It was about two years ago when I was first introduced to what looked like the happiest hard rock band in the world. I was up late watching David Letterman, and Creed was performing their still-breaking hit “Higher”. All I had heard of the band up until then was the press for their first album, My Own Prison, which made them out to be a dark and depressing heavy metal act. That didn’t gel with the hopeful smile I saw plastered across lead singer Scott Stapp’s face as he sang, or the lyrics about dreams and streets of gold. As the song began to catch on and little tidbits about the band began to make their way into the Christian subculture, I wondered if the impossible had finally happened – had a Christian band finally managed to make a name for itself entirely outside of the industry?

Well, as I mentioned in my review of Human Clay, Creed does not consider themselves a Christian band. Still, there’s no denying the obvious references in just about every song they write. Once I got used to the music on Human Clay (I found it slow and repetitive at first), I became quite excited that this band who was tearing up the charts was preaching something I believed in (even though the preachiness of it did bug me at times). “With Arms Wide Open” became one of my favorite songs just before it hit the radio waves and everyone wore it out. I was just barely able to say I liked the band before they were trendy, and I was ready to defend them whenever critics who may have otherwise left them alone started bashing the band because the band was always being shoved in their faces. Underneath the rock-star bombast that sometimes got the best of Mr. Stapp (like it hasn’t happened to Bono or any number of CCM singers, for that matter), I felt connected to what the band stood for. They were like a good friend with a little quirk – an outspoken passion for the things they believed in.

Well, two years later, that friend is beginning to wear out his welcome. That little quirk is starting to work my nerves. Don’t get me wrong – I still love Creed. But with the release of their new album, Weathered, I’m starting to feel like they’re trying too hard to impress. A quick glance at some of the lyrics betrays that Scott is rather perturbed over the criticism the band’s been getting lately. Now, I respect when a band can get up the guts to give the critics the finger in a somewhat dignified manner. The weird thing is, Creed spends half the album complaining about the pressure and the other half bowing to it. People complained that Creed was too blatantly Christian. Compared to most of what is actually called Christian music, Human Clay was a bit subtle. Weathered is starting to get more obvious. I’m cool with that, but I have to cringe when the band uses tired clichés to express their views. People complained that Stapp’s gravelly baritone was a ripoff of Eddie Vedder. On this record, his voice is even more dominant, and even rougher, sometimes in the most inappropriate places. People complained that Human Clay and My Own Prison were mostly slow and repetitive. To Creed’s credit, they changed up the sound a little more, making almost all of the songs on Weathered more distinctive. The problem is, not all of these experiments work. The worst thing, though, is that people criticized Stapp for being a total egomaniac, and I didn’t think he was. On this album, I’m really starting to hear it. One thing he hasn’t learned yet is that a good frontman knows when to get out of the way.

But hey, I’m still willing to take Creed seriously despite all of this – specifically, a request Scott makes at the beginning of the album…

Bullets
In my lifetime when I’m disgraced by jealousy and lies
I laugh aloud ‘cause my life has gotten inside someone else’s mind…
As a dark series of bass notes and background noise begin to fill your speakers, Scott decides to tell us how he’s been doing since Human Clay by way of a little spoken word. Apparently he’s got some “thorns” in his side – somebody’s being mean to him. Why would they do that? The answer comes as he suddenly screams “I think they shoot ‘cause they want it!” What exactly do they want? Something really good that he apparently has. But let’s not lose track of the music. This song rocks. It’s harder and faster than anything Creed’s ever done, and it actually suits them well. For once, they’ve broken out of the same old 4/4 rhythm into a frenetic 6/8. The verses seem a little forced and even off-key at first, but it works once you get used to it, and the bridge is wonderfully melodic. Scott’s request – the loudest thing we’ve heard him say on record – comes during the chorus when he pleads, “At least look at me when you shoot a bullet through my head!” Fair enough. I might still take a shot at Stapp every now and then, but guitarist Mark Tremonti is rock solid on this track (I think he also did a lot of the bass work on this album, in the wake of Brian Marshall’s departure last year), and drummer Scott Phillips crashes through it admirably as well.

Freedom Fighter
If the truth will set you free, I feel sorry for your soul
Can’t you hear the ringing ‘cause for you the bell tolls…
The 6/8 rhythm continues as this short little rocker comes crashing in – a pleasant surprise for me, but other than that, there’s nothing terribly memorable about this track. Scott apparently thinks he’s on a “holy war”, but it’s unclear whether he’s still attacking the critics or whether he’s proselytizing. Either way, the outlook is pretty bleak for this song. It’s got a catchy chorus and all, but frankly I’m a bit uncomfortable with its forceful nature. Apparently you’re gonna find out the truth one way or another, and Scott’s gonna be the one to tell it to you. “Soon there’ll come a day when you’re face to face with me.” Whatever. What makes it even worse is the barely audible spoken word after the first verse: “We have crossed many oceans/And we labor in between/In life, there are many quotients/And I hope we find the mean.” Hey guys, didn’t I already tell you that was a contrived lyric when you used it in “Wash Away Those Years”? Sheesh.

