Simple Plan’s recently released, self-titled album starts off innocently enough. The first track, entitled “When I’m Gone”, treats the listener to edgier lyrics than is normal for the band, and overall a much different sound.
The song fades out, and when “Take My Hand” begins, it is replaced by a guitar riff not unlike that of Yellowcard’s “Lights and Sounds”. The drum roll builds and the intro begins—and this is where things get fishy. The pounding rock beat and drum rhythm is very similar to Good Charlotte’s “The River”, and as if that wasn’t enough, “Take My Hand” uses the same chords, in the same pattern, as “Broken Hearts Parade”, also by Good Charlotte. Don’t get me wrong, the song is catchy and its mood in comparison to “Broken Hearts Parade” is different, but come on, guys—get your own chord combinations.
The next track, “The End”, sounds nothing like Simple Plan’s usual tunes. The intro consists of a mish-mash of synthesizers and a not quite drum beat. The verse’s pointless lyrics are sung with a bizarre combination of Pierre Bouvier’s deep lead vocals and a high-pitched back-up singer. A biting electric guitar joins the mix halfway through the verse, and the chorus kicks in after a slowly building drum roll. It is catchy and upbeat, but sounds nothing like the rest of the song and therefore feels out of place. The bridge, which sounds completely different than both the verse and the chorus, seems forced and rambling.
“Your Love Is a Lie” is possibly the most pitiful track on the album. It begins with a picked acoustic guitar riff that will sound agonizingly familiar to Jesse McCartney and JoJo fans, and is soon joined by a hip-hop beat that includes clapping (no, Simple Plan, no!). The lyrics themselves are desperate and sad, but Bouvier’s lackluster vocals make the words seem tired and annoyed. The chorus is fine, as they leave the pop sound behind for their usual electric guitars. The second verse is laughable, mainly because of the line “And did you think about me when he f—ed you”, the band’s feeble attempt at throwing a cool swearword into the mix, followed by “Could you be more obscene?” Look up “obscene” in the dictionary. Do we understand the irony? Good.
The next track, “Save You”, starts off with some piano and acoustic guitar. The chorus is a breath of fresh air for the album, as it actually sounds like normal Simple Plan (plus I love the poetic feeling of the line “When I hear your voice, it’s drowning in the whispers”). The bridge will catch the attention of Good Charlotte fans, as it sounds annoyingly like the bridges in “The Click” and “I Heard You” from GC’s first album. Overall, though, the song ain’t bad.
Ah, “Generation”. The intro is…how might one phrase this…all over the place. It starts off with a synthetic riff thingy that kind of sounds like a trumpet. That is joined by a weird synthetic drum pattern, and after Bouvier’s muffled shout of “Listen”, the electric guitars, real drums, and more vocals that say “Oh” jump in. During the verse it goes back to the fake trumpets and drums while Bouvier sings like he thinks he’s a bad-ass rebel (he’s not) and concentrates more on getting everything to rhyme than on singing meaningful lyrics. The chorus, an upbeat little creation with pounding drums that dare you not to bob your head to the beat, is quite catchy. The lyrics, once again, are somewhat bizarre and might raise eyebrows (“I’ve got no reason to apologize/that’s my generation”…what does your generation have to do with anything, Pierre?). Oh, and another thing—the whole trumpet deal? They didn’t by any chance listen to Good Charlotte’s “Broken Hearts Parade” before working on their album, did they?
The entire first verse of “Time to Say Goodbye” consists of a simple guitar riff, drums that spaz out every couple seconds, and Bouvier singing lyrics reminiscent of “Thank You”, a song from their previous album. The music abruptly stops and he sings “It’s time to say goodbye”, and with that, the song gets going. A somewhat boring riff begins. The verse is even more boring, with generic lyrics sung in a generic rhythm. The chorus, with its overlapping vocals and such, sounds a crap-load like that of Good Charlotte’s “I Heard You”. The bridge is frustrating to listen to, because though they keep the drums and guitars at a steady beat, the vocals have the exact same rhythm of the bridge in “Save You”. The song ends with an acoustic strumming away in the background while Bouvier whines about whoever’s bringin’ him down.
From the first line of “I Can Wait Forever”, you can tell it’s supposed to be a heart-wrenching love ballad that drips with sincerity and feeling. And the lyrics do pull that off for the most part (the only exception being in the first verse when Pierre sings “Every time I leave, my heart turns gray”. Maybe he should call up Dr. House, ‘cause I don’t think missing your girlfriend is supposed to have that effect.) Beyond that, the chorus is pretty awesome, with a bit o’ orchestra action in the background but mostly SP’s usual instruments playing. The best thing about it might be the fact that (thank the Lord) they don’t over-do it with the lovey-dovey atmosphere. I can’t say I like the solo, but it’s only the way it starts off that doesn’t feel right. The bridge has Pierre sticking in a few more thoughts about how miserable he is, and a quiet marching snare drum randomly joins him. Over all, the only thing that comes to mind after listening to this track is that Simple Plan wanted to create the next “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”. “I Can Wait Forever” is good, but not even in the same universe as Aerosmith’s legendary ballad.
The intro to “Holding On” is just kind of weird. There’s a whole bunch of stuff going on, from background guitars that sound almost like revving engines, to a single throbbing bass note, to an outer-space, video-game style riff that jumps out periodically. A drum roll builds and the song pauses momentarily before essentially replaying the intro but with drums and a louder volume. The whole beginning has the feeling of a movie’s inspirational montage, or maybe the background music to a happy ending. Then Pierre starts singing, but he sounds whiny again. Between each line a deep background voice, almost robotic, mutters a few words. The entire song feels like their attempt to be inspirational, and it works out for the most part, though most could do without the vocal “Oh” solos towards the end of each chorus (essentially, Pierre should stop trying to show off his non-ability to do good high notes.).
“No Love” begins with an almost music box-y riff and continues with a guitar routine that sounds like an entirely different band—because it’s really, really cool. But then Pierre starts singing again and you are brought back to reality. He sounds almost breathless, as well as whiny, especially when he goes for a high note on the line “You don’t make a sound” that just…doesn’t work out too well. The chorus is a snoozer. The bridge is kind of cool, as they mix it up with beats and guitar riffs that they’ve never done before (what a concept…). The guitar solo that follows is a little weird—it seems to stay on one note for the majority of the bridge. The final chorus has a bit more umph, and the song ultimately quiets down to an acoustically strummed end.
“What If”, the final song on the album, opens with what at first sounds like the background music to a sad and dramatic movie, but when the instruments speed up it is almost reminiscent of the theme from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The guitars join in with quiet riffs and a symbol in the background. The verse has an odd combination of vocals, and after they’re done trying to make it work they go back to the regular guitars and drums. The guitar riff that follows is actually pretty cool, as well as the verse that comes after that. The section between the verse and the chorus brings to mind that of “Dance Hall Drug” by Boys Like Girls. The chorus isn’t shabby, with its non-whiny lyrics (shocker, I know) and frequent, enthusiastic drum rolls. Overall, the song is nice an upbeat, though the line “What if I don’t” gets old since Pierre repeats it roughly a bazillion times.
After listening to this album, you can’t help but look back at Simple Plan’s previous work. Hits like “I’d Do Anything”, “Perfect”, “Shut Up”, “Welcome To My Life”, “Promise”, and “Untitled” each had honest, easy-to-relate-to lyrics and a truly unique sound that earned the group its fans. So Pierre, if you’re reading this…
Your. New. Style. Sucks. Go. Back. To. The. Way. You. Sounded. Before.
Kthx :D
