working band in rock. Their sixth album in a decade, Healthy In Paranoid Times, is a raging statement from start to finish that the band is in peak form, almost daring American listeners to ignore it. It is by far the band's most cohesive work since their song "Superman's Dead" was all over the alt rock airwaves. But will Americans even hear it?
Looks like the holy ghost is gone
Now you're afraid of yourself
Over your shoulder you have to watch
Heaven fall into hell ...
Boom! With that short falsetto intro by Raine Maida, the band crunches into overdrive on "Angels/Losing/Sleep" which is a fitting beginning for an album that covers such a range of sounds. With this one track the band lifts elements from all five of their previous releases to create the ultimate opening for this one.
Recorded over a three year period, the album incorporates a good deal of the non-American view of the Iraq war -- Maida and his wife Chantal Kreviazuk spent a good period of that time working overseas for the War Child charity, and his anger at the Bush administration shows through loud and clear. On songs like "Where Are You" he rages against people who sit on the sidelines and watch as the world falls apart around them, while on "Wipe That Smile Off Your Face" he spits his venom at Bush directly, though subtly: "I'm not your friend and I wont pretend that I've come here for peace," Maida sings over a stuttering synth line. "I'm not afraid, I'm gonna make you pay, gonna wipe that smile off your face. This is war!" It's the perfect anthem for the large portion of the world that would love to side with America in a war on terror, if they could only know what side we're really on, and Maida does a better job than most at articulating his argument without falling back on cliches.
It's not all angry protest music though. Maida may be sitting on his best single yet in "Boy," which blends early U2 with Coldplay and classic Our Lady Peace grunge to create the kind of single Top 40 radio clamors for. "Boy," Maida sings, "you'll be running but can't get anywhere! don't carry the weight of the world ..." The song is so well orchestrated it's bound to be popping up on stations everywhere this winter, and rightfully so. The song has something for everyone, a rarity in music.
Healthy In Paranoid Times proves once again that whoever said grunge should stay dead forever belongs in an asylum. While the band has updated its sound over the years, there's plenty of what made their early albums work to tide over the diehard fan. Success of the album in America, however, is going to depend on what Columbia is willing to do to promote it. The band rarely gets press in the likes of Rolling Stone, and the only single to get airplay recently was "Somewhere Out There" off Gravity -- and I can't think of a song further from their normal sound the band could have chosen. If Americans are going to hear Healthy In Paranoid Times people are going to have to get out there and spread the word about this great Canadian band no one's listening to. Based on what has happened with past releases, I fear without a persistent advertising force in this country Healthy In Paranoid Times will probably disappear as quickly as Gravity did in 2002.
What a shame.
See the article as it ran in the Daily News:
http://jonathansanders.0catch.com/OLP.JPG
Oh Canada, where something lacing the water seems to give artists amazing talent with only one drawback -- unless you're a band like Barenaked Ladies, Americans will virtually ignore you. Our Lady Peace fits that mold perfectly. Their sophomore album Clumsy was their only effort to go Platinum here in the United States, on the strength of the album as a whole. But the band never again saw that kind of success here. Grunge is dead, people said, and turned their ears toward rap rock.
Oh for shame!
The band has forged on, however, and should be called the hardest working band in rock. Their sixth album in a decade, Healthy In Paranoid Times, is a raging statement from start to finish that the band is in peak form, almost daring American listeners to ignore it. It is by far the band's most cohesive work since their song "Superman's Dead" was all over the alt rock airwaves. But will Americans even hear it?
Looks like the holy ghost is gone
Now you're afraid of yourself
Over your shoulder you have to watch
Heaven fall into hell ...
Boom! With that short falsetto intro by Raine Maida, the band crunches into overdrive on "Angels/Losing/Sleep" which is a fitting beginning for an album that covers such a range of sounds. With this one track the band lifts elements from all five of their previous releases to create the ultimate opening for this one.
Recorded over a three year period, the album incorporates a good deal of the non-American view of the Iraq war -- Maida and his wife Chantal Kreviazuk spent a good period of that time working overseas for the War Child charity, and his anger at the Bush administration shows through loud and clear. On songs like "Where Are You" he rages against people who sit on the sidelines and watch as the world falls apart around them, while on "Wipe That Smile Off Your Face" he spits his venom at Bush directly, though subtly: "I'm not your friend and I wont pretend that I've come here for peace," Maida sings over a stuttering synth line. "I'm not afraid, I'm gonna make you pay, gonna wipe that smile off your face. This is war!" It's the perfect anthem for the large portion of the world that would love to side with America in a war on terror, if they could only know what side we're really on, and Maida does a better job than most at articulating his argument without falling back on cliches.
It's not all angry protest music though. Maida may be sitting on his best single yet in "Boy," which blends early U2 with Coldplay and classic Our Lady Peace grunge to create the kind of single Top 40 radio clamors for. "Boy," Maida sings, "you'll be running but can't get anywhere! don't carry the weight of the world ..." The song is so well orchestrated it's bound to be popping up on stations everywhere this winter, and rightfully so. The song has something for everyone, a rarity in music.
Healthy In Paranoid Times proves once again that whoever said grunge should stay dead forever belongs in an asylum. While the band has updated its sound over the years, there's plenty of what made their early albums work to tide over the diehard fan. Success of the album in America, however, is going to depend on what Columbia is willing to do to promote it. The band rarely gets press in the likes of Rolling Stone, and the only single to get airplay recently was "Somewhere Out There" off Gravity -- and I can't think of a song further from their normal sound the band could have chosen. If Americans are going to hear Healthy In Paranoid Times people are going to have to get out there and spread the word about this great Canadian band no one's listening to. Based on what has happened with past releases, I fear without a persistent advertising force in this country Healthy In Paranoid Times will probably disappear as quickly as Gravity did in 2002.
What a shame.
posted by Jonathan Sanders @ 6:48 PM
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