Collective Soul-Youth (Report Card too)

[Ragin]

This is a very difficult review for me, because this album is atypical of Collective Soul in one sense, yet the album is clearly and distinctly Collective Soul.

I'd like to say Collective Soul went back to their rock roots on this album, but the truth is that Collective Soul, while popular and successful on radio rock formats, always had a different feel to them.  Very melodic in some songs, and great hard driving riffs in other songs.  Never afraid to show heart and emotion, Collective Soul manages to produce heartfelt songs with Satellite, How Do You Love, and Under Heaven's Skies, yet also manage a couple of good rock songs in Counting the Days, Better Now, and Feels Like, which should please their rock fans (but likely won't as rock fans get more and more particular about their music).

Overall the album has a decent flow to it, and I find it to be far superior to Blender which I liked quite a bit, but it falls short of their self-titled effort, mainly in the fact that many of their riffs and song structures on this album are re-treads of previous work, while not bad in any sense, make this album less "fresh" than their ground breaking work on their first two albums.

The above is all vintage Collective Soul.  The atypical part of this album is the introduction of a more classic rock sound in Better Now, that is very different for them.  I like it a lot, and wouldn't mind seeing them head in that direction for at least some of their songs. 

Top to Bottom this is an excellent album that defies a rock label, defies a pop label, and unfortunately escapes the notice of too many people because of it.

I recommend it for just about everybody that likes their blend of melodic rock music.

[Miguelín]

I really like this album. And I think it can get very high on sales if they release "How do you love" as the second single. Great song for the rock formats... and it can get some airplay at Pop or HOT/AC

[Ragin]

I actually see a lot of good releases from this album, but they need album sales to make any sort of push with a second single.

[NORTHCOAST]

Thanks for the review, Ragin.  Sounds like a good effort by the guys.  It's on my list of must buys over the next few months.    Who's playing guitar for the band nowadays?

[jimmy74747]

I'm going to see these guys November 26 at Mohegan Sun Casino. Its a free concert at the Wolf Den, which means I'll have to get there about four hours early to get a seat in the Wolf Den, or more likely about two hours early to get a seat at the bar which has a decent enough view.

I'll pick the CD up over the weekend. Glad to hear they stuck to their "vintage" sound instead of mixing it up too much.

[Ragin]

NORTHCOAST said:

Thanks for the review, Ragin.  Sounds like a good effort by the guys.   It's on my list of must buys over the next few months.    Who's playing guitar for the band nowadays?

Joel Kosche is the new guitarist. He was Ross's guitar tech. I had my doubts because I thought Ross was a phenomenal guitar player, but Joel stepped in and didn't miss a beat. When I saw them live a couple of months ago, I thought Joel was excellent, no solos or anything like that, but he did well.

[Ragin]

I'm going to follow up with the report card some do to give a more in-depth review after listening to this several times through.

Better Now-B+ Excellent Rocker type song, not really their style and a little more pop, but I really like the sound of it. It is prevented from an A score by the woo hoos in there that emasculate it a little. The rest of the song is great.

There's a Way-B The song sounds great musically, this appeals more to pop than Collective Soul typically does. What kills this song a little for me is the lyrics "There's a way, to say what you say" Kind of seems lazy to me, and that's really kind of unlike Ed Roland, but there it is. Again the song sounds great and would have been an A with better lyrics

Home-B Classic sounding Collective Soul, but maybe a little too much. It's a nice song, but it gets a little repetitive, and doesn't break any new ground for them. Pleasing, but could be about a dozen other songs by them from the past and you wouldn't probably notice.

How Do You Love-A+ The is an excellent song. I didn't pay much attention to this on the first few listens because it sounded so familiar. I checked to make sure this wasn't on any previous albums, and it's not, not even as another song. This is just vintage Collective Soul. It's not a wimpy ballad, it stands up very well. It may not be quite as good as World I Know Lyrically, but it is as good or better overall.

Him- A This is a great sounding vintage song that sounds like it easily could have been on the Hints, Allegations album. Great song, and it kidn of jumped out of nowhere. It won't get any fanfare, but I really like this one.

Feels Like (It Feels alright)- A+ This is the direction I'd love to see Collective Soul go, but I'm sure fans of them would very much disagree with me. Great rocker, very fast beat, sounds almost like an alternative song. It's an invigorating song, that I love.

Perfect To Stay- C This song feels a little like filler. It's kind of plodding, sounds like the Goo Goo Dolls or another generic band could do this too. It's a tolerable song that sounds okay, it's not a terrible song, but it isn't a great song.

Counting the Days- B+ Excellent Rock song. The riff does sound a little like Metallica's Nowhere King, which is why this isn't an A. Great song though, and it's good to hear a straight up rock tune from them. This is my favorite rock tune from them since Where the River Flows.

Under Heaven's Skies B- Great chorus which is pretty catchy, but the verses and lyrics sound a little too close to the Escape Club's "I'll Be There" for my comfort. The chorus saves the song though, and I expect that it could be a decent release, but I hope it's not released, there are other better songs on here.

General Attitude B+ Classic Collective Soul once again. A little more rocker than most of the songs on this album, but it's very catchy, and I like it.

Satellite A Heartfelt song, and you can tell. Great song.

[jimmy74747]

I bought this yesterday and have had a chance to listen to it a coulpe of times. The songs Ragin' mentions as either "classic: or "vintage" Collective Soul are my favorites. I love "Home", "How Do You Love" and "General Attitude".

A couple of songs have the generic hand-clapping which sounds silly, but thats the only weak point. I'm also not too crazy about "Satellite". Still, overall its very good.

Overall Grade: B+

[jimmy74747]

I went to see them Friday night at Mohegan Sun.  Overall, it was a great show.

The venue at Mohegan is a small dinner theater in the middle of the casino with all the seating at tables, and some standing room in the back.  Holds maybe 300 people.  My friend and I got there about 6:30 for the 8:00 show an the usher told us the line was too long and that we should just hang around the area.  We sat at a bar where you have a great view of 90 percent of the stage.  You can hear them throughout one of the gaming areas.  Not the ideal place for a rock concert but CS made it work.  Plus, it was free.

They played all of their hits, starting out with "Heavy", "Gel" and "December" right in a row.  That got most of the crowd out of their seats and up in front of the stage.  I don't remember the exact setlist but they also played "Precious Decleration", "She Said", "Why Part 2", "Run" and "Breathe".  Not much of their new album as they focused mostly on the hits.  Since this was not a club crowd, that made sense.  They did play "Counting the Days", "Under Heaven's Skies" and "Better Now" (which I didnt know until I listened to the album again).  Their encore consisted of "Sateliette". "The World I Know" and "Shine".  For the last two songs even people who weren't paying attention to the show came over to get a look, and all were singing along.  No solos or anything, although they did a cover of "Highway to Hell".

Overall a really good show.  It was great to hear all the hits.  I would like to see them in a club with more of a rock feel sometime soon.

[Ragin]

Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks for reporting back on it.

You definitely want to check them out at a club. They play their hits, but they also play some of their fan favorites. I was really surprised to see how many they played off their first album.

I don't think you'll see much in the way of solos with Ross Childress gone. He is a great guitarist, and Kosche can do the job, but just isn't that caliber for them.