It’s easy to get your cynical turkey-feathers ruffled with disappointment when you listen to a new album from a band that has been around since your adolescence. That’s why when I got asked to review the new ‘Our Lady Peace’ album “Somethingness” I prepared to review the album with an honest and open-mind.
I too have changed since 93′ when I was in junior high and ‘Naveed’ assaulted my social-circuit. That album’s energy turned all of our little brains into mashed-potatoes way back then.
I prepared for a brand new sound as always. Our Lady Peace is extremely diverse. Their last album was released years ago. Anything could happen.
‘Our Lady Peace’ is a great Toronto band, always evolving and adapting to the environment they create within.
The ‘Innocent’-style drum intro was a great choice to aid in capturing the Generation X fan-base from the get-go. The “Hoo-Hoo’s” define the vocals of Raine for me. Nostalgia-building. Brilliant production work here.
Instantly, in the first millisecond of the album, you’re rewinding to ‘Innocent’s release 15 years ago and then to Naveed 10 years before that. Nicely done.
During ‘Head Down’ I caught myself going through riffs and bars of OLP songs that had touched me at some point in my life, in some way or another, over the last couple decades. They piled high.
But, something is missing here. Or is it that something has been added to the equation?
Im trying to understand Raine but he is focused-hard on his darkness. It is really confusing. I’m trying to stay patient and not fear my future-losses along-side him.
Another dark day leads you closer to a happy one I’m told.
The increasing awareness of a dopamine addiction with the addition of some harmonic-happiness soaks this song.
Our Lady Peace is going back to work.
‘Nice To Meet You’. Has OLP turned into a modern Indie band? Focused-electronics. Me kind-of likey.
You have to be a little older, and wiser, to be willing to wait long enough for a good thing to serendipitously happen to you. Open-minded complacency. Only if it’s worth the wait can you learn to truly standby and let things just happen.
I think Raine is trying to tell us all that to be vulnerable is to be real. Real is happy. Or maybe it isn’t that simple. Happiness is fragile. Sometimes you need someone particular in your life to be happy and sometimes you just need to wait.
‘Ballad Of A Poet’ has a sick riff. Life inside your art. Seize the moment and breath in your creation. Remember everything you can about everything you’ve ever seen and felt.
Inevitably, our past follows us. We are like dogs running away from our tails.
Once in a slivered-moon, we get a deja-vu of that embellished-feeling we all obsess about from our golden years. That highest moment or craziest deed. We are addicted to the feeling of our best buzz. It’s time to get back on the horse and go find our drugs.
‘Hiding Place For Hearts’. The low after a high. The bi-polar world. Argh! I hate this song. I must escape.
It must be very boring being between albums and shows, trapped in a lonely-low. Artists sometimes like to share their torture, I guess. I think this is Raine’s white-noise track. Zone-out and finish your joint. Your call.
‘Drop Me In The Water’. Seems like corruption has surrounded OLP. Screw record-labels. Too many fakes out there! The shittiest part about being around fake people routinely is that you gradually become an asshole too. It takes losing someone, sometimes, to think straight again.
This track reminds me of 2004 Radiohead.
After the two minute mark, things slow down. It’s almost eerie. The edginess increasingly becomes covered in more and more dirt. What a wicked jam. This musical interlude is awesome.
‘Missing Pieces’. Slide on into some old-time music on the wooden porch of an old and white A-Frame house, away out in the country.
You can’t change yourself until you truly know who you are. Forgetting this is common and always causes anguish. You get sick of trying, only to fail over and over again.
‘Falling Into Place’. Hypnotizing-regret, yes. Ever-lurking past, yes. I need more drums though guys! This is some deep shit that keeps on getting deeper. The heartache here is catchy but still, i am getting a weird dark-energy reading.
Turn your fragility strong and get happy. It’s time.
‘Let Me Live Again’. Loss. Too much regret here and a little too sad for me. I am missing some upbeat rock to celebrate revival. Boozing and erasing while forever-sad is gut-wrenching. This song made me feel miserable.
‘Last Train”. There is a subtle Hip Hop edge in this song. Raine seems so sad and I can’t escape his pain.
I really wish he was happier. This is the piece that is missing! Raine’s happiness is lost. He has lost his energy but not his talent. His passion has transformed into something else. Happiness-searching, maybe.
The poetic nature of the album “Somethingness” is exactly on par with what we have come to know and love about OLP over the years.
It is emotionally-captivating and sad as hell.
I was expecting something to strike notes in my heart and this album certainly did do that.
I just don’t know what they were going for here. I enjoyed the album but am very confused. I feel weird man.
Buzz/Chill Score – 6/10
Date Night Score – 10/10
Workout Score – 9/10
Party Score – 6/10
Feel Good Score – 4/10
Stay Clean, Stay Green.