Who’s Got My Back?
There’s still time
All that has been devastated can be recreated…
The album’s momentum comes to a grinding halt for this 8-minute “epic”, which fades in very slowly with a Native American chant. Scott has a bit of native blood in him, so it’s admirable that he’d pay homage to his heritage; however, the opening and closing bits really don’t gel with the song in between (Steven Curtis Chapman used native chanting to a slightly better effect on his latest album, actually). I’m only vaguely certain of what the chanting has to do with the lyrics – they seem to be about being betrayed and stranded in a land where the truth is buried in a maze of lies. (Maybe that explains the maze opposite the lyrics in the CD booklet, with the character from the cover of My Own Prison grieving in the center.) I really do like the guitar tones in this song, even if it does the typical Creed thing of turning into a monster power ballad midway through. This is basically the “Faceless Man” of this album, and it would have worked better positioned farther back. As it is here, it’s a tad overindulgent, but still good.

Signs
This is not about God
Spiritual insinuation seems to shock our nation…
I just don’t get this song. I get the feeling it’ll be a hit rock single, but the verses are really hurting for a better tune. I just feel like I want to sing different notes than what Stapp is singing – maybe change that guitar riff a little to accommodate. (What do I know, I’m only an amateur.) He takes on a more ominous tone as he proceeds to tell us what the band isn’t about – age, God, race, sex. (Actually, the sex part is kind of amusing – the band pauses as Scott echoes the word “sex”. We all know that’s bound to happen whenever the subject comes up in a conversation – the rest of the room will fall silent just before the word slips out of your mouth!) He returns to his usual bellow for the chorus – “Come with me, I’m fading underneath the lights.” Okay, where are we going? “Can’t you see them, see the signs?” What signs? All you guys are telling me is where we’re not going. Sheesh again.

One Last Breath
I’m looking down now that it’s over
Reflecting on all of my mistakes
I thought I found the road to somewhere
Somewhere in His grace…
Ready for power ballad #2? This one’s actually pretty good. Here we find Stapp managing a better cross between poetic lyrics and blatantly spiritual lyrics. Tremonti’s guitar opens the song with a brighter tone, and strings even join in, making the song deceptively joyful (it’s about looking back on your life when you’re about to die – or at least, that’s my interpretation). Scott is admitting his vulnerability here, crying out to be saved. It’s rather Psalm-like, actually. Of course, the band risks ruining the song’s intimacy when it breaks into the hard stuff again, and I’ve gotten used to it, but it really bugged me at first, because this one’s probably just a tad too chunky to be the next “With Arms Wide Open” (that comes later in the album). You can even tell due to Scott’s growl in the first verse that he’s itching to get back into it. I’m sure it’ll still be a hit single (in some muted form on pop radio) and go down as a Creed classic. I like how the song ends on a tense, faint chord that carries over into…

My Sacrifice
It feels so good to reunite
Within yourself and within your mind
Let’s find peace there…
As many fans and critics have noted, this is pretty much “Higher, Part 2”, with a dash of “With Arms Wide Open” thrown in for good measure. Alright, I know, it ain’t the most original thing Creed’s done, and Creed ain’t all that original to begin with. I still really like this song. The lyrics are pretty cliché, yet strangely, they don’t betray very easily who the song is about. Someone Stapp longs to see again and celebrate with, apparently. Perhaps a long lost lover? Some people might say God. I’m not seeing it as much in this one. In any case, they knew what would work well for a hit single – recognizable quiet guitar intro that kicks into the main riff of the song, cool stop-start guitar break in the middle, and a quiet bridge leading back into a soaring chorus. Formulaic as ever, but it’s a tasty formula.

Stand Here with Me
Just when fear blinded me, you taught me to dream
I’ll give you everything I am
And still fall short of what you’ve done for me…
The second half of the album opens with a fun song – enjoy it, because it gets a little more low-key beyond this point. Again, Scott is celebrating someone very special – someone who has done a lot for him. The song, for all of its guitar crunch, has a very happy tone to it. Even when he’s happy, he’s still growling, which does detract from the song once, but hey, you get used to it. (It sounds really awkward at the end, though, when everything else cuts out and all you hear is that growl.) This may be the one song on the album where another band member truly gets to steal the show – Tremonti breaks in with a guitar solo reminiscent of the good old days (well, somebody’s good old days, not Creed’s!) The chorus is repetitive, but they make up for it by interweaving another vocal line into it towards the end of the song. A definite keeper, if slightly flawed.

