Rock music has on the whole for the past few years been in sorry shape. I miss the creative juices that the earliest incarnation of grunge expounded upon. I also wish that bands wouldn’t sell out to whatever the most popular sound of the moment happens to be. One particularly interesting (though not necessarily well known) act full of potential in the post-grunge era was Canadian band Our Lady Peace.
Our Lady Peace came to the table wielding 1995’s Naveed, rock guitars, confidence, impressive lyrics, and truly competent songs. For example, Starseed remains one of my favorite songs to come from this rather desolate era of sound-alike music. Despite first making a mark in the mid-1990’s, the band formed three years earlier in Toronto when singer/songwriter Raine Maida and guitarist Mike Turner joined forces. Soon thereafter, Our Lady Peace was born with the help of drummer Jeremy Taggart and eventual permanent bassist Duncan Coutts.
Naveed’s singles got some airplay and the album was on the whole good enough to allow the band to record and release a sophomore effort. That disc, 1997’s Clumsy, is more ambitious and though tamer than their debut. The band seems more comfortable, somewhat more mature, and more appealing to mainstream listeners on popular songs like Superman’s Dead, Clumsy, and 4 A.M. When compared to other similar post-grunge acts, Our Lady Peace and this album both rank among the top half as far as musical quality. In fact, it’s my belief that they are usually better than Matchbox Twenty, Third Eye Blind, Creed, and Seven Mary Three (among others).
With that said, Clumsy is by no means perfect. None of the songs are aurally offensive nor are they lyrically bad. The problem instead is that Our Lady Peace seems at times to be too comfortable with certain sounds and certain kinds of melodies. Their tracks are too often lackluster and uninspired, thus blending in to the MTV rock and roll style a little too seamlessly.
The 11-track Clumsy begins on an extremely strong note thanks to Superman’s Dead. The guitars are crunchy, Taggart’s percussion is perfect, and most importantly Maida’s vocals are unique and lovely. His voice is unlike most others in rock and roll. He manages to yowl, screech, and sing with great emotion at the same time without sounding too fabricated or abrasive. If one song from the album could be chosen as the most important, Superman’s Dead would be one of two likely choices.
What next follows is the oddly paced though nearly as lovely Automatic Flowers. Maida once again is a perfect vocalist. It’s maybe easiest to compare him to Ed Kowalczyk (of Live) except with a higher pitched voice and a more energetic style of delivery. In fact, the band as a whole is similar to Live. Automatic Flowers is definitely one of the most perfect songs on Clumsy.
Carnival lacks direction and intensity so therefore it’s not quite as notable as other songs. The uneven tempo also proves problematic. However, Big Dumb Rocket makes up for much of what was wrong with it’s predecessor. I adore the song’s energy, the melody, the guitars, and Maida’s extraordinary vocals. Our Lady Peace produces a growl that’s typical of their earlier albums and lacking in some of their more recent offerings.
4 A.M. is a touching song. It’s an atypical ballad with calm, unassuming guitars and nearly undetectable percussion. Rather than sounding like the rest of the crappy ballads common in the late 1990’s, Our Lady Peace sounds new, refreshing, and evocative. Maida once again helps to make the song complete with his roundly distinctive delivery. As the song progresses, more layers of instruments are added though the part I most appreciate is when just Maida and the light guitar…few singers can pull that kind of sparseness off.
The energy and riffs in Shaking are admirable attempts by Our Lady Peace to rock out. It really doesn’t work…the band and the song sound forced and the end result is boring. And when compared to the next song, Clumsy, it is only of moderate quality. Clumsy on the other hand is superb. An acoustic guitar, a keyboard, and the occasional bongo make the song creatively superb. Toward the chorus, the band injects additional layers and a distinctly more aggressively electric sound. There’s no question that Clumsy is a great rock track.
Tracks 8 and 9 don’t impress me much. Hello Oskar reminds me a little too much of a heavier Collective Soul while Let You Down is a failed experiment in electronica with an easy to hate quivering and Atari-esque sound. Once again, Our Lady Peace regains momentum, this time with The Story of 100 Aisles. Thundering guitars and drums keep pace with Maida’s speedy lyrics. A definite must-listen on this slightly better than average album.
Wrapping up Clumsy is the bass-heavy and melodramatic track Car Crash. I’m not in the least bit impressed by the strange melody, pace, or even for that matter the vocals. The album would have benefited nicely if the band could have wrapped up on a positive note. Instead, Car Crash makes zero impact on the listener.
Overall, Clumsy is a good album. There are a few really great songs and a few basic, run of the mill, uninspired tracks that should have been further tweaked before the album hit the shelves. Our Lady Peace has yet to release a better album in their career, though their 2001 disc Spiritual Machines comes close in quality if not in sheer intensity. If only for the greatness of Superman’s Dead, Clumsy, and 4 A.M pick up Clumsy. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
1. Superman's Dead
2. Automatic Flowers
3. Carnival
4. Big Dumb Rocket
5. 4AM
6. Shaking
7. Clumsy
8. Hello Oskar
9. Let You Down
10. Story Of 100 Aisles, The
11. Car Crash
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