Have you ever listened to a record and felt like a band was apologizing for their previous one? That's what I think is happening when I listen to Comatose, the latest offering from Skillet. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since they started out doing grungy alternative, got into a little bit of an electronic/industrial rock sound for a while, then went really poppy with it and then tried to take those pop hooks and make everything way heavier. That's pretty much how their history went up to 2003's Collide, which was a daringly abrasive (for such a radio-friendly Christian rock band, anyway) piece of work that seemed way to over the top at first, but proved to be one of the more addictive and enduring "hard rock" albums ever to grace this pop/rock music fan's collection. They took a bold step and it gave their music a lot more urgency, making it a lot more geared for stellar live performances. I had accepted that their lyrics would never again be as good as they had been on 1998's Hey You, I Love Your Soul, but musically speaking, Collide was the best work they'd done so far.

And then in 2006, after a long wait between albums, they went and got self-consciously poppy again on Comatose. This happened once before, on 2000's Invincible, but that record was poppy more because it was keyboardist Korey Cooper's first chance to record with the band, and it made sense to highlight the space-aged influence that she brought to the band. It was cheesy at times, but it was quirky and it had personality. They took that sound and started to bring the heavy guitar's back into it with 2001's Alien Youth, which was highly schizophrenic but lots of fun, and then Korey more or less went on maternity leave during the recording of Collide. So now she's back, but the poppier songs don't seem to be poppy because they're highly programmed. A lot of Korey's synth wizardry has now been replaced with a clearer piano sound, or canned symphonic elements similar to the title track from Collide. It's great to hear her singing and playing with the band more actively again, and I don't want to blame her for this record being too poppy, but this time around, there are several ballads that just sound too much like normal Christian radio fare to stand up against any of Skillet's older material (even their mellower worship songs and love songs). Who's to blame for this change in sound?

I can't blame their guitarist, Ben Kasica. He's got some great riffs and solos on this record's more rocking tracks. He even rescues a few of them from some sore spots in the lyrics. He doesn't get to shred all over the place like he did during Collide's best moments, but it's not just wall-to-wall power-chording, either. (Though there is a fair amount of that, but not overbearingly so.)

I'm not sure if I can blame their drummer, Lori Peters. She can still crash and slam her way through all of the religious theatrics when the song calls for it. She gives a bit of punch to the poppier songs. There's nothing so dominated by rhythm that it makes me fall head over heels for her as songs like "Vapor" or "Forsaken" did, but she's not mailing it in, either.

That leaves John Cooper, the band's bass player, lead singer, and chief lyricist, and the only member who's been with the group since its inception. Honestly I don't think he'll ever be able to touch some of the more cryptic lyrics that former guitarist Ken Steorts came up with in the band's more "alternative" days, but he can write an emotionally sensitive song one minute and a thunderingly violent one the next, so as long as he's not too caught up in a gimmicky lyrical idea (see roughly half of Alien Youth), he does his job nicely. He's not afraid to address darker themes that his largely teenage audience deals with, and some really powerful songs on Collide resulted from that exploration, but here it's like he became so conscious of a need to tell a teenage audience "I've been there" that he started acting like he was a hired gun songwriter for the soundtrack to some drama show on the CW. I think most of the blame rests on his shoulders for this band suddenly becoming more straightforward. And his voice honestly doesn't fit earnest, straight-laced pop/rock songs nearly as well as it fits the more "alternative" CHR style of classics like "Saturn" or "More Faithful". There needs to be something quirky, something uniquely Skillet-esque, going on there for his raspy voice to work for me. Either that, or the band needs to be rocking out like there's no tomorrow. Listen to all of the manic shrieking and crying out to God from the depths of depression that happened on Collide. There's a little bit of that here, but it's restrained. That's frustrating to this long-time Skillet fan.

Fortunately there's still enough good stuff on Comatose to warrant a passing grade. It's more uneven than Alien Youth, but in between the unmemorable ballads and one more rocking dud track that employs and egregiously ill-advised spiritual metaphor, it works as a fairly solid pop/rock record. Younger fans who are just getting into the band or only know them from their radio hits won't care that Comatose is way less risky, and I think it says a lot that they're still fairly addictive in this comparably sedate form. I just wish there weren't as many songs on this record that caused it to live up to its title, that's all.

