Album: Collective Soul
Artist: Collective Soul
Release Date: March 14, 1995
Genre: Grunge Rock
Length: 0:46:10
Label: Atlantic
Producer: Ed Roland/Matt Serletic
A unique, but needed voice on the classic grunge sound of the 90s...
Collective Soul's highest selling album in their career, Collective Soul (sometimes confused with the album of the same name, released by the band in 2009, so the 1995 album is sometimes called The Blue Album) reached #23 on the Billboard 200 chart of 1995 and eventually went on to certify Triple-Platinum.
Before the explosive sound that comes in, the first track "Simple" features a reserved production effect with muffled playing and singing all before four dominating hits of the snare drum to bring in the entire band. "Simple" is a song that is exactly as the title of it suggests: simple. The simplicity of the track showcases the band's talents together and sets up the rest of the album for surprises.
The surprises Collective Soul so perfectly encapsulates shine through on the second track "Untitled". An otherwise typical grunge song, "Untitled" opens up with an acoustic guitar and laid back drumming, which gives the feel of a more mellow song from the group. Quickly however, the guitar flawlessly switches to a distorted face-melting sound. Later on in the song there is an instrument break featuring a percussive jam with the ever-so-slight buildup of the guitar lead into an epic guitar solo.
To contrast the gritty sound of "Untitled", the group performs a ballad about someone close to ending it all but realizing they would just leave the entire world. The combination of guitar and orchestral strings, all while keeping the grunge feel of the drums, brings Collective Soul to another tier of talent that is missing from many rock groups now. The dark yet sad lyrics are all captured admirably with the emotion of the vocal performance, the percussive sound of the congas, and the impassioned string playing, all while sounding authentic.
The pinnacle of the album comes with the hit song "December". A repetitive, catchy guitar melody, butcher-like pounding of the drums, the background vocals, all behind the incredible "stuck in your head" lyrics, "December" features everything from a hit song during the 90s grunge era. The beauty of the complexity of all the parts moving together bring this song to be arguably the biggest hit in the band's career. Sadly, after "December", the album takes a drastic dip in quality. The songs "Where The River Flows" and "Gel" are the last of the really good songs (notice they aren't GREAT), and after that, the album starts to fall into a formula of comfortability. The last five songs on the record are decent songs, but drop so far down when compared to the excitement of the first half of the album.
The hits and entertainment of the first songs on this album outclass the entire back-half, but the beginning is so good that it makes the less impressive jams tolerable. I can recommend Collective Soul simply for the good beginning only. The last songs are not bad, but it would have benefited the group to not put the greats so heavily in the front. Mixed together with the fantastic quality of some of the other songs, the perception of these tracks could've changed, but sadly that isn't what happened. I highly recommend the songs I mention throughout the review, collect your soul, and enjoy Collective Soul...
Favorite Songs: "December", "The World I Know", "Untitled"
Least Favorite Songs: "Collection Of Goods"
Production Quality:
Mix = 7.5/10
Innovation = 7.5/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 8/10 (Great songs, but some songs towards the end drag on and get boring)
Lyricism = 7.5/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 7/10 (Great voice but not much different from other grunge artists)
Instrumental Timbre = 9.5/10 (Fantastic mix of instruments and sounds, perfectly complementing each other)
Group Chemistry = 10/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 6/10
Overall Rating: 7.65/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!
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