Our Lady Peace, the Canadian rock band consisting of Raine Maida, Duncan Coutts, Jeremy Taggart and Steve Mazur will release their 7th studio album, Burn Burn, on July 21st, through Warner Music Group's Independent Label G... more »roup. Burn Burn marks the first studio album from Our Lady Peace since 2005. Self produced by the band and recorded at Raine's home studio in Los Angeles, Burn Burn marks a return to the hard driving rock songs the band displayed on their breakthrough debut release, Naveed.« less
Our Lady Peace, the Canadian rock band consisting of Raine Maida, Duncan Coutts, Jeremy Taggart and Steve Mazur will release their 7th studio album, Burn Burn, on July 21st, through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group. Burn Burn marks the first studio album from Our Lady Peace since 2005. Self produced by the band and recorded at Raine's home studio in Los Angeles, Burn Burn marks a return to the hard driving rock songs the band displayed on their breakthrough debut release, Naveed.
"I will start off by saying that I am slightly disappointed with the CD (why 4-stars then? read on). It does not compare to a lot of their previous work, but I think there is reason for this.
I was somewhat aware of OLP when Naveed came out, but it wasn't until Clumsy came out in 1997 that OLP became my favorite band. I have seen them 8 or 9 times live since then, and for the most part, they have been my favorite band for 12 years.
To me, OLP's musical timeline looks just like a bell curve. Naveed was good...with Clumsy, they started to tap into what made them great. I think that musically, lyrically, conceptually, Happiness And Spiritual Machines are their peak. Those 2 CDs were superb, my 2 favorite albums of all time for any band. This is where the band starts to slip. Maybe it was just age, maybe the creative juices dried up, maybe it was because Mike Turner took his songwriting style with him when he left. But Gravity is a great rock record, it just wasn't a great OLP record. Paranoid was the same, but more so. It was a good CD, but less OLP than before, further down from the top or the curve. As every die-hard fan of any band does, when I hear that a new OLP CD comes out, I always have high hopes..."maybe this one will be just like Happiness..., or Spiritual Machines." But its not.
Think about this though...when they were writing Naveed and Clumsy, these guys were in their mid 20's. Now, soon to be 40, their perspective on life is different. There is less immediacy and raw emotion in someone who is 40 with kids than a young, hungry 25 year old. I think that comes across in the music. Think about most bands who have lasted longer than a decade in the music business. Is their 10th album ever even close to the first couple? As a function of becoming more mature, you lose a little of the edge.
All this being said, I believe that this new CD is a good rock record with catchy melodies and some interesting song structure that is pretty well put together. If I wanted to turn a non-OLP fan onto the band, I would never hand them this CD. Its not Vintage OLP, and we most likely wont see that ever again, but as one of the other reviewers said "some OLP is better than no OLP." Very true statement."
Bad Our Lady Peace is still better than no Our Lady Peace
Funky Mo-Unky | Lexington KY | 07/24/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Forget all the talk about "selling out" and this album sounding too "mainstream." With every album release there's always going to be someone making those claims.
Truth be told for a Rock album, this isn't great. It's average at best. For an Our Lady Peace album this album is simply disappointing and bland. As a rock album I give it 3 stars, but compared to the other OLP CD's I'd give this 1 star out of 5 because it's by far my least favorite album of theirs thus far. The album lacks any sort of musical teeth. It's just melodic drivel with Raine's unique vocals placed...and I do mean "placed" on top. This is a band capable of a very driving and unique biting sound. Raine's unique falsetto, completely absent on this album. Raine's vocals on this CD sound uninspired and absent of emotion. He's just singing words placed over the most basic rock sound. The bands hard driving rock sound...also gone.
The most disappointing thing about this CD is it could have been released by ANY rock band, but fortunately it's Our Lady Peace....which is all that saves it for me. Because to me, even a bad Our Lady Peace CD is better than a lot of rock that's out there."
Disappointing but glad that they're still together
John Scott | Norton, VA | 08/07/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I'm still holding out hope that the band will rediscover the majic of their earlier work. Like many of the reviewers, I've been a fan since the beginning, getting hooked immediately with Naveed and watching them grow sonically and musically with each album through Spiritual Machines. I was able to see them live on that tour and was able to see them at their peak. I heard an interview with Raine on XM last winter in which he mentioned that the band nearly broke up while making the new album. I wanted to believe that they were getting back to their roots with a stripped down sound as they announced on their site but knew what was coming when I heard the uninspired single. Like the other huge OLP fans that have written reviews, it's so hard not to compare the current CDs with the absolutely brilliant music that they put out in the 1990's. Dreamland, Refuge and Paper Moon are good songs but when you put them up against their earlier work, there is no comparison. Steve Mazur is an excellent guitarist but I agree that they lost a lot of their soul when Mike Turner left the band and I would love to see what would come out of a reuniting of the original band. With the release of the Greatest Hits CD and the long wait for Burn Burn, I was afraid that we had seen the last of them. Despite being underwhelmed with the new material, I'm grateful that there is still hope of great Our Lady Peace music sometime soon."
Our Lady Peace, Without the Edginess
Tessera | United States | 08/17/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This album seems to lack Raine's falsetto singing, the cynical lyrics, and the edginess that defines Our Lady Peace musically. I'd probably skip this release if you are an Our Lady Peace fan. It just doesn't really sound like them. Three stars simply because Our Lady Peace on their worst days are still better than 95% of the other alternative bands out there."
Severely disappointed....
Rotating Cactus | Oro Valley, AZ USA | 07/28/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I was first introduced to Our Lady Peace through their album Clumsy in high school, and thinking that was an awesome album. I then consequently bought the rest of their albums as they came out, and Naveed used from an old record shop. I only remember being somewhat unhappy with Healthy In Paranoid Times, but still found some gems in it, and thought that was as low as it would go. Wrong!! Burn Burn is not what I expected or wanted from Our Lady Peace. I liked their rock albums the best; great lyrics, kickass drums & guitars riffs that would make you beg for more! Burn Burn may well be THE LAST Our Lady Peace album I ever buy, unless they were to go back to their good rock style. Bring back Toronto Rock!"