Collective Soul – Blender
This is the first of the album reviews based on my earlier post. There are more Collective Soul albums in this series than any other band, so a good case could be made that their my favorite band. I’ve seen them in concert more than any other band (though it’s not like I could have ever seen The Beatles in concert…) and I always feel their new albums are ‘must-listens’.
Blender bears the distinction of being the last actual physical CD I purchased. At least I think it was. I can’t remember purchasing any CD after the turn of the millennium. I mean, who buys a physical CD anymore? Anyway, I bought it in Valdosta the day it came out in the music store in the mall. I listened to the whole thing in my car while I drove around town. I loved nearly every song the first time I heard it. The one song that I already knew from ample radio play before I ever bought the CD was “Why, Part 2”. The first time I heard that song’s opening, I knew it was going to be great. What a riff! The rest of the songs just work well if you’re a Collective Soul fan.
Guilty.
Collective Soul is a band that builds songs around riffs, and I love every minute of it. They tend to start their albums with a hard hitting and catchy song. It’s not always the first single off the album though, as is the case for this album. In general, I tend to prefer the more rock-sounding songs, but they often shine in the softer-sounding department too. The more upbeat songs like “Skin” and “Vent” are balanced by softer songs like “Turn Around” and “After All”, creating a well rounded album that has a little bit for all fans of Collective Soul with every song.
Except one.
Nothing in life is perfect, and this album is no exception. There is one track on this album that from the very first time I heard it, I thought to myself that it was out of place. When this album was released I was already a well-established Collective Soul fan, so hearing this song was akin to nails on the chalkboard.
Actually, since I don’t really mind the nails on a chalkboard sound, it was worse.
That song is “You Speak My Language”, and it most certainly does not live up to its name. I’m sure there are some that like it, but I’d wager very few Collective Soul fans enjoy it. In fact I didn’t like it so much I actually researched it to see why it was even on the album. My first clue that something was off was in the CD liner itself, where it listed the song credits. Turned out that it was written by someone other than Ed (or even any other Collective Soul member. “Aha!” I thought. That explains it. I forget exactly what story I made up in my mind to justify its presence on the album, but I think I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed maybe they lost a bet, owed a friend, or somebody won a contest or something.
Surely, I thought, there had to be a good reason.
Well, 17 years later I finally learned the truth. It was while writing this very blog series that I renewed the search for an explanation. As it turns out, there was no contest (which would have been a pretty cool story if it really happened, right??), but instead the song is actually a cover from a band named Morphine (which I have never heard of) and their lead singer Mark Sandman (whom I’ve also never heard of). Apparently he died the year before this album was released, and this cover was a sort of tribute. I dunno, maybe he was a friend of a band member or something.
Either way, the song still sucks. But seeing as it’s not their song, I can’t really hold it against them.
The other thing about this album is that it triggered the first time my wife and I saw Collective Soul in concert. My brother also came, and we enjoyed an awesome night of hard rocking right at the edge of the stage. My wife even got thrown a couple guitar picks during the concert, so the whole experience was very memorable. One word of caution if you’ve never been that close to the stage at a rock band concert: wear ear plugs and don’t take them out. Trust me, you’ll hear everything just fine!
As a final note to this album, I did stumble across a little factoid of interest. There actually was a contest involved with this album, sponsored by none other than my favorite radio station when I lived in Atlanta – 99X. The “Collective Soulection” contest was created to name the album. So now you know a useless piece of never-to-be-asked trivia.
You’re welcome.