Rebirthing
I lie here paralytic inside this soul
Screaming for You till my throat is numb...
One thing I'm happy to say about Comatose is that it starts off incredibly strong, with a tracks that has firmly lodged itself in my personal list of favorite Skillet songs. The programmed strings at the outset will be familiar to anyone who enjoyed the song "Collide", and this song has a similarly cinematic sweep to it, as the epic strings fight to pull the chugging guitar riffs off the ground and John Cooper's voice goes from his lower, more zombie-like register, to a soaring chorus, wisely backed by his wife Korey, playing out the theme of death and rebirth in this song as these clashing moods play off of each other. This song is a glorious return for Korey in terms of the strings and programming, and in terms of her voice - it's the first time we've heard it since "Will You Be There?" back in 2001. She trades lines with John during the chorus, and the tag-team vocals are really the element that pushes the song over the top. Ben Kasica gets one of a few glorious solos during the bridge again. All of these ingredients come together to create an experience that's almost as spine-tingling as my favorite Skillet song of all time, "Thirst Is Taking Over".

The Last Night
I'm so sick of when they say
"It's just a phase, you'll be OK, you're fine"
But I know it's a lie...
Track 2, and we're already churning out power ballads? Well, maybe. There's an edgy enough guitar riff here to offset the lonely piano intro, but the tempo's already dropped to medium range, and any amount of force that the song carries with it is meant more for comfort than intensity. This wouldn't be a bad move, say, 4 songs into a Skillet album - but 2 is too soon. Track 2 is supposed to be the more intense rocker than track 1 served as the lead-in to - like "Savior" or "Vapor", two more of my all-time favorites. Anyway, we've got John and Korey trading vocals again here, in a clever bit of role-playing - Korey is a young girl who is hurt and feels like nobody understands her, and John plays the role of a wise friend, and advisor, perhaps God, assuring her that he understands and she won't have to spend the night by herself, contemplating suicide or whatever she might have done if left to her own devices. Plenty of drama here with the strings and piano and all, but it still feels like Skillet's edge has been softened considerably.

Yours to Hold
I'm stretching but you're just out of reach
I'm ready when you're ready for me...
We're slowing things down even more for a love song? With an acoustic guitar strumming away? Are you guys serious? I mean, not that an acoustic guitar is a bad thing in a Skillet song - see "Saturn" for solid evidence of that - but the band's gone from an intense eruption of sound to blending into the Christian hit radio background in under five minutes, with lyrics like "You're going through so much, but I know that I could be the one to hold you." There's no semi-religious/romantic cliche unturned here, and that's really bothersome for a band that has written other mellow, lovey-dovey songs much more convincingly in the past (see "A Little More" and "Will You Be There?") The melody's pretty enough, the percussion and weepy strings perform exactly the part you'd expect to in terms of giving the song a musical backbone - but there's no feeling of anything special going on here. You could put this on a mixtape for that special girl, I suppose, just to convince her you weren't only into the mindless headbanging sort of music. But that's about the extent of this song's usefulness.

Better than Drugs
Feel when I'm restless, feel when I cannot cope
You're my addiction, my prescription, my antidote...
One of my perennial favorite things to complain about when it comes to Christian music is songs that draw really bad analogies between drugs and God. It seems I run across at least one such song per year, and I'm ashamed to say that it's Skillet's turn for said reaming now. It's a shame, too, because they did it to the tune of a fairly decent "stoner rock" sort of rhythm (that creeps up into something a little slinkier during the verses - good job, Lori!) and some fairly solid riffing and soloing (good job, Ben!) But seriously - "Feel You comin' on so fast, feel You comin' on to get me high"? Bad job, John. See, I think that life as a Christian can certainly have its share of spiritual experiences and epiphanies that are like a total high, but when you start to celebrate that high as something to pursue in and of itself, you kind of miss the point. It becomes superficial. Following God becomes all about feeling good, and honestly, it's often challenging and doesn't feel good at all. God's more of an antidote (something John actually mentions in this song, apparently without realizing he's contradicting himself) to the other things we drug ourselves with in attempts to ignore Him. The Bible does describe God's love as being "better than wine" at one point, which the song quotes, but to reduce something that's better than an unhealthy addiction to a thing that you pursue for the sake of the high... it's just plain bad theology. And that's probably not even what John meant to say, but that's more or less what it communicates in spite of what I'm sure were good intentions.

