{"id":37869,"date":"2004-03-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-03-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/life-on-display\/"},"modified":"2004-03-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-03-02T00:00:00","slug":"life-on-display","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/life-on-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Life On Display"},"content":{"rendered":"

Puddle of Mudd burst onto the rock scene with
\nCome Clean<\/i>, a release that I liked from day one. I admit
\nthat, freely. I am a Puddle of Mudd fan, hooked from the first time
\nI heard “Control” on
\nRock 108<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The best I can say is that I knew there was something special
\nabout the band. “I love the way you slap my ass” was the lyric that
\nreally hooked me, summing that song’s attitude — confrontational
\nand rough, yet compassionate. One of their follow-up singles “She
\nHates Me” solidified the band, in my mind anyway, as being the real
\ndeal. Sure, it’s a silly song, and sure, it reminds me of Nirvana,
\nbut by the time that song hit the radio stations, I was listening
\nto the entire CD, repeatedly, hooking me on the band even more. In
\nmy opinion,
\nCome Clean<\/i> was one of the best debut releases by a rock
\nband. For the record, I’d put Ratt’s
\nOut Of The Cellar<\/i> and Guns-n-Roses’
\nAppetite For Destruction<\/i> in the same category. There was not
\na bad track and each listen got better.<\/p>\n

I purchased
\nLife On Display<\/i>, their current release, after only hearing
\nthe lead-off track and first single, shortly after it was released.
\nOn
\nLife On Display<\/i>, the band takes the best traits of their
\ndebut and kicks the intensity into high gear. I have been listening
\nto this CD as much as
\nCome Clean<\/i> when it was first released. What the band has
\ndone this time, though, is write songs that don’t repave the roads
\non
\nCome Clean<\/i>. There’s neither a “She Hates Me Part II” nor a
\n“Control Part II.”<\/p>\n

Instead, vocalist\/guitarist Wesley Reid Scantlin confronts other
\ndemons, like the dreaded sophomore release by a band that broke
\ninto the world with a blockbuster release. “Nothing Left to Lose”
\nexamines this idea with the lyrics “We’ve got nothing left to lose\/
\nYou always get your way\/ We’ve got everything to prove.” Elsewhere,
\nin “Think,” Scantlin is reflective, “So I drink drink drink drink
\ndrink \/ I’m putting down the drink\/ Because I can’t feel a thing\/
\nEverytime I say good-bye\/ I’ve seen that look\/ A thousand times\/
\nThere’s no room left inside.”<\/p>\n

“Bottom” starts with a mean bass groove from Douglas John Ardito
\nand tom-tom fills from Greg Upchurch before Scantlin and guitarist
\nPaul Phillips enter with an airy guitar riff. The groove is tight,
\nthe angst is real when Scantlin sings “I’m just sitting at the
\nbottom with you.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps the strongest song of the 12 songs on this release is
\n“Freak of the World,” the slower riff working to the band’s
\nadvantage as Scantlin’s vocal performance is convincingly
\nanquished. So far,
\nLife On Display<\/i> is a leading contender for CD of the year,
\neven if it was released in 2003.<\/p>\n

Author’s note: The recent event in Toledo, OH,
\ndescribed by the hosting radio station<\/a> happened
\nshortly after this review was written. Regardless of this incident,
\nI think that this CD stands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6981],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37869","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-puddle-of-mudd","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37869"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37869"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}