In Love And Death (Parental Advisory) [PA] - Used (The) > Reviews > The Used! Definately worth buying!

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Awesome lyrics provided by the one and only bert mccracken
Disadvantages:	one or two songs that arent as good

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Used Are:

Bert McCracken - vocals

Jeph Howard - bass

Branden Steineckert - drums/ vocals

Quinn Allman - guitar/ vocals

Background Information:

The Used frontman Bert McCracken endured a public split from Kelly Osbourne, which has clearly caused him much distress.

Also, McCracken's preparations for his band's second album were interrupted by the deaths of two friends and his pet Chihuahua.

He can confide in himself though that his second album, IN LOVE AND DEATH, has reached the US top 10. The melodic nu metal they call "screamo" is tailored to fill arenas with people of similar tastes. Songs of suicide, and sadness , full of these emo tendancies.

And so the formula occurs, screaming+emo=screamo!

After their previous album, which included many good songs such as the taste of ink, poetic tragedy, blue and yellow, and many more!

Track list:

Track 1=Take it away
Track 2=I caught fire
Track 3=Let it bleed
Track 4=All that ive got
Track 5=Cut up angels
Track 6=Listening
Track 7=Yesterdays Feelings
Track 8=Light with a sharpened edge
Track 9=Sound effects and overdramatics
Track 10=Hard to say
Track 11=Lunacy Fringe
Track 12=Im a fake

Onto the review!:
I paid £9.99 for this cd, and it is definately worth every penny!

It's hard to produce a "5 stars" album, especially when your debut album is already a "5 stars", because of the expectation of the audiences is extremely high. "In Love & Death" is the follow up of the The Used overwhelming self-titled debut, which they pretty much kept their own style, combine style-merging rhythm with emotional energetic vocal, turn out to be another album full of interesting arrangement and powerful melodies, "Light With A Sharpened Edge", "Hard To Say", "I Caught Fire" seems to be more melodic tunes, whereas others like "Sound Effects And Overdramatics", their first-single "Take It Away", "I'm A Fake" will be more on their harder, emo-ish side,

I personally enjoy the emoish tracks more, they are more energetic and catchy in my opinion!, These "emoish" tracks, and the tracks i prefer are, Take it away, Im a fake, Let it Bleed, I caught fire, and sound effects and overdramatics!

Take it away:

This song is pumped with enegry and the gunshot is an excellent way to open into this awesome cd. And along with the lyrics which are full of meaning and emotion being presented to you via bert mccracken's harsh but melodic voice, it just makes you want to scream along with him! "i'm lying to myself, and this dagger's my excuse!"

I caught fire:

I caught fire, starts of with a tricky, cheecky little guitar lick that is the main rythm of this song. It is an addictive song and once again has the meaningful vocals from bert. But this track has a little suprise up its sleeve, because it has some cool echo effects and phasers to make you melt!, "im melting! in your eyes!"

Let it bleed:

Let it bleed is a very emo track, it has quite sad and depressing lyrics to it, which kind of remove some of the energy as in take it away. This track is all about the lyrics, and when they repeat the words bleeding and scabs and needles, it kind of puts a downer on the song, however it is a very meaningful song that expresses some of the feelings that bert must be having. Personnaly it is an aggressive song due to the screaming that bert does, but the lyrics are simply too sad! Sorry bert!

All that ive got:

This track is one that you never really remember about, you dont love it, nor do you hate it. No doubt it is a good song, but its just not good enough to compete with the other tracks on this cd. The reason that it isnt quite as good as the other tracks is because it is fairly slow and doesnt get fast or aggressive. It is peaceful and reserved so thats why i usually forget about this song.

Cut up angels:

As with the previous track this song is slow and doesnt speed up and isnt aggresswive with hardly any screaming, the only difference between this track and the previous is that the lyrics on this song are pretty rubbish, In my opinion it seems the used had made this song last to fill up some time, it is an almost boring song! Zzzz Zzzz

Listening:

This song is faster and has a really catchy verse that i never forget!, "I DONT SEE ANYTHING NOW! SO JUST SAY WHAT YOU WANNA SAY, ITS KIND OF FUNNY HOW IM NOT LISTENING ANYWAY!"

Well done bert! This song is very catchy and even has some aggressive screaming lyrics too! "IM NOT LISTENING!!!"
Furthermore this song has a good guitar riff to learn for all you guitar players out there!, sorry drummers, there isnt really a fantastic drum riff here for you.

Yesterday's Feelings:

Definately the worst song on the cd, the speed is ridiculously slow and the lyrics really do suck! Sorry guys but this song is a major bummer! The guitar is an acoustic with some stupid triangle every now n then which annoys the hell outta me! This song isnt jsut boring, its just simply annoying!

Light with a sharpened Edge:

This song is good, thats all i can say about it, its one of those songs where i like it because i find it a flowing song, but others may say it is boring. Only problem with this song is that bert repeats the words, "flee from the torment" so many times!
You will either like or dislike this song! Theres no in betweens.

Sound effects and overdramatics:

I really like this song, its another energetic one with killer guitar riffs, even good drum riffs! It has brilliant screaming vocals that makes me want to scream along with bert,
"kill.smile.cut it out! for me this time. smile!"
This exhilirating song is one of the best ones on the cd!

Hard to say:

This isnt an energetic, adrenaline pumping aong, but it has awesome lyrics, "its hard to say how i feel today, years gone by, and i cry!" The used really are a brilliant for these meaningful lyrics that really do capture the emotions of bert mccracken and his band! This song is a sad-ish one but is catchy, but doesnt make you want to kill yourself, its very self-fulfilling!

Lunacy Fringe:

Theres only one part of this song which i like is the introduction, because its very catchy beat and good lyrics, but it gets ruined by too much repetition and i get bored after the first minute to be hinest, So i suggest you listen to the start of this song and then skip to the last song...

Im a fake:

This one of my favourite songs on the cd, firstly because of the poetic speech at the start which is full of emotion, and makes you want to scream and shout at the top of your lungs, "love is not like anything...especially a f****** knife!" And my second reason for loving this song so much is that it has the screaming vocals, "im a fake, im a fake!" The guitar part on this song isnt as brilliant as on some of the other songs, but the drums are fairly fast and inspiring!

Overall song rating(1-5 stars):
*****=Take it away
*****=I caught fire
****=Let it bleed
***=All that ive got
**=Cut up angels
***=Listening
*=Yesterdays Feelings
**=Light with a sharpened edge
****=Sound effects and overdramatics
**=Hard to say
***=Lunacy Fringe
*****=Im a fake

The Used, In Love and Death!

Definately worth buying!