"I don't find it easy to write about happy sh*t." -Adam Gontier
Written: Nov 20 '04 (Updated Nov 22 '04)
Product Rating:
Pros: "Home" hits hard. Adam Gontier DOES have a nice voice.
Cons: "Overrated", "Drown". Way too much redundancy that puts you to sleep. ZzZz...
The Bottom Line: Three Days Grace: A saddeningly mediocre debut album. Could be awesome if they'd clean up those hideous flaws. Swims in unforgivable redundancy and several sub-par songs.
blindsider's Full Review: Three Days Grace by Three Days Grace
There's apparently this great mass appeal about songs that can be described as 'annoyed', 'troubled', or put simply, 'angry'. To say that Canadian rock band Three Days Grace have used that to their advantage (and why shouldn't they?) would be the understatement of...well, all understatements. Three Days Grace, their 2003 debut album, is the band's platform for irritation, exasperation, and in some cases, rage.
If you haven't already, meet the band. Adam Gontier: Lead Vocals, Guitar
Brad Walst: Bass
Neil Sanderson: Drums, Vocals
Barry Stock: Guitar
Three Days Grace gets off to a clumsy start with "Burn". I find it really weird that they placed this as the opening track, because it's certainly not their strongest song by any means. "Did you come here to watch me burn?" Adam accuses you, and proceeds to trip all over himself in an unorganized, boring song that...well, doesn't even make a whole lot of sense. It gets better though, thankfully.
"Just Like You", better known as one of rock's hugest hit singles of the past year, contains lyrics that could be dismissed as unoriginal and bland...but somehow, Adam's gravelly yet smooth vocals accomplish a lot right here. "I could be mean," Adam threatens. "I could be an-gray! Ya know I could be just LIKE YOU!" A repetitive torrent of guitars are unleashed from the get-go, as Adam goes on to explain why he wants to be "on his own", because he's such a rebel and all that.
Hey! It's the song that propelled Three Days Grace to AIM-profile and LiveJournal fame (and collected them quite a hefty chunk of cash along the way): "I Hate Everything About You". The song reaches this great point where Adam analyzes a relationship and realizes that not only does he dislike the girl, he hates everything about her. "Only when I stop to think about it," he ponders, "I hate everything about you! Why do I love you?" The first few listens may lead one to believe that it's a genuine outlet of emotion, complete with all the struggle, but after a while, it sounds too planned, too predictable, and boring. Not a horrible song though.
Dear Three Days Grace,
If your whole album consisted of songs even a tenth as good as "Home", it would likely be one of my favorite CDs ever. Alas, most songs don't even dare to touch such a masterpiece. For shame. The third single from the album, "Home" is generally taking what many of us have written in our journals, or wanted to say aloud, and phrasing it more powerfully. One can truly not get the full effect of the lyrics unless they hear Adam sing it, or unless they've experienced similar emotions that he sings of in this remarkable song. "This house is not a home", so goes the track's obvious tagline.
When I saw Three Days Grace in concert, "Scared" was the one that whipped the entire crowd in a frenzy. Explosive guitar and raspy, speedy vocals courtesy of Adam make this one of the most interesting songs on the album. "At night I hear it creeping," Adam's frantic voice colored with paranoia insists. "At night I feel it move! I'll never sleep here anymore." It's a pretty clever topic to structure a song around, and it would undoubtedly do quite awesomely (?) if released as a single.
Amazing vocals carry "Let You Down". "Trust me, there's no need to fear," Adam assures you, only to boast later in the song, "When you finally trust me, finally believe in me...I WILL LET YOU DOWN!" He sounds almost proud of it. What a jerk. ;) Nice song that describes many people who offer false perceptions of security to the world, only to build up to triumphantly screwing with someone's life in the end.
Before Three Days Grace performed "Now Or Never" when I seen them in concert, Adam said, "Now, we're from Canada...but, uh, we know some crazy, um...weird! people tried to mess with this country." So after laughing derisively at his surplus "try-hard" attitude [please go see them live], I felt sort of bad because this is a decent song. "In this time, are we loving, or do we sit here wondering why this world isn't turning around?" Adam contemplates. "It's now or never!" Repetitive it is, but we're used to that already, aren't we.
The grainy and resolute intro to "Born Like This" has grown on me leaps and bounds since I initially purchased this album. This song lyrically - and at some moments, musically - follows in the theme of its predecessor. "Somewhere, someone's gun is laughing!" Adam informs you. There are a few enjoyable parts of this song, but it's pretty dull otherwise. Painfully repetitive. Oh, dear.
I'm not sure what quite went on with "Drown". "Good morning, day," Adam cries apathetically. "Sorry I'm not there. All my favorite friends... vanished in the air." This would be excusable for a fourth-grader, but not for someone who's 26-ish. Nice drumming on this song, though, courtesy of Neil. Hmm.
"Wake Up" begins with a glimmer of promise, and sort of gleefully slides down the slippery ski slope from that point on (alliteration much?). "I must be running out of luck," Adam realizes, "'cause you're just not drunk enough to f*ck." I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry...or just go to sleep.
"Take Me Under" (that's anO-townsong title too, the recovered teenybopper in me recalls) is dreary, even though it sounds like Adam's trying pretty hard with that "Take me aaall the way!" part. Better luck next time, maybe they should have kicked the guitars up on this one to inject some form of life into it. What's up with the last half of this album, anyway? What happened to those punchy, raucous guitars that epitomized the first six or so songs? Makes you wonder where those crunchy things went. Makes you miss them too.
Adam said that out of all their songs, "Overrated" was written in the shortest amount of time. IT SHOWS. This song is rather chortle-worthy, so maybe that makes it worth listening to if you're down in the dumps or something. "YOU MADE IT!" Adam's voice goes all screechy and high pitched on this one. "YOU MADE IT! YOUR SH*T IS OVERRATED!" Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Quite candidly, I must say that if not for "Home" and "Let You Down", this would be a two-star album or less. However, those songs redeem Three Days Grace somewhat. While the first half of the album is at least listenable and has its sparkling awesomeness moments, the second half is - for the most part - freaking awful. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they didn't put a whole lot of effort or thought into songs like "Drown" and "Overrated".
The thing that's possibly most disappointing is that it's immediately recognizable that this band has talent. Anyone capable of a song like "Home" catches my attention and holds it for a long time. Adam's voice is dynamic and at times, plainly great. Neil's drumming is remarkable. Brad and Barry (especially Barry) have this awesome stage presence like very few bands that I've had the privilege to see seem to possess. So much of their talent is squandered on dire and calamitous songs, though, that it's so easy to put this disappointment of a CD away and never take it back out again...
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