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#61 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
BSC, if you've pre-ordered it or you're going to go and get it from HMV on 2nd November (my store is getting 15 copies in, I'll be grabbing the first one), then go download it. This thread is killing me too. It's like Christmas when you were a kid. You want them now...but it would almost spoil the surprise and the magic.
I'm personally hanging on as I don't have a lot of time to listen to music this week (new business), but next week...it's Creed week baby ![]() |
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#62 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
Just got my download from iTunes and am listening to it all for the first time. So far, so good!
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MK: We're never gonna have the Super Bowl of Scott Stapp vs. Myles Kennedy in a sing-off - it's ridiculous. SP: Actually, we are setting that up. MT: It was in your contract when you signed up with us. ![]() |
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#63 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
+1
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#64 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
i understand what you mean. perhaps here is an article that may help us to understand why Scott lyrical style has change. [b]Creed is Reunited and Renewed The Ledger October 16 2009 In late 2007 Scott Stapp, the frontman of the rock band Creed, walked into the bathroom of his Boca Raton home, grabbed a razor and did the unthinkable: He shaved his head. His band had split up three years earlier, and ever since Stapp had felt adrift, putting out a poorly received solo album and struggling with his self-confessed appetites for alcohol and painkillers. In 2006 he had become sober, reconnected with his family and rededicated himself to Christianity. But with his trademark long brown locks he looked like the same guy he'd always been. His wife heard the buzzing electric razor and entered the bathroom, aghast. "She came in like: 'What are you doing? That's Creed!'" Stapp, 36, recalled during an interview last month at a Japanese restaurant here, several hours before his recently reunited band played the Aaron's Amphitheater. "I said, 'When you look at me, you've got to see me with new eyes.' Now whenever I meet somebody who had ideas about Creed or about me, it's almost like they give me a fresh chance." Creed's first three albums - "My Own Prison" (1997), "Human Clay" (1999) and "Weathered" (2001) - have sold nearly 25 million copies in the United States and spawned multiple Top 10 hits, including "Higher" and "My Sacrifice." But despite enormous commercial success - or, probably more accurately, because of it - Stapp and his band mates, the guitarist Mark Tremonti, the bassist Brian Marshall and the drummer Scott Phillips, were rock's favorite whipping boys through the late 1990s and early 2000s. Music critics assailed them for being too earnest, too pompous, too attractive, too pop, too derivative of Pearl Jam or just too inescapable. To detractors Creed's resistance to being called a Christian band didn't square with Stapp's spiritually themed lyrics. If Pearl Jam and Nirvana had worked to subvert the rock-star mythos, Creed's songs, with their churn-and-soar dynamics and self-serious lyrics, and the accompanying videos, many of which featured a brooding Stapp striking blustery poses in leather pants, seemed aimed at restoring it. After the band's split the barbs focused more tightly on Stapp himself, who supplied his tormentors plenty of ammunition. On Thanksgiving 2005 he got into an altercation in a hotel bar with members of the band 311; in February 2006 he was arrested for public drunkenness at Los Angeles International Airport en route to his honeymoon; days later clips from a sex tape featuring him with Kid Rock and several women surfaced on the Internet, scandalizing many of his Christian fans. All of which makes Creed's reunion - which includes a U.S. tour that wraps up on Tuesday and a new album, "Full Circle" (Wind-Up), due on Oct. 27 - more than the usual sentimental, cash-generating victory lap. It's an attempt at rehabilitation. "I'm asking all those who've become disenchanted with the band because of me to allow me to reintroduce myself and, with the other guys, show who we really are," Stapp said. This may not be easy. Creed's omnipresence a decade ago transformed it from just another polarizing band into a symbol, to some, of all that was wrong with a bloated industry in which record labels sought out new artists that reminded them of older artists, pushed their singles relentlessly at radio and - in the years before file sharing crippled CD sales - reaped big financial rewards. Creed's name became an epithet for people looking to denounce excess and conformity in pop music. The band was publicly mocked by, among others, Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst. The Offspring's Dexter Holland occasionally sported a T-shirt that read, "Even Jesus Hates Creed." "Jesus probably did hate Creed for a couple years there," Stapp said with a laugh. Wearing a crisp white button-down shirt emblazoned with the words "Rock & Roll Religion," he appeared relaxed but eager to be understood. He admitted that he had grown cocky and defensive back then, but he also pointed out that Creed was an easy target: "We were the biggest band in the United States." As Creed's previous tour wound down in 2002, even fans started revolting. Following a calamitous show outside Chicago the band was sued by four ticketholders who claimed Stapp was too intoxicated to perform. The case was eventually dismissed, but the public embarrassment stung. Stapp was drinking heavily during this time but said he was also suffering side effects from the steroid prednisone, which he took to combat voice problems. Regardless, his band mates blamed him for their travails. "We were trying to keep our heads down, say the right things, do our jobs, and at the same time Scott was being irresponsible," said Tremonti, 35, sitting in a dressing room with Phillips, 36, and Marshall, 36, before Creed's show here. After that tour Stapp experienced a painful withdrawal from prednisone. The band make a quick, unsuccessful stab at a fourth album, then called it quits. "It was easy to walk away because it wasn't what we'd envisioned," Tremonti said. "No matter how many records you sell, when you're up there with a target on your head every day it's not fun." He and Phillips reconnected with Marshall, who had been ousted from Creed in 2000 after persistent clashes with Stapp, and recruited the singer Myles Kennedy to form a new band, Alter Bridge. Stapp, meanwhile, was drinking in binges while working in fits and starts on his first solo album, "The Great Divide" (Wind-Up). The album's producer, John Kurzweg, who also produced the first three Creed albums, described the sessions as a "mess." Years of withering criticism had battered Stapp's self-confidence. "If he read a review, I'd be like, 'Look, you've got a fan base. Why worry what these people are saying?'" Kurzweg recalled in a phone interview. "But he took it very seriously, and that had an effect on everything, including his writing." "The Great Divide" flopped, selling fewer than 400,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and in the aftermath Stapp endured the arrest and the sex-tape revelations. Rick Canny, who managed Stapp from 2004 through 2006, recognized a conflict within him. "The person writing those heartfelt, spiritual lyrics was probably 51 percent of his being," Canny said. "The other 49 percent was just a guy who wanted to have a good time, play sports and look at girls. But he felt you had to be one or the other. That led to some destructive behavior." In late 2006 Stapp broke his hip in a fall, then bottomed out. At the Japanese restaurant he pointed to a tattoo on his forearm that read, "11-18-06." "That was the day my wife had had enough," he said. "I had to face that if I don't make a change, I'm losing my family. I'm losing everything." Stapp, who has two children, quit drinking and drugs, he said, and began thinking about mending fences in Creed. The other members, who had found middling success with Alter Bridge, were initially reluctant. "He'd done so much damage to my life, I didn't want to speak his name for a long time," Tremonti said. "Since I was 11, this is all I've worked for. I finally built up a huge band and watched it destroyed by one person." Nonetheless, in late 2008 he, Phillips and Marshall met with Stapp, who apologized for his past misbehavior. The reconciliation was satisfying, and given the more moderate scale of their separate projects, the idea of resurrecting Creed was appealing. "When you go from two or three people on a bus and nice hotels to everybody on the same bus, staying at a Holiday Inn and playing a club that has a closet for a dressing room," Phillips said, "you sort of long for those days when you had nice catering." According to Tremonti and Paul Geary, who manages both Alter Bridge and Creed, Alter Bridge had also taken on significant debt, which a Creed tour would help alleviate. Geary also recognized that Creed's superstardom was a precious commodity. "Over the last few years new bands that go from zero to multiplatinum are scarce," he said. "Technology has changed everything. It's making it more difficult to permeate publicly. It makes bands like Creed that much more valuable." "Full Circle" has some surprising moments: the title track's swampy acoustic guitar line; the infectious, glistening chorus to "Rain." But as Tremonti acknowledged, the members didn't make wholesale changes to Creed's signature sound; they just gave it a "face-lift." Several new songs bear the muscular riffs, soaring choruses and booming, throaty baritone characteristic not only of past Creed hits but also those of bands that have populated rock radio in Creed's absence, like Nickelback, Daughtry and 3 Doors Down. [b] |
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#65 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
According to the concert industry publication Pollstar, Creed has been playing to roughly half-full amphitheaters and grossing nearly 60 percent less money per night than on its 2002 tour. By contrast, tours by two other recently revived top-selling rock bands, No Doubt and Blink-182, have generated receipts similar to their previous outings'. More promisingly, as of mid-October Creed's brawny first single, "Overcome," was No. 5 on Billboard's Active Rock Radio chart.
Nonetheless the band is unlikely to achieve the market saturation of a decade ago. Ultimately, though, Creed has not returned as a vastly different band. It's as if the time apart convinced them there was nothing wrong with their product, just the perception of it. What they are really asking for is a reassessment. "We have the opportunity," Phillips said, "to go back out, learn from our mistakes and maybe get everybody thinking, 'You know, I don't hate Creed much. I like them.'" .David Peisner [/b] |
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#66 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
Tunelab's Review:
http://tunelab.com/2009/10/27/review-creed-full-circle/ More reviews here... (mostly positive) http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/revie...cle/index.html |
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#67 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
Hmmm... Last time I checked they didn't have the DVD version, I'm a collector, so i'll buy any special edition Creed release! Hmm.. Pre-order and risk not getting it due to postal strikes, or buy it in store and risk not getting DVD? |
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#68 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
....what this guy said..... ![]() |
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#69 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
There's 12 great songs on this album. Weathered only had about five or six great songs.
