Collective Soul – Youth

Collective Soul
Artist: Collective Soul
Title: Youth
Label: El Music
Rating: 5/10

CORPORATE LINE: “Youth to me is a mindset, not a number,” Ed says. “We’ve been doing this for ten years and we’ve never felt more youthful and more ready to be in the position that we’re in.” “Even the music represents that starting over to some degree. We switched gears and went to more of our roots on the music level and production level,” Dean adds. “It does feel like a 10-year cycle, we were just starting out, playing similar venues and seeing people that we’re seeing today. Yeah, it definitely feels like we are starting over on many levels, but starting over with a big head start.”

THE GREAT:
“Under Heaven Skies” – The only thing good about Youth.

THE AVERAGE:
“Better Now” – A nice chorus can’t make up for the abysmal verses. Collective Soul has always been good at writing lyrics and this song doesn’t continue in that tradition.
“Counting The Days” – At least there is some energy: it is almost great.
“There’s A Way” – It’s too bad Collective Soul is going back to the same old bag of tricks of crafting the same songs and only seem to change the new lyrics. How about saying something new?
“How Do You Love?” – It’s sad for a fan, such as me, to listen and wonder if this is the end of the road for Collective Soul. Why? Because this is the same song we’ve heard on every record. Similar guitar parts, verses, and chorus, but one thing has changed—they used to be better.

THE BAD:
Nothing.

FRANKLY: Collective Soul resort to the same old vocal effects, same slow songs, same this and that. There is nothing different except a decreasing quality of songs. Collective Soul bring nothing new instead opting for a formula we’ve all heard album after album. Let’s be honest—they haven’t released anything great since their self title album Collective Soul in 1995—except the rare song like “Run.” “Satellite” sums up this album best—recycled.

+ Rae Gun


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