Saw an ad on the telly last night for 'the new album' by a band called Hinder I think. It's that same old hard rock with baritone singer template first forged by Pearl Jam 15 years ago and emulated by Live, Creed and a lot of others. Although the sameness of it all is mind-numbing, I do find it interesting how this style doesn't seem to go out of fashion. I guess buzz saw distortion pedals, semi-deep voices and angst appeals to a good section of the music-buying populace.
Another standard rock style is the messianic U2 'rock will save the world' genre, typified by the Feelers' recent single 'One World'. I don't know how the Feelers get away with album after album of boring plod rock. Perhaps it's because they're our boring plod rockers. (You know I'm not sure New Plymouth can ever atone for giving us this band...)
'One World' doesn't seem so bad at first, but with the rock equivalent of a ringing till, the song's somewhat gritty verses give way/sell out to a soaring Christian-rockesque chorus:
We could have been a world
We could have been one
We could have been everybody trying to get along
We could have been a world
We could have been one
We could have been everybody drawn together
Man, that's deep. Worse still, the underlying chords are the most cliche imaginable. You know the ones, or at least you will recognise them if you ever hear the song. But I tell you, 'One World' is gonna go down well with teenage girls at summer rockfests, slotting perfectly into the soundtrack of 'the best summer of our lives'. There will also be squealing cheers as 'One World' is rolled out at Feelers revival concerts in 20 years' time, and the kids, now flabby and thirtysomething, will boogie in remembrance.
Hey, if you think that was cold, check out The Onion's demolition job on Matchbox 20.
Posted by stuart at January 4, 2007 10:33 AM