Burn Burn - Our Lady Peace

...quite surprised when I saw Burn Burn available for download on Amazon, having never actually even known of it's existence until I saw it (shows what a great fan I am) I placed it in my virtual trolley and purchased it without reading anything about it. In fact despite their being samples of each track on the site I decided that Canadians were good enough and I was a big enough fan to just go and get it blind.

Our Lady Peace have been ...
...“Hunters Lullaby” in 2007. So Burn Burn released in summer of 2009 is their first to include completely new material in quite some time (August 2005 was when Healthy In Paranoid Times was released).

The album was mixed in Raine's own studio which meant no record executives curtailing the bands originality and allowing them to do what they used to do so well, though the big test was, had they forgotten how to actually do what made them ... more

Having been a long time Our Lady Peace fan I was quite surprised when I saw Burn Burn available for download on Amazon, having never actually even known of it's existence until I saw it (shows what a great fan I am) I placed it in my virtual trolley and purchased it without reading anything about it. In fact despite their being samples of each track on the site I decided that Canadians were good enough and I was a big enough fan to just go and get it blind.

Our Lady Peace have been around for a little over a decade now, and probably scored their biggest hit with a non-album track (well originally it was non-album) called “Whatever”, it was better known as Chris Benoit's entrance music when he was in the wwf/wwe before his death. Though what is perhaps lesser know (out side of North America) is that they are an incredibly strong band, lead by the drilling and unique vocals of the charismatic Raine Maida and with a tight alternative rock feel. Originally the band sounded completely unique, their first few albums such as Clumsy, Naveed and Happiness Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch we're excellent and stood out. Whilst their latter albums, most notably Gravity seemed to be over-refined and more mainstream, losing what made them special, Maida's vocals had been tamed down as the band went commercial and sold out.

In the meantime since the release of Gravity back in the band did Healthy In Paranoid times, the album that effectively sent them independent as they felt restricted and forced to bend over to the labels desire to become more and more mainstream. The band then released a best of album “Decade” in 2006, it was followed by a DVD and a best of CD, with Raine releasing his solo album “Hunters Lullaby” in 2007. So Burn Burn released in summer of 2009 is their first to include completely new material in quite some time (August 2005 was when Healthy In Paranoid Times was released).

The album was mixed in Raine's own studio which meant no record executives curtailing the bands originality and allowing them to do what they used to do so well, though the big test was, had they forgotten how to actually do what made them such a great band to begin with? Had they forgotten how to rock due to the musically restrictive feeling of being under a major label?

The album opens with the first single to be released form it, “All You Did Was Save My Life” a high tempo rock song much more familiar with the older OLP music than the newer stuff a great introduction into the album with clever lyrics, Raines vocals showing off their impressive range and the music is as is expected with an OLP track excellent. This really does catch the feel of some of their earlier stuff though perhaps a bit more “normal” than the brilliantly experimental “Spiritual Machines” album it's a bit heavier than some of the stuff from the previous album.

“Dreamland” follows and right from the start it has a more ballad feel to it, Raine's vocals allowed to extend over the music though when you're talking about his vocals this seems to actually make him sound a bit more mainstream than the early albums. The rocky catchy chorus is however much more like the stuff off Gravity than perhaps the band would like, the lyrics are however much more wide ranging than the previous albums.

“Monkey Brains” has one of the best titles from the album, and feels like a raw hard hitting rock song coated with Raine's magical vocals and a metronomic beat that has you tap your toes throughout. This is possibly the nearest sounding song to Naveed the band have done in almost 10 years due to Maida's vocal sounding a lot more magical during the hook, though one the whole this seems like one of the best OLP songs in a very long time (not including the albums opener). Even when the song slows down (to the point of almost sounding like a new song) it merely acts as a sign to say they don't need to be radio friendly.

"The End Is Where We Begin" is meant to be the second single from the album and is the fourth overall track from it, although it starts quite soft and slowly when the hook kicks in it allows the paranoid falsetto of a Raine of many years ago to return to the fore. A song that again seems like it's heading back to the OLP of old, though sadly it seems to also hold a bit too much of the radio friendly quality that the band seemed to be wanting to move away from.

"Escape Artist" for some reason the opening of this reminds me of a Jeff Buckley song though I'm sure that's unintentional (despite the band covering “Eternal Life” by Buckley). The track seems to try to music a ballad with an anthem here and sadly it doesn't seem to combine them very well, lyrically the track is decent but not one of the stand outs, the vocals seem to be unsure of their position (though delivered well) and the track seems undecided on what it wants to be. The first real let down on the album.

"Refuge" the track starts a but surrealist with a ghostlike feel to it, that is quite weird, then the song seems to try to turn into a rock song but sadly it doesn't quite achieve it and much like the previous track it just feels a bit disappointing. Unsure of whether it wants to be soft or heavy, the lyrics don't catch your attention and to be honest it feels like it's really a filler track, that tries to depend on Raine delivering the vocals to save it and sadly not even he can do it here.

"Never Get Over You" lyrically this appears like a more stereotypical OLP song and yet it also manages to hold a rather easy and accessible feel to it, though it's delivery is almost like a flat our ballad given the OLP treatment. One of the softer OLP songs and although probably a good song, it's not really what you expect of OLP, even though they have done softer songs in the past (4 AM being a great example) this doesn't seem up to the standard I expect of them.

"White Flags" angels, ghosts and sky now this seems like an Our Lady Peace lyrical piece and Raine's slipping into a falsetto, the band are sounding like a wonderful musical crescendo. The track has glimpses of just how good the band are and of how OLP fans will remember them, though as is often the case it seems like the band are just missing something, and that could well be the influence of Mike Turner (who left the band in 2001) the former guitarist.

“Signs of life” the penultimate track a rather relaxed sounding song that again feels like OLP meets a ballad, though a bit more on the ballad side of things than “Escape Artists”. The lyrics remind me of some of the earlier OLP stuff, though the overall sound is just too calm for the band that brought us raw rock songs in the past such as Starseed, One Man Army, Everyone's a Junkie, All My Friends (which it's self is a slower song).

“Paper Moon” ends the album and has a rather cynical sound lyric with an almost return to form overall again Raine slides to his infamous falsetto, but sadