Love how Bernard is just so eager to play chess in “Poor Loser” (even though he just says “Okay, you talked me into it”, as if he even tried to talk him into it), because he knows that he is absolutely going to wipe the board with Eugene. That’s that mischievous side we saw in “Suspicious Minds” coming out again, I think. And then when he finally loses, he’s just like, yeah okay. He’s completely fine with losing. It’s so cool.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
TL;DR: Oh my god will you shut up already.
(a little full of himself isn't he. I like the color scheme though 6/10)
Finals week is finally over, which means I finally have time to write a review. That also means that I wrote the notes for this album during finals week, so it is crafted from a place of pure anger at the world. Maybe I was a little mean to New Radicals, but it was therapeutic so I don’t regret a thing.
Overall Thoughts
One of my biggest pet peeves in music is the whiny white guy voice, and this album is completely full of it. When you start the album its okay, but as the album continued (its almost an hour long) I felt like I was losing my mind. Truthfully the instrumentation is fine, but the vocals reminded me of every guy I have ever hated. All he sings about is the manic pixie dream girl that he wants and drugs. By song three I was sick of it and wanted a song to be about anything, ANYTHING, other than getting high and wanting a girl that would get high with you.
Most of the songs blur together in a stream of electric guitar and whining, and this is usually the part where I would point out which parts stuck out but honestly? Nothing did except the song that everyone knows by them (which is so good I don’t even think it counts as being in this album). Every song is painted by unnecessary falsettos and “huuuuuuhhh” sounds that are weirdly like moaning, and lyrics that make me wish I didn’t speak English. My personal favorite (and one of the few that is not drug related) is from “Someday We’ll Know,” where he sings “did the captain of the Titanic cry” like that is so deep I’m shaking, I’m crying, I’m pissing my pants. Honestly apart from the lyrics that song might be my favorite off of the album (other than the obvious) and it is deservedly the second most famous song of theirs.
My least favorite was either “I Hope I Didn’t Give Away The Ending” or “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too,” with both of them being the epitome of what I ranted about earlier. The first is literally just noice for a minute in a half before the song kicks in, which of course is about doing drugs with some girl. I guess the random noises that hurt my head at the beginning were because they’re high? I don’t care that you smoke weed dude and I really don’t want to listen to you mumbling for a minute and a half. The second is just them mumbling about #deep things while using an echo filter on the vocals and then for the outro doing some “do do do do” sounds. I didn’t like.
But wait, there is one good song on this album, the obvious one. “You Get What You Give” is a masterpiece and there’s no way around that. If you are reading this there is an 100% chance you know the song, even if you didn’t know the band or the album it was from. It’s the perfect sing a long song and it has just enough different sections to keep you guessing. It’s just such a shame that it appears on an album with so many annoying duds.
Final Verdict
This was kinda therapeutic to write so I guess I’m glad that I ended up reviewing this album? I truthfully can see why someone would like this album, but I can’t stand the mumbly stoner singing and the king of all whiny white guy voices. “You Get What You Give” is a great song though, so I’ll recommend that to anyone who has ever liked a song.
