Ed Takes A Beat Down, Alive - "It's Depressing" Options

[Hoodstock]

I posted this review in the review thread, but I didn't want it to get burried because this author seems to know Live and has listened to the music carefully. Here it is:

Alright, I don't think this has been posted. This has to be the most analyzing and critical negative review I have seen yet :



Ed Kowalczyk: Alive

By Mike Schiller 27 July 2010

The very first thing Ed Kowalczyk gives us on Alive, his first solo effort, is a driving metaphor, squeezed like an orange and twisted like a lemon. The song is called “Drive”, after all, and as such, the chorus must consist entirely of such a metaphor. Here it goes:

Here I am standing inside your love
Like a child falling asleep at the wheel
Of my life, and letting you drive
I’m letting you drive

Here I am right where I belong
On the shoulder, handing off the keys
Close my eyes, and letting you drive
I’m letting you drive

In capable hands, a songwriter can get some solid mileage out of a driving metaphor. Michael Stipe did (“Drive”), Jakob Dylan did (“One Headlight”), hell, the Beatles did (yes, “Drive My Car”). Kowalczyk’s hands, it seems, are no longer capable of crafting this sort of metaphor into anything meaningful, much less intelligible. Ignoring for a second the confusion of tense that appears in the second half of the refrain (which admittedly only happens once, at the end of the song), the primary, repeated refrain can’t even decide whether the act of handing over the wheel is intentional or not. “Falling asleep at the wheel” implies an unconscious, accidental sort of ceding of responsibility, even as “letting you drive” and the later “handing off the keys” indicate trust and a reasoned decision. Which is it? Is it both? Is it neither? Why would a child be at the wheel anyway?

And even amongst all of this confusion, this metaphor choked to the point of meaninglessness, Kowalczyk finds the time to insult our intelligence with the words “of my life”. Those words appear just in case the metaphor was flying over his listener’s heads, you see.

Given Kowalczyk’s history as a songwriter, it’s easy to give him the benefit of the doubt. As the lead vocalist of Live, Kowalczyk’s righteous fury and earnest, searching spirit earned the band a devoted group of fans left behind by Seattle’s grime. “Lightning Crashes” is one of the few lasting anthems of the ‘90s, a “Circle of Life”-style parable that actually comes across as sincere and authentic thanks largely to the vivid imagery of Kowalczyk’s lyrics.

The benefit of the doubt should allow us to see “Drive” as an aberration. And we do, until “Drink (Everlasting Love)” arrives with a refrain that is every bit as awful as “Drive”:

Now I’ll drink you like water
Drink you like freedom
Drink you like the nectar that falls from Eden

Drink you like water
Drink you like the everlasting love

So…you drink freedom? You drink “everlasting love”? Is Eden in the sky? Why is nectar falling from it?

What in God’s name is Kowalczyk talking about?

This ridiculousness, it just keeps happening. “In Your Light” is the requisite ode to his children, a trick he pulled off on Live’s “Heaven” by putting his kids in a chorus that swooped and soared. It starts off just fine, personal and a little bit touching, but eventually he’s singing about mountains and valleys and he loses us. In “Rome”, he gives up on lyrics altogether for the chorus, content to sing “oh oh ohohoh” over and over again, before pronouncing that “this love will shine on”. “Stand” turns the central theme of the best track on 1991’s Mental Jewelry (that would be “The Beauty of Gray”) into a trite exercise in cliché (“What are we fighting for?” and “Stand tall with me!” both appear over and over in the song), ditching the intensity and earnestness of youth for know-it-all treacle.

Alive‘s lead single (and best song) “Grace” is being pushed to Christian Rock Radio, which is understandable—while Jesus Christ is never specifically namechecked on the album in another hollow attempt at alienating nobody, it’s clear that he’s the inspiration for much of it. This is not something to hold against it. Rather, it’s unfortunate that it falls into so many of the pitfalls associated with the genre. Rather than being an exciting album from an established artist with the potential to push the bounds of the genre beyond the overpowering sentiment and preachiness that genre is so associated with, Kowalczyk has fallen into every single one of its weaknesses.

Why so much time on the lyrics? Because it sounds like Live. It sounds like the worst parts of Live. It sounds like musicians who can actually play trapped in the bounds of ‘90s-era AOR. There’s just not much to talk about.

There’s nothing fun about this. There’s nothing fun about tearing down an artist that once commanded so much respect, an artist who once seemed above the drama and the angst that rock music was mired in. If Alive is truly a rebirth for Kowalczyk, if he truly believes what he’s saying and he’s moved beyond the band he fronted for so many years, then good for him. Chalk this review up to a matter of taste. What it looks like, however, is an album whose title is a direct swipe at the band that made him, an album featuring an artist who refuses to be edited, an album that deals in a calculated sort of emotional manipulation that comes up short of its targets in every conceivable way.

This isn’t fun. It’s depressing.


http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/128555...owalczyk-alive/

[thefunkyredcaboose]

I don't think the musicians are as strong as he claims, but this is good stuff otherwise. I agree with a great deal of it.

[livefan1999]

Alright, I don't think this has been posted. This has to be the most analyzing and critical negative review I have seen yet :

A little too much "analyzing and critical" going on for me in this review.

As with anything in the arts, there will always be different interpretations, questioning, etc. Case in point is one of the comments posted at the bottom of Mr. Schiller's review. There are four comments posted there. Three are negative in agreement with his questioning review. The fourth one views the cd and review in a totally different light: "I have loved the music of LIVE, but I really sense this is Ed’s true heartfelt CD, I understand and feel these lyrics….thank you!"

This post has been edited by livefan1999: Aug 7 2010, 11:22 pm

[Badman]

I can tell a lot of these Ed reviews are done from the point of some person who listened to it once through and read Ed kowalczyk's wiki page and churned out a review without much thought. Bravo to this reviewer for analyzing why the fans are so disappointed with the album. A-Live is totally a swipe at Live and this is very sad.

Thanks hoodie for reposting.

[livefan1999]

A-Live is totally a swipe at Live and this is very sad.

It is interesting how differently people can see things. I know most of you posting on this site are much more aware of all that came down in the breakup of the band. I have only bits and pieces I've seen along with my own experiences in life-changing events that give me my leanings on who might have been hurt in the process and who might have done the harm. I'd say that all were likely hurt in some way and that Ed might have had reasons we are all unaware of that sent him on his solo path.

How often in life do we find situations where individuals who have become friends or colleagues as young as middle school are still together throughout their lives? That as opposed to the many changes in careers and other aspects of our lives often made as we each grow in different directions. Yes, there might have been a lot going on in that Ed wanted to take a more spiritual direction in his music whereas the rest of the band members did not and Ed has been leaning more toward a pop/rock approach lately whereas it is obvious from The Gracious Few recordings that they lean more toward rock, more like what they were originally, Live, that is. Ed might have been a jerk to the rest of the band and maybe they were to him a little, too. I don't know and I don't know that I really want to get into it that deep.

It is just apparent that maybe it was time for them to go their different ways and hopefully all will come out with positive endings and long and happy time well-spent in the music industry.

As I listen to Alive, I didn't see it as a swipe at Live as much as Ed really trying to let out his heart as he has been discovering his spiritual side. Me? I am not religiously or spiritually strong, therefore I cannot totally understand where he is coming from. I saw the title, even, not as a swipe by being named "A"live as being a putdown to the band's past. I saw it as Ed saying he now feels "alive" as he has discovered this new, strong tie he has to spiritualism.

I can see how fans would view it both ways and we might not ever really know what is deep inside the mind of Ed K or whether there was a lot of infighting within the band in terms of their future directions, etc. We hear a lot of gossip and comments from each of those four, but unless you have the first-hand description of why an individual said or did something from his mouth, you'll never really know. There will likely always be many different interpretations of who said what and what was meant.

I have one more reason now to wish that Live had stayed together. Originally it was because I enjoy them as a band and wanted to come to their concerts for years to come. The other is that I really don't have the time to come back here and read, and chime in my ten cents worth of opinion, which is probably often not wanted anyway. I just find Ed's new cd, The Gracious Few's upcoming release, and all that has surrounded it in terms of controversy and the changes to come to be very interesting, confusing at times and sad at times.

[+Ed+]

Last phrase of your post is very nice, pal

[Pokey]

What I like about this review is he actually went into reason why he didn't like it. That's the key to a good review positive or negative .. give context behind why you think something works or doesn't work. Even that last all access TGF review, postive as it may be, wasn't really that great of a review.

I thought this guy was right on the money ... Ed's lyrics have just taken such a massive down turn from that way he used to write. Again it's not about content (although I personally don't find this as engaging as the former stuff), it's about the style and his words and metaphores and such. True he's gotten better than when he was just using similes in every song "such and such is like such and such" the word "like" was appearing way too often in his work, that's lazy song writing.
I can totally get Ed's work not being for everyone, but trying to look at it from an objective point of view, his writing just isn't that great now. What I used to love about the stuff he wrote in the 90s was that it was just so Ed Kowalczyk, the stuff he wrote was just something he could only write in mainstream music. What he writes now could easily be something that an Idol winner has written, someone with very basic experience in that field.
If Ed was writing what he was writing right now at age 18, and by the time he was 40 was writing songs like Gas Hed, TBD and Tired of Me, then I would say that is showing his natural progression to grow as an artist. The fact it's gone in reverse is not good.
Hell there are people his age who couldn't write half as good as what he was writing on Death of a Dictionary ... just lost the spark.

[Merica]

Yeah; that's a decent review, from a critical point of view. Though I'm not sure why the guy didn't blast the opening lines of In Your Light. They need blasting... a lot. Cause they're fucking awful.

[Wambangalang]

i agree with you pokey to an extent but i just cant see how an intelligent humanoid can "lose the spark". how does one go from writing a lyric like "the decibels of this disenchanting discourse" to "im letting you D-R-I-V-E....get it" drive? Like, im letting you take control of my life...birds of pray....it's spelt p-r-A-y, get it, prAy, like im prAying, see what i did there?." ?

unless he recieved some kind of blunt-force trauma to the brain or actually did fry his brain with drugs i dont understand how this retardation in creativity can occur. This is why im inclined to think his dealings with these charlaton guru's and such in the late nineties/00's had an effect on his artistic approach. maybe this wilber fella or one of the christian authorities had him believe that to reach as many people as possible with his "message", he needed to dumb down his lyric to be more digestible to the masses. this is not a stretch of credibility, as serious christians would and should be more concerned about spreadin' the word than glorifying themselves artistically.

thats all i got

[SecretInsomnia]

Not any of those reviews on Ed's album -except for the ones that highlight TGF in it) seems to explain what Ed's former bandmates (Chad, Chad and Pat) meant to the music and how their absence makes a huge difference.

[Pokey]

i agree with you pokey to an extent but i just cant see how an intelligent humanoid can "lose the spark". how does one go from writing a lyric like "the decibels of this disenchanting discourse" to "im letting you D-R-I-V-E....get it" drive? Like, im letting you take control of my life...birds of pray....it's spelt p-r-A-y, get it, prAy, like im prAying, see what i did there?." ?

unless he recieved some kind of blunt-force trauma to the brain or actually did fry his brain with drugs i dont understand how this retardation in creativity can occur. This is why im inclined to think his dealings with these charlaton guru's and such in the late nineties/00's had an effect on his artistic approach. maybe this wilber fella or one of the christian authorities had him believe that to reach as many people as possible with his "message", he needed to dumb down his lyric to be more digestible to the masses. this is not a stretch of credibility, as serious christians would and should be more concerned about spreadin' the word than glorifying themselves artistically.

thats all i got

Laziness could be one answer. Lack of inspiration another. Obviously he's inspired to write about different things than he was when he was 24 but it seems they're inspiring him in a different way. Sometimes having more questions, or angst or those sorts of feelings can inspire a different side of your creativity than when you're more content and at peace as he apparently is.
He said a few times that he things his song writing has improved because it's "more direct" and simplified (I'm not quoting exactly here). So he obviously is aware his writing is different ... it's why he's happy with that which confuses me.
When he was singing Gas Hed last year, to me that was a spin out ... I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking when he was singing those words after writing songs like The River.

[thefunkyredcaboose]

Not any of those reviews on Ed's album -except for the ones that highlight TGF in it) seems to explain what Ed's former bandmates (Chad, Chad and Pat) meant to the music and how their absence makes a huge difference.

Simply put, deadlines.

Given the nature of this review though I am surprised that it wasn't brought up.

[OutToDry]

I'll keep repeating this, Ed rushed his solo album out. It lacks his old lyrical prowess. He's trying to be like an Idol winner. The review is totally 'scathing'. Good luck Ed, may you wade the rivers of discontent and come back full circle.

[SinfulEyes]

Ouch talk about a bad review... I almost feel bad for Ed.


NOT!

[jayda]

That's a good review - pretty much sums it up.

I find the lyrics weak, boring and amateurish.