#chris daughtry

[ireallydontcare5]

[oldinterneticons]

[sexyvixen7]

(Source: Chris Daughtry Instagram Stories)

Joe recently with Chris

[mkweber]

Eldest daughters are dangerous. We have our mother’s rage and our father’s tastes in music.

[superman-and-lois-love]

Tyler and Bitsie with Chris Daughtry after the Big Slick softball game

[black-arcana]

Taylor Momsen and Chris Daughtry

[falloutbradreviews]

Three Days Grace – One-X

My original review of Three Days Grace’s sophomore album, 2006’s One-X, talked about the “circle of life,” and how you’ll get into something, but forget about it after awhile, only to discover it again later on down the line. Sometimes you end up really loving it again, or the first time, because it hits you a different way, regardless of how many years later. I originally listened to that album around 2013 / 2014, somewhere around there, because my friend Jake was a big fan of the band. We had just met on a Blood On The Dance Floor hate page that I managed at the time on Facebook, but I introduced him to Fall Out Boy (at least indirectly, anyway; I posted about them all the time on there, but he messaged me one day to tell me that he picked up a copy of 2007’s Infinity On High, and the rest was history), so it was only fair for him to introduce me to his favorite band. I remember really liking that album at the time, but I wasn’t familiar with 00s hard-rock. I was always relatively bored with that era of hard-rock, because it all sounded the same. I’ve since gotten into some of it, especially recently, and yeah, a lot of it does sound the same, but it’s not as bad as I remember. I’ve already talked about a few albums, and they’ve been pretty solid, but I wanted to go back to One-X. This was the first album in the 00s hard-rock scene that I listened to, and I’ve been wanting to hear it again for a long time, just to see if I could enjoy it more now than I did back then. I’ve gone back to it a few times over the years, but it hasn’t quite stuck with me, so I’ve been wanting to give it another listen, just to see if maybe the record finally sticks.

I’ve been giving it a handful of listens throughout the last couple of weeks, and I would say that I enjoy this album quite a lot, even after all of these years. Now that I’m a decade older from when I first heard it, I’ve gotten into a lot of other kinds of music, so I’ve been able to expand my tastes a lot more. There are a lot of things to appreciate about this record, especially almost 20 years later. Vocalist Adam Gontier (who left the band for a long time, and is back in the band, but as a second vocalist, so I don’t know how that works, but that’s cool, I suppose) is the star of this record. Unlike Daughtry’s self-titled debut from the same year, Gontier doesn’t totally carry the record. A lot of bands in this vein have great vocalists that carry the album, because the instrumentation isn’t all that great, but the rhythm section is great, too. There are some great riffs, hooks, and melodies that run through this song. Even the album opener, “It’s All Over,” is an utterly killer tune. It’s got one hell of a hook, but there are a lot of other songs I really like here, such as “Pain,” “Animal I Have Become,” “Riot,” and even the slower “Never Too Late,” which is a ballad-ish song, but it works well. It gives Gontier the chance to show his vocal prowess, and he is the best part of this album, hands down. That’s not to say the rest of the band isn’t good, because they are, but I would be lying if I said that Gontier wasn’t the best part here. I think most fans can admit that, too, because he is one of the best vocalists of this scene (especially in that era). I’ll admit that this record isn’t super unique, musically speaking, but it’s a case of a record being really and emotionally hard-hitting.

Gontier’s voice is what steals the show, despite the instrumentation still being top notch, but his lyrics are really what do it. This album was written at a time when Gontier was in rehab for opioids, so a lot of this record deals with overcoming pain and suffering, and making an effort to say that it gets better and it’s never too late to turn your life around. You can really hear the emotion in what he’s saying, and it’s a potent record for its lyrics alone. Anyone that’s going through a hard time can probably relate to this album, as well as get something out of it, because it’s got a lot of hopeful and inspirational messages behind it. This is one of those albums were the vocals and the lyrics are the most important part of it, but the hooks and instrumentation are just as good. The vocalist doesn’t completely carry this album, which can be an issue for a lot of stuff in this vein. That was my biggest problem with Daughtry’s debut album; despite it being good, and Chris Daughtry being a great vocalist, the lyrics were unremarkable and the overall sound was pretty bland. I had more fun with Nickelback’s For All The Right Reasons, but that record is still good, just not great. This record, however, has some great vocals and lyrics, but the instrumentation is also solid as well, so there are some worthwhile moments in that regard. I don’t know if this one of my all time favorite albums now, but it’s an album I like quite a bit. This album isn’t nostalgic for me in the same way that it would be for someone who was a kid when this came out, so I can see why someone would love this thing. As a 00s hard-rock record, this is something I’d totally recommend as an essential album of that scene and era. It’s a ton of fun, despite its darker themes, but it works so well.

[peach-22]

“Sometimes I think I’m better off to turn out the lights and close up shop and give up the longing; believing in belonging. Just hold down my head and take the loss.”

— Daughtry