Comatose
I don't wanna sleep, I don't wanna dream
'Cause my dreams don't comfort me
The way You make me feel
Waking up to You never felt so real...
OK, now we're back to something that's a little more worth your while. The song's title track is the first thing since "Rebirthing" on this album that I'd consider to be above average - it pretty much follows the formula of "Rebirthing" in order to achieve similar success, just slowing down the pace a little, but I rather enjoy the way that the little string fanfares play about in between the guitar riffs here. The band's got a slightly better handle on how to make the drug analogy actually work here, describing a person in need of God's help as being "comatose - I'll never wake up without an overdose of You". Cheesy, but the analogy of waking up from a dangerously seductive dream works, for the most part. (Technically, an overdose of anything would be bad, but it's never really been Skillet's style to speak practically when there was a lyric that they could exaggerate or otherwise turn into something more extreme.) This song sort of wins its silver medal (second best song on the record) by default because it's the only other rocker that isn't a bit ridiculous. I've learned to enjoy it quite a bit even though it seemed formulaic at first. (I'd rather hear Skillet following their own formula than following the typical pop/rock formula any day.)

The Older I Get
The time between those cutting words
Built up our defenses, never made no sense
It just made me hurt...
Here comes another mid-tempo ballad for you! Excited? Me neither. It's a bummer that I can't really get into this song, with its totally ordinary melody and rhythm and piano and guitar strumming and intro guitar riff - John's vocals give it a little bit of intensity and that's helpful because it does appear to be about his strained relationship with his father, which he alluded to in the song "Open Wounds" from the re-release of Collide. I can relate to songs about being hurt by deadbeat dads, and I appreciate that John's trying to describe a frustratingly slow healing process here ("I'm just getting older; I'm not getting over you, I'm trying to"), but he does it in generic enough terms that it might as well be a breakup song. I'm only getting the father aspect of it from things that I know about his history. Songs like this should be written with enough clues and enough specificity that knowing the writer's backstory isn't required.

Those Nights
I remember when we used to drive
Anywhere but here, as long as we'd forget our lives...
Picking up the pace a bit is this punchy little track that tries its hardest to become the theme song for some sort of a youth group sleepover or something. The riff totally screams "generic pop/punk anthem", and the flowing piano in the verses provides a bit of reprieve, but there's no escaping the cliched lyrics and the poorly-placed "Whoa"s provided by the background vocals. This is Skillet trying to be an unfunny version of Relient K or something. I'm sure there are plenty of great songs to be written about late night phone conversations and staying up until 3 AM in the study lounge of your college dorm talking about anything and everything with that special girl, or whatever, but this isn't one of 'em.

Falling Inside the Black
Don't leave me here like this
Can't hear me scream from the abyss
And now I wish for You, my desire...
I hate to be so predictable and only give any real credit to the heavier rockers on this album - but Skillet's done ballads that I've enjoyed in the past, so that's why I'm so hard on the slower songs here. It seems that more rocking songs (with one exception) just have flat out better lyrics. This one definitely echoes a sense of despair that was commonly felt on Collide, especially with its verbally packed, despairing chorus - it's a song for those moments when you just feel like you did something so unimaginably ugly that you can't get the blood off your hands and you wonder how God could ever love you. I like that Skillet is able to deal with such feelings honestly and just utter that sort of a desperate prayer without feeling the need to put a pretty bow on it at the end of the song. There's no doubt that this person still wants to love God and is genuinely sorry, so it's not like they're being depressing just for the sake of it here. That's just how the Christian life goes sometimes - we all mess up pretty royally. This gets a bit repetitive and ridiculous with it stuttering rhythms at first, and if you're a longtime Skillet fan you've really heard better versions of this song before, but I enjoy it a lot for what it is. Korey's cry of "Can you hear me?" during the chorus is a nice touch, and Ben's guitar solo during the bridge is definitely one of his best so far.

Don't Say Goodbye
I wish we could be laughing
Instead I'm standing here asking
Do we have to end this now?
Can we make it last somehow?
BLAH. It's total whiplash time again. This is the moment where I smell the strong odor of "sappy CW drama" and I find myself wanting to puke. Jumping from the heavy riffs of the previous song to the sedate, not-at-all tense piano intro of this song is just not the way to keep my attention, especially when the song that results from it is as unintelligently written as the following: "We both know what we've gotta say, not today, 'cause I don't wanna leave this way." It basically sounds like it's about an inevitable breakup that's taking place because two young lovers are graduating from high school and going off to different colleges or something. Maybe I'm trying to give it a context, a backstory, because I'm frustrated with how hopelessly one-size-fits-all these lyrics are. I'm sure it'd sound great blaring away during a climactic senior prom scene in an episode of One Everwood Tree or whatever the hell the kids are watching these days, but when you actually pay attention to the song, there's nothing there that wasn't said better in hundreds of lighter-waving ballads during the 80's.

