The Sick Puppies album “Tri-Polar” lives up to its name. I’m not sure what they meant by the title, but for me it means their beyond being a mood hopping bi-polar person and going the extra step of being several different bands, though still keeping in the same general rock music area. I don’t mean the songs change up all that much in variety of sound, but rather they go from being crap to good at the flip of a coin and often sound like other rock bands I have heard. I talk about the album, song by song below, and as one will see I spill some Hatergade on them and yet also found tracks I liked enough that I might even buy them.
“War”: A poor mans Marilyn Manson “Fight Song” chant meets some generic Drowning Pool vibe as sung by a Linkin Park cover band.
“I Hate You”: Toss it into the stack of “I Hate You” songs that have come before and then pull it out on shuffle every now and then on a classic rock station.
“Rip Tide”: The singer has this quality to his voice where it feels like someone trying to bring “drama” into their tone, but instead sounds like someone making a “voice” as opposed to being natural, an almost whisper/ rasp thing. I hear the same thing coming from the white kids who think they are going to be the next Eminem in my living room: different genre, same terrible “fake” quality. The song is junk, but if you don’t have anything else to eat sometimes junk sustains?
“You’re Going Down”: Reminded me of the band Adema, with a little Linkin’ Park knock-off flair. Lyrically it is kind of childish, but it is listenable.
“Odd One”: It’s got some moment that are Chevelle sounding, but then it goes into a more pop rock friendly vibe, inspirational got get them tiger route as opposed to Chevelle’s generally dreary overtones. Again Sick Puppies have made something that is listenable. I’d leave it on the radio, but not seek it out to buy.
“So What I Lied”: The pieces all fit together and the third decent track in a row is the charm. I like the delivery choices they made in pronunciation and tone with the lyrics and the music accompanies with sounds that sound like other rock bands, but Sick Puppies put their stamp on it. Pretty good track, I’d download it.
“Survive”: Pop rock with some punk delivery elements and a nod it seems to the vocal style of Our Lady Peace. This song is fairly lame, but could balance out for some who are listening full album through and still high enough off of “So What I Lied” to not care.
“Should’ve Know Better”: Back to a “voice” that doesn’t work in vocal delivery. This is a radio friendly song, but dull to me with the whole I should have known better and it’s over now theme.
“Maybe”: Sick Puppies seem to bounce all over the place in sounding like other rock bands. This track feels like it should have been done by the Goo Goo Dolls. I can see Goo Goo Doll fans really digging it.
“Don’t Walk Away”: Listenable pop rock and there was a late in the mix echo of a Brand New(the band) sound, though it’s kind of random for someone to feel like that is in there; I’ve listened to a lot of Brand New I guess. Other than that the track is nothing like Brand New and it is decent, I like the lines the song ends on.
“Master Of The Universe”: Come on He-man! That’s what I was thinking from the title, but sadly no power of Grayskull. This song did win me over though with its melodic sound play. Some people try to mix up a lot of sounds and fail, Sick Puppies makes it all flow just right here, even when you’re suddenly hearing some India like guitar sounds that then go to a metal guitar ladder and ending with birds and pigs? Rock is about chaos and the chaos in this song is not rocking exactly, but nicely played.
“In It For Life”: This is a song that is not terrible, Sick Puppy delivers another listenable rock track. However, I kept thinking that a band like Dope could have rocked this one out of the park better.
“White Balloons”: I could not tell if the opening of this was a duet with two dudes or a girl and dude or just one dude using different voice. It seemed like it was going to be a duet ballad with a nice little thump to the acoustics, but it turned instead into a weak power ballad type of thing and not a duet at all leading me to think it was just the one guy singing all along? The voices of mean uniting in their manly rock chant together about white balloons if kind of goofy.