Reviews of "Alive" from media, Post reviews here Options

[SJN1279]

Alternative Addiction:

http://www.alternativeaddiction.com/newmus...iews.asp?id=966

Ed Kowalczyk’s debut solo record isn’t the acoustic album that many of us anticipated after he went out on the acoustic solo tour. It is very much a rock record, with some huge instrumentation and the Live sound that Ed helped make famous. If you’re judging this from the standpoint of a Live record, it’s different from what we’re used to hearing from Ed. It’s even more spiritual, and although it does rock... it just doesn’t hit as hard. This album does not have what made Live great in its early stages. There was a lot of maniacal passion in that stuff that’s never been duplicated. The band couldn’t even match it later in their careers. That’s the only knock that you can give this album. For being a new project, it doesn’t always present that type of energy. What’s always made Kowalczyk special is his ability to write songs. It sloped off slightly at the tail end of Live, but it was still very special. This is some of the best material that he’s written in years. Making a solo record has brought out some of his best stuff and the song writing makes this record a good record. It’s a shame that all good things have to come to an end, though it can be productive if it happens at the proper time. Live is no different. Yes relationships between Ed and his former band mates have been damaged. But who knows what the future will hold. For now, Ed has a great solo debut he can stake claim in.

This post has been edited by SJN1279: Jul 28 2010, 9:51 am

[livefan1999]

I don't believe this one has been posted. By City Beat of Cincinnati, Ohio.

By Bryan Baker:

As break-ups go, the end of Live couldn’t have been much uglier. Frontman Ed Kowalczyk reportedly signed a new publishing deal without the rest of the band’s knowledge, demanded a “lead singer bonus” for Live’s Pinkpop Festival appearance last year and allegedly withheld royalties from his bandmates. The remainder of the band announced that Live’s hiatus had become a dissolution and that they would never play another show with Kowalczyk, ostensibly making their side project, The Gracious Few, their new permanent gig. Kowalczyk went on an acoustic tour with Art Alexakis and Leigh Nash, recorded his solo debut and remained relatively quiet about the end of Live as we know it.

What Kowalczyk has said is that he was looking for fresh inspiration and that his new solo direction is more experimental than his work with Live. Perhaps that inspiration and experimentalism will be reflected in his sophomore effort, because Alive merely seems like evidence that Kowalczyk can make a Live album on his own. And not the viscerally slashing, anthemic Rock of the band’s earliest successes, like “I Alone” and “Lightning Crashes,” but the subdued and rather pedestrian output of Live’s later years. Even the title seems to allude to both Kowalczyk’s past and his album’s generic nature (A Live).

There are moments where Kowalczyk exhibits flashes of moving beyond his band accomplishments (the dramatic “Grace,” the Middle Eastern Blues buzz of “Zion”), but too often Alive seems rooted in songs, arrangements and performances that are simply average. Faithful Live fans will likely be pleased with Alive (as long as they’re not taking sides in the band’s messy divorce), but hardcore followers may be disappointed that Kowalczyk has taken such a safe and uneventful first step in his solo career.