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#70 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
My Official Full Circle Review:
Overcome: Killer guitar rifts..Great gritty vocals by Stapp..Tremonti lays down probably the best solo on the album, though they are all quite good. On my Sleeve: This song grows on you the more you hear it..Love the intro guitar work by Tremonti Away in Silence:Probably Creeds best Ballads to date..Stapp soars as he hits the Chorus Bread of Shame: This song could have been awesome had the chorus not ruined it..One of the few blemishes on the album..Loved flip on the drums!! Rain: Think its a good song..Really like it..Gets old after a few listens.. Good fight:Good guitars..Not really feeling the chorus..couldbe been better Fear:One of my favorites..Great riffs..Catchy ending..sold Full Circle:Love the intro bluesy guitar and the chorus..Good song Song you sing:Another great classic Creed sounding song..Scott and Tremonit make you want to sing along with the chorus..fantastic solo.. Time: Oh god this freakin song rocks..It makes me sad and happy at the same time...What an emotional tune.. A Thousand faces:Okay heres the deal..People dont like the album version...I think it sounds cool..A good tune but after listening to reminds me of Sorround me on The Great Divide..still a good tune Suddenly:A good rock song..Nothing fancy..They stuck to the formula good song!! Good Fight:Love Stapps ending..Good guitar work..good tune Overall I give the album 8.5 out of 10 -I feel this respectively their finest work since MOP -More Solos would have upped the score -Stapp wrote great lyrics only a few times he becomes repetive with some stuff song to song but overall I was very impressed -My order of Creed CDs from best to Worst: MOP-FULL CIRCLE-HUMAN CLAY-WEATHERED |
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#71 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
I'm not going to go into great depth with my review. I'm too lazy. Overall I give the album a solid 8/10. It's not the best rock album of the year, I think U2 and Muse beat them on that.
I think that for a band that has been inactive for nearly eight years and to come out with an album like this is impressive. This is a good rock album that everyone should give a listen. I currently have "Suddenly" stuck in my head. It's a huge departure from their past work. It sounds nothing like old creed. Which I like and hate at the same time. Creed is no longer post-grunge. Creed is modern hard rock like someone else said. Musically, they've changed but haven't improved much. Most of the songs stick to a basic formula that Creed has been using for years. They haven't evolved in terms as musicians. They've merely made small improvements. Full Circle started off great(the song), it had a new sound to it but then reverted back to a familiar sound you'd expect from creed. My biggest problem with the music is how repetitive it is. How many time do they really need to repeat the dang chorus? Why not put a solid solo in. Also, Brian is out-shined by everybody else in the band. which is a shame since this is his third creed album. And everybody else's fourth. You can definitely hear Tremonti's stamp on this album. Him going with alter bridge really influenced this new CD. His guitar work sounds way different than anything he put out with creed. Which is a good thing. However, his solos, or lack there of, weren't as amazing as I had come to expect from him. His solos were amazing in alter bridge. Here they just kind of blend into the background. His guitar work really shines in the melody's and riffs. Then again, I don't know that much about guitars. Lyrically, it's great...most of the time. Some songs lack the emotional and 'spiritual' impact that previous creed records had. Some songs feel like they have filler lines, like someone else also said. Speaking of spiritual lyrics...this album has many 'God' innuendos that is somewhat cliched for the band. And that's where you know Stapp played a part. Saying "I'm a sinner. I'm a man." and I wonder who he is referencing in "Silent Teacher"?...yeah, you know who. Then a song like "Away in Silence" comes along and it is completely new, original and bare. it really shows a new writing style for stapp. Speaking of stapp: VOCALS. He does a good job...most of the time. I often feel he overdoes it at times. Singing loudly in a line that would be pulled off better if he had been more subtle. He sometimes is annoying, in that for some reason he feels the need to repeat some lines over and over again. He also screams too much. His voice certainly has changed since weathered but it not a change for the worse. Oh, and flip brings it! My least favorite tracks are Good fight and Fear. Really just forgettable songs. Favorite songs are Away in Silence, A thousand faces(even though marks backing vocals are a tad bit distracting and he can't sing very well.), Suddenly and Silent Teacher. I did not include Overcome(which get points from me for being the first creed song to have a swear word in it since What's this life for.) and Rain because they were previously released and I've already been critical about them. Good Album. Some great songs. Some good songs and some I could do without. Can't wait for the next CD. Hopefully it will be an improvement. I would like them to drop Howard Benson though. Bring back John Kurzweg. And release those b-sides already!!!
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#72 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
U2 and Muse? I can't stand U2 and I think Muse's new album is awful. I know it's your opinion but I completely disagree.
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#73 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
Oh, and I am so tired of people saying 'myles would have done it better!' myles this, myles that. jesus, just marry the guy already.
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#74 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
All right, that cool. I mean, there is a reason that U2 has been going strong since the 70's. And why Muse is so popular among rock fans and critics alike.
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#75 |
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Re: *The Official "Full Circle" Reviews Thread*
U2 are just a band I really don't like, mainly because of Bono and I find their songs boring. They must be doing something right though. I used to like Muse until their latest album.
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