Unwrite These Songs

Lynyrd Skynyrd – God and Guns
September 29, 2009
Roadrunner Records
Victim of Loudness War? Yes

Listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s latest release, God and Guns, it’s hard to fathom how the band strayed so far from their original (and far superior) sound. Gone are the down-home grooves and simple-yet-brilliant lyrical themes present on the band’s classic material, the songs that built their legend and remain endeared by the masses since their debut over three decades prior. What remains are trite rockers and forced ballads, reminiscent of much of the country-pop scene that is dominating the Billboard charts as of late. The bulk of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s current recordings are nothing but throwaways, nothing more than an obvious cash grab wrapped in an effort to keep the present day lineup and its name on tour and raking in the dough.

What Once Was Trash is Now a Treasure

Drive-By Truckers – The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities
September 1, 2009
New West Records
Victim of Loudness War? No

The Drive-By Truckers’ latest entry is the “odds and ends” compilation that doesn’t sound like just that – a bunch of random songs thrown together with no symmetry or continuity. Thankfully, from the opening salvo of “George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues”, The Fine Print: A Collection of Oddities and Rarities sounds like a Drive-By Truckers album. Which is to say, if you haven’t liked the band thus far, then nothing on this collection will change your mind. The Truckers have suffered from being pigeon-holed and stereotyped – in a time when glitz and glamor triumph over substance and content, the band has persevered over the past 13 years, releasing gritty, honest and relevant music. The Fine Print draws from those 13 years, and what a musical story it tells.

Collective Soul Just Can’t Shine

Collective Soul – Collective Soul (Rabbit)
August 25, 2009
Roadrunner Records
Victim of Loudness War? Yes

Collective Soul initially captured the attention of rock fans worldwide with their massive 1993 hit, “Shine,” a catchy mid-tempo track that called upon all the best characteristics of 1970’s rock to produce an undeniable winner. The track was included on the band’s debut, Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid, which featured more of the same kind of music and catapulted the band into mainstream popularity. It wasn’t until the band’s sophomore release, 1995’s Collective Soul, that the band truly came into their own as they unleashed four chart-topping hits and secured themselves as a viable force in rock music.

The thing that was instantly apparent about a Collective Soul album was that it was a place to store four or five songs intended for single release with four or five other songs that could only be deemed as filler. But this was generally okay, considering the songs they had to offer as singles were unmistakably catchy, containing solid riffs and arena-ready choruses that almost defied the listener not to like them. Thus, it was easy to overlook the duds that surrounded them on the album, as the singles were more than enough to make the purchase price seem worth laying out.