Weathered
Simple living is my desperate cry
Been trading love with indifference
Yeah, it suits me just fine…
The title track has a slightly Southern feel to it – it makes me think of stumbling into some hole-in-the-wall roadhouse after a long day on the highway. (Okay, that’s my weird visual for the week.) Scott takes on a slight drawl to match during the verses, but the band steers right back into their tried-and-true formula during the chorus. (Hey, if they had been too Southern, Christian fans would accuse them of ripping off Third Day.) The track runs a tad long at over five minutes, and it probably could have been helped if the chorus was slimmed down a little bit – it feels like it’s got one line too many. Besides all those nitpicky things, it’s a good song. Though it only adds to the album’s tired theme of how much the band gets picked on by the critics (oh, poor Creed, did they make fun of you? I’m going to go have a talk with their mothers), I get a deeper meaning out of it. To me it’s about being jaded as you grow older and a life you expected to be easy gets really hard. People of faith are not exempt from it; rather, it is an even harder struggle because they want to hang onto that faith. Maybe that was Creed’s intended meaning after all.

Hide
What are you going to do with your gift, dear child?
Give life, give love, give soul?
Divided is the one who dances
For the soul is so exposed…
This one starts with an interesting little riff, but it’s a bit too middle-of-the road (not a ballad, not yet a rocker) and it doesn’t seem to pick up much. The song seems to be a request to a weary friend, to go and “get lost in the fields of time”. I guess it just doesn’t come off as powerfully as it could. The reference to “dancing with the devil” in the first verse is a bit ambiguous, which isn’t helped much by the subject matter of the following track. The band plays around with the rhythm slightly in the bridge, but failed to do anything to really hold my interest. This is what we call “filler”, folks. Sorry to say, but maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea for Creed to wait until they were done touring Human Clay and then write the entire album. This is likely one of a few ideas on this record that didn’t quite come to completion and had to be put out as is.

Don’t Stop Dancing
At times life’s unfair and you know it’s plain to see
Hey God, I’m just a dot in this world
Have You forgot about me?
Ah, yes – the sentimental ballad of the record, the second coming of “With Arms Wide Open”. (rolls eyes) We didn’t need another “With Arms Wide Open”, okay guys? I guess I admire the attempt – they realized that their sentimental ode to fatherhood went over quite well with parents and with sentimental sorts like me. But this is so obviously an attempt to duplicate the same magic, and it falls flat. Even the title makes me cringe. The lyrics aren’t so bad – they talk about keeping faith and youthful innocence alive in the midst of life’s hardships, but this well was already tapped into for “Never Die” on the last album, which was a much better song. To their credit, an actual acoustic guitar makes an appearance here. Don’t get too excited, soft rock fans. It’s more of a cameo. (Skip to the next track; you might be happier). Speaking of cameo’s, Scott’s sister breaks in briefly during the bridge, followed by a choir later. Sad to say, it only adds to the mush factor. The elements just don’t fit together well – with more work and some major rewriting, I’m sure they could have.

Lullaby
Oh my love, in my arms tight
Every day you give me life
As I drift off to your world
Rest in peaceful sleep…
Here the sentiment works a little better. Tremonti shows us a different side of his rock guitarist persona by picking out a simple but lilting melody on the acoustic guitar (there might be a mandolin or something in the background – maybe another guitar, but that’s about it). It’s apparently another song for Scott’s son Jagger, one in which he echoes a certain Creed classic (that I’ve already mentioned way too many times in this review) by saying that if there’s one thing he hopes his son has learned from him, it’s how to show love to others. The lyrics get a little repetitive, but I still appreciate the thought. The music actually reminds me of “Hymn”, the last track on Jars of Clay’s Much Afraid album. It’s a world away from “Bullets”, so letting the CD cycle back around to the beginning can be a bit jarring, but I’d like to see more of Creed’s acoustic side in the future.

I like a lot of the tracks on this album, and even the bad ones have their redeeming qualities, so I’m still recommending Weathered. I will say that it flat out annoyed me the first few times through. If you thought Human Clay was pretentious, save your cash. If you’re a casual Creed fan, I can assure you that this will generate more radio hits than Human Clay did, so you’ll probably find enough here to keep you happy. Diehard Creed fans might be a little miffed at first, but I think they’ll catch on, and if the overtly religious lyrics didn’t bug them before, I don’t expect many to peel off now. Truth be told, I’d like Creed more if they hadn’t become so popular. I think they would have been a better band existing in their niche with a decent crowd of devoted fans and curious Christians checking them out every now and then. They’re a bit too aware of how big they are, and they clearly buckle under the pressure at times (in all fairness, this happens to most big-name rock bands at one point or another). But like that old quirky friend who I may be embarrassed to know from time to time, I still have faith in Creed. I may fire a few warning shots, but I’m not shooting to kill.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Stand Here with Me, One Last Breath, Bullets
Good: Who's Got My Back?, My Sacrifice
Decent: Freedom Fighter, Weathered, Lullaby
Weak: Signs, Hide, Don't Stop Dancing
Skippable: NONE

Band Members:
Scott Stapp: Lead vocals
Mark Tremonti: Guitars, bass
Scott Phillips: Drums, keyboards

Website: http://www.creed.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving