Well here we are, it\u2019s 2020 and there\u2019s a new Soul Asylum record. Now granted the band have moved to yet another record label and are down to frontman\/guitarist\/songwriter Dave Pirner and a cadre of sidemen; even though the drummer has been in the band for well over a decade, it\u2019s still strange. It\u2019s cool that they\u2019re still around and touring\u2014at least when this epidemic is over\u2014but you have to ask yourself, \u201cIs there really anyone who was demanding this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyways, it\u2019s here and I decided to give it a whirl. Opening track \u201cThe Beginning\u201d is modest AOR rock without a whole lot of angst or heaviness behind it and a trumpet solo for some inexplicable reason. \u201cGot It Pretty Good\u201d has a bit of heaviness and crunch and a sing-along quality to it, but this isn\u2019t the Soul Asylum of old anymore, it\u2019s just Pirner still trying his best because not many are interested in a solo album from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I Told You\u201d is one of the better tracks here and shows that there\u2019s still a bit of life left in the band. But for the most part the record is bland, middle of the road, wannabe mid-tempo rock and roll that doesn\u2019t go anywhere and makes you long for the glory days of alternative rock. \u201cLandmines\u201d attempts to get a little bit harder with a bit of a shuffle, but the lyrics suck and Pirner\u2019s delivery hasn\u2019t gotten much better over the years. \u201cFreezer Burn\u201d and \u201cHopped Up Feelin\u2019\u201d turn the volume up ever so slightly and both tracks give the album a much-needed shot in the arm and are the more exciting tracks here.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s face it, this is one of the least hyped records of the year and once clubs can open up again, I\u2019m sure Soul Asylum will be back out there, touring the hits and playing a few new tracks. We can be grateful that they\u2019re still around and still playing those good tracks, but maybe next time, an EP would suffice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":34040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7594],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-45870","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soul-asylum","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45870","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\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45870"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}