The Better Life

 

The Better Life was released in 2000


Track Listing:

1. Kryptonite
2. Loser
3. Duck and Run
4. Not Enough
5. Be Like That
6. Life of My Own
7. Better Life
8. Down Poison
9. By My Side
10. Smack
11. So I Need You

Genre: Post Grunge / Hard Rock

I'm pretty sure everyone had a copy of this album, Kryptonite was a massive hit and played constantly.  

I bought this album from one of those "buy 5 get 10" album deals where they sell you 5 CDs for like 30$ each and then "give" you 10 more.  Either way it's a decent album, if a little simplistic.  The guitars are nothing special, although they honestly nailed the tone for post grunge.  

One of the standout elements here are they lyrics.  They're more of the storytelling approach more common to country and I think it makes it a stronger album because of it.  But, Kryptonite is lyrically terrible.  Honestly, who signed off on that?

Also, Smack is just not good.  The riff just doesn't hit well, it feels slightly out of place on the album.  Fortunately it's short.

3 green songs and 1 red, a pretty good debut.  Away from the Sun is miles better, but I don't own that album so no review here.

3/5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Selling England by the Pound

Image
  Selling England by the Pound was released in 1973. Track Listing: 1. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight 2. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) 3. Firth of Fifth 4. More Fool Me 5. The Battle of Epping Forest 6. After the Ordeal 7. The Cinema Show 8. Aisle of Plenty Genre: Progressive Rock And here we have it, the peak of Genesis's prog rock era.  Yes I know The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is next.  I said what I said. This one feels like a natural progression of Foxtrot/Nursery Cryme.  They've kept a lot of the heaviness from Foxtrot and interspersed some of the stupid shit  whimsy from Nursery Cryme.  The start of I Know What I Like and the middle of Thr Battle of Epping Forest are great examples of that. Unfortunately, their penchant for nap time music is still there.  Parts of I Know What I Like and the entirety of More Fool To Me are just boring.  I'm glad they keep Gabriel in the forefront, that helps a bit, but they still bring the flow of ...
Read more

The Autumn Effect

Image
  The Autumn Effect was released in 2005.   Track List: 1. Waking Up 2. Fault Line 3. The Recipe 4. Cast It Out 5. Wasteland 6. Seasons to Cycles 7. Half Life 8. Through the Iris 9. Empires 10. Prey 11. Insects 12. Paralyzing Kings 13. The Autumn Effect Genre: Alternative Rock This one is a bit of a strange album.  The band self released their first 2 albums and then once signing a major record deal they decided to re-record a couple of songs off of Killing All That Holds You (their 2nd album) and write a bunch of new songs.  Not surprisingly the two songs off of Killing are Wasteland and Through the Iris, probably the best songs on the album. I bought this CD from Best Buy in like 2005 after hearing Wasteland on the radio.  It can get a little formulaic after a while but is still a great album.  4 green songs, no red songs.  I still listen to this one like once a year. Rating: 4/5
Read more