Please, don’t get turned off by this release’s first single, the title track of the latest Puddle of Mudd release. It is yet another song about being rich and famous, flaunting good fortune in the listener’s face, and aside from some clever lyrics (including a nod to Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”) it’s not indicative of the album as a whole, which is a much better outing than Life On Display<\/i>. <\/p>\n
What’s refreshing about this release is, despite some tired cliches — do we really need another song with the bridge “Don’t ever let ’em fuck with your dreams” — this material comes through. <\/p>\n
One of the best moments is what could be a Christian radio crossover hit for the band. “It Was Faith” is this release’s “Blurry,” the band’s psuedo-ballad from their debut Come Clean<\/i>. Fueled by inspirational lyrics such as “I’ve been awakened \/ by the lonely tears \/ falling from my face again \/ and the bitterness on my skin \/ . . . \/ but you’ve forgiven everything I’ve ever done,” Scantlin handles the emotion with ease. It’s a sign that Puddle Of Mudd are maturing. <\/p>\n
But don’t assume that the band has “sold out” or converted to a Christian band. Hardly. The song immediately prior to “It Was Faith” is called “Livin’ on Borrowed Time” and includes the aggressive lyrics “Get out of my face \/ out of my face with that shit.” Other tracks on this release explore the type of messed-up relationship that was explored in “Control” from Come Clean <\/i>with words like, “She lays down on the sidewalk \/ never very analytical.” The song goes on to describe an unhealthy relationship. <\/p>\n
Other good tracks are the mellow “We Don’t Have to Look Back Now” and “Thinking About You,” the latter addressing being away from a loved one. Scantlin also takes a poke at snotty females in “I’m So Sure” (sample line: “I never wanna be anything like you cause I hate you.” Never let it be said this band is subtle). <\/p>\n
Musically, the other members of the band hold their own. There are no virtuosos in the band, which results in a solid journeyman effort, although guest drummers Kenny Aronoff (John Cougar Mellencamp) and Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) contribute great efforts to seven of the 11 tracks. <\/p>\n
After the experimentalism on Life On Display<\/i>, Puddle Of Mudd is on the right track with this release. The material is emotional and when Scantlin sings about despair, you believe him — much more than when he sings about fame, at any rate. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6981],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40576","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-puddle-of-mudd","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40576","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=40576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40576"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40576"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}