|
Well,
like most people, the only previous experience I had of Finnish pop-rock
pretenders The Rasmus was their incredibly annoying 2003 mega-hit ‘In
The Shadows’ and after their 2005 album ‘Hide From The Sun’ (no, me
neither) they are back with ‘Black Roses’ – an album title straight
out of the Goth-Rock generator – and I suppose it’s comforting to know
that some things never change. But in the case of The Rasmus, that comfort
does not come in the form of a pleasant listening experience, in fact the
only real emotion this drivel conjures up is that of complete and utter
boredom at how mundane and dull their material is.
It would appear that acclaimed songwriter Desmond Child, famous for
penning hits for the likes of Kiss, Bon Jovi and Alice Cooper has helped
out on one of the songs on ‘Black Roses’ and there’s no prizes for
spotting that it’s first track ‘Living In A World Without You’ –
the album’s most obvious single – but even the talented Mr. Child
cannot help save The Rasmus. Despite the song being catchy, it is almost
an R&B song (no, I’m not kidding) but this album will no doubt be
filed under ‘rock’ in the majority of music stores, when in reality,
you’re more likely to mosh and stage-dive at a Coldplay gig. Once the
album’s solitary selling point is out of the way, it’s on to 10 tracks
of dreary and lyrically uninspired monotony with only a few moments of
upbeat respite that just end up sounding like re-hashed versions of that
‘In The Shadows’ song (just have a listen to ‘Ghost of Love’,
‘Your Forgiveness’ and ‘Dangerous Kind’ and tell me that’s not
the same half-keyboard, half-guitar thing in the background that got on
your nerves five years ago).
To give you an idea of just how dreary and depressing this album
is, just have a listen to the songs ‘Ten Black Roses’ and ‘Run To
You’ and I challenge you not to at least lose your appetite, if not your
will to live. Singer Lauri Ylönen has described the dual inspirations for
‘Ten Black Roses’ as their fans’ penchant for throwing black roses
at the stage during their gigs and a story about black roses being a
secret between two lovers – a man far away sending black roses to his
beloved because she uses them to braid her hair. I’ll leave you to draw
your own conclusion as to which is more stomach-churning as I’m frankly
torn between the two. Midway through the album, the song ‘Run To You’
includes the oh-so-original line “hate
to see you cry, the way you look away, just makes me wanna die.”
Well
Lauri, the simple solution to that is for your band to just stop making
albums this bad. Please.
But aside from the large, grey cloud that hangs
over the entire album, it’s the song ‘You Got It Wrong’ that really
sums up the problem with The Rasmus – it’s censored. Yep, at the
beginning of each chorus you expect Ylönen to use the dreaded
‘f-word’ given the song’s other lyrics (have a listen and you’ll
see what I mean) but alas, we get nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not
saying a band needs to swear to be good, far from it, but to hint at it
and then not bother to try and appeal to pre-teen pseudo-goths and
suburban mothers at the same time is just a joke. I don’t know about you
but something doesn’t sit right about going out and buying a rock album
that the whole family could sit down and listen to on a Sunday afternoon.
Safe, parent-approved rock n’ roll – yeah! That’s what we want!
Seriously, if you want HiM crossed with Staind then this album could not
be more up your street, but if not, then I’d suggest avoiding it at all
costs.
Best
Track – ‘Living In A World Without You’.
Review by: Adam
G
|