by Michael LelloWeekender Editor
With so much compartmentalizing today, is there such a thing as mainstream music anymore?
It’s a difficult question, but Our Lady Peace attempts to answer it with the middle-of-the road, palatable arena rock on “Burn Burn,” the Canadian band’s seventh album.
If you’re looking for groundbreaking, you’ve come to the wrong place. But if you like tuneful guitar rock that takes some — but not many — risks and thankfully doesn’t resort to full-on explosions of Daughtry-like cheese, then turn it up.
OLP opens with “All You Did Was Save My Life,” setting the pace for an organic-sounding album recorded at the home of singer Raine Maida, who also produced. It’s straightforward, mid-tempo rock, with a possible jab at the band’s former label or management: “I’m not for sale/ But I’ve been sold.”
“Dreamland” uses some antique piano to create an orchestrated foundation that works well with Jeremy Taggart’s syncopated drums and the crashing chorus.
“Monkey Brains” is a leftfield excursion, opening with a Steve Mazur guitar bit similar to the drill effect Eddie Van Halen used on “Poundcake” and a funky Duncan Coutts bass line. The verses stutter and strut, Taggart builds the tension with two-handed hi-hat patterns and the chorus has a polished U2/Killers feel, with Maida yelling “I’m coming after you!” Halfway in, the bottom drops out, making room for an acoustic-guitar-and-piano interlude, and Maida turns down the intensity but ratchets up the emotion. You can even hear some Porcupine Tree in there. Coutts counts off the final push with a dirty bass line, opening a hole for crunchy guitars and drums, Maida taking it home.
“Monkey Brains” is quirky, all over the place and effective, especially in the context of a collection of more mainstream-sounding songs, like “The End Is Where We Begin,” which is textured and slow-building in the vein of The Airborne Toxic Event, Snow Patrol or Coldplay.
“White Flags” adds some organ, and you can picture a sneering Maida leaning into the microphone. Taggart again tastefully drives the song. “Paper Moon,” is pretty enough, despite some questionable vocal moves by Maida, but it brings the album to a less-than-confident close. However, if “Burn Burn” and Our Lady Peace is a sign of what mainstream rock is becoming, we shouldn’t complain.
Rating: W W W 1/2