Whispers in the Dark
You feel so lonely and ragged
You lay here broken and naked
My love is just waiting
To clothe you in crimson roses...
Cold, distant keyboards. Creepy, mechanical, slithering intro. Fiery, metallic guitar riffs. Hey, that's the Skillet I used to know and love! Well, up until the lyric that doesn't really fit - "My love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses." Now I'm not saying that the encouraging voice of God can't be expressed through a catchy, heavy rock song - but something about this juxtaposition of lyrics and music makes God sound more like a stalker than someone who's attention you'd be relived to know you were getting. I can't blame Skillet for wanting to take some of the sadness and despair expressed in earlier songs and wanting to apply comfort as they drew closer to the end of the album. It's just that they've been better at this sort of thing when they described the more forceful, violent elements of God's personality in terms of the things God's willing to destroy to win us back (even possessions that we are very much infatuated with) than they are here, trying to apply their lyrical extremes to a love poem. Just give it to me honestly, instead of trying to sugarcoat it, guys. I can deal with the brutality of phrases like "I wanna break my legs, in case I thought to escape" and "You take my rights away" and "Kill me, heal me" a lot better than I can deal with this weirdness. The song rocks when I'm not paying attention to the lyrics, but I shouldn't have to do that when I'm listening to Skillet.

Looking for Angels
So many nations with so many hungry people
So many homeless scrounging around for dirty needles
On the rise, teen suicide, when we will realize
We've been desensitized by the lies of the world...
Now here's a song that I thought was pretty corny on first listen - as I often do when a singer decides to speak lyrics instead of singing them - and now my opinion of it has totally turned around, and I love it. It's a unique way to end a Skillet album, zooming in with an immediate, somewhat simplistic chorus about how everyone John meets is "Looking for angels", but then offering a lot during the verses to back up that sentiment, as he speaks in his raspy voice about very real problems in a messed-up world. It's fine line to walk - he manages to refer to things like child pornography, drug addictions, a lack of concern for the homeless, etc., in such a way that makes it sound like he cares about the people who have been sucked into these things instead of just wagging his finger and saying, "Hey, evil world, stop that." He also manages to squeeze several internal rhymes, or near-rhymes, into his spoken ramblings to make it work rhythmically - this is what saves the song from totally sounding like he copped out on singing because he couldn't come up with a good melody that contained everything he wanted to say. It's different from any other Skillet song you've ever heard, and it's probably the most logical and satisfying song that they've ever decided to close an album with (I loved "Cycle Down", but that song totally didn't belong at the end of an album). It closes things out with a feeling of hope - there's so much crap going on in the world, but just like that whole "Be the miracle" philosophy (that's an analogy for those of you who saw the movie Bruce Almighty), you're left with the feeling that you're not totally useless - you can do a lot, even if just to turn things around for one person, with the little that you have. It's a call to take action, and it puts a lot of the conflicts and breakups and addictions and bouts with depression found in the other songs into context - Here's what the world's dealing with, and you've been through it to. Now go help someone else deal with it. You don't have to be perfect.

With a little more lyrical specificity in the songs that dealt with some of those problems that a lot of Skillet's young audience undoubtedly faces (and heck, old fogies like me face them too), they could have come up with a powerful, cohesive album that spoke to many hearts. The need to play the radio-friendliness game and not take as many bold chances this time around kind of sabotaged them along the way to reaching that goal, though. If there's one way to convince people that you're out of touch with what you're going through, it's by writing a generic pop song that is supposedly about them but sounds like it could be about anyone going through anything. Skillet knows better than this because they've done better before. I've laughed at them for getting overzealous with their lyrics and their slightly dorky, poppy approach to hard/industrial rock music before, but now I'd rather have that side of their personality back. Just go for broke and be yourself and let people think you're a wallflower - the wise ones will come to respect you for not selling out in order to fit in. That's a good message to send to teenagers, too. Better luck next time, Skillet.

ALBUM WORTH:
Rebirthing $2
The Last Night $1
Yours to Hold $.50
Better than Drugs $0
Comatose $1.50
The Older I Get $1
Those Nights $.50
Falling Inside the Black $1.50
Don't Say Goodbye $0
Whispers in the Dark $1
Looking for Angels $1.50
TOTAL: $10.50

Band Members:
John Cooper: Lead vocals, bass
Korey Cooper: Keyboards, programming, guitars, vocals
Ben Kasica: Lead guitar
Lori Peters: Drums

Website: http://www.skillet.org

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends