The Bottom Line Avoid 3 Doors Down and The Better Life if you know what's good for your health.
Full Review
It goes without saying that I’ve heard my fair share of awful albums by equally horrid rock bands. Seven Mary Three, Vendetta Red, Tonic, Candlebox and for that matter the most recent incarnation of Veruca Salt have proven to be both laughable and offensive at the same time. Fitting neatly into this category is the derivative, unoriginal, and painfully obvious band 3 Doors Down.
Before I go any further, let me just say this:
Hell hath no fury like a rock fan scorned…
Stumbling onto the music scene with more than a little help from minions of clueless MTV viewers, the band has to date unleashed two not-so-stellar albums beginning in 2000 with The Better Life which in turn inexplicably spawned four hit singles. 3 Doors Down doesn’t offer anything to music aside from a knack for copying the style of much more talented and accomplished rock acts of the early 1990’s. That’s right folks; this is the worst kind of music— mind-numbingly mushy post-grunge schlock.
The best indication of the band’s lack of purpose is their music. Or is it their lyrics. Oh wait…or is it their shabby performance? There’s just so much bad to say about The Better Life that it’s difficult to find a proper place to begin. But just as listeners were first and repeatedly slapped over the head with Kryptonite, I too will slap my readers over the noggin with a few comments about the song.
Kryptonite is the track that “made it” for 3 Doors Down—heck, it even was once perched atop the Top 40 charts. But that’s where the fairy tale ends. Kryptonite proves that chart success does not equate in the least to musical quality. Beginning with a riff pulled directly from the Soundgarden book o’ tricks (think Black Hole Sun) the song alternates between painful repetition and pointless lyrics. Troll-like vocalist Brad Arnold chants as much as he sings along with the genuinely awful melody with words that make little if any sense. So not only is this a derivative track, it is also badly arranged and pointlessly performed. The guitars provided by Matt Roberts and Chris Henderson are disaffected and lack any sort of passion. Kryptonite is quite simply awful.
And if that’s not bad enough the ten songs that follow don’t do anything or go anywhere. With each track it becomes increasingly evident that the boys from Mississippi are heavily influenced by the “grunge” movement. However instead of lifting the ideas and attitude, they grabbed up the riffs and melodic ideas and reinterpreted them to fit their own gag-worthy songs.
In the course of just a year and a half (or so), 3 Doors Down vomited up three additional singles—each more painful than the last. Loser, Be Like That and Duck and Run do little to further their cause. They are the kinds of songs that sound like everything else on the radio. Not even Arnold’s voice is distinctive—you hear one of those songs and it could just as easily be by Staind, Saliva, Tantric, Filter, or Marcy Playground. Not even background player bassist Todd Harrell can help. Basically, they all leave me with a distinct “so what” feeling.
Of course, The Better Life contains more than four monotonous singles. But who cares, right? I do. Because the fact is that (as mentioned earlier) 3 Doors Door rips off some of my favorite bands. Pulling from Stone Temple Pilots, the band makes a major mistake with Better Life. Not only does the music sound like STP on their worst day, but Arnold also forces out a gravelly yowl not even close to that perfected by Scott Weiland. I will be the first to admit that I have no respect for an act so obviously ripping off my long-time favorite rock band. Bad 3 Doors Down, BAD!
Soundgarden and STP aren’t the only victims here either. Not Enough evokes memories of Alice in Chains while By My Side smacks of Detroit rockers Sponge. No band is safe from 3 Doors Down.
While I can’t honestly say that 3 Doors Down is the singular reason for my disenchantment with the mainstream rock industry, they are a definite product of the fame-and-fortune driven mentality that unfortunately pervades radio and MTV. Their music is forgettable. The Better Life is derivative. The songs elicit a knee-jerk response that causes me to change the radio station and choke back vomit.
Unless you are a fan of post-grunge schlock (or for that matter Crud—err—Creed) then I suggest you steer clear of 3 Doors Down and The Better Life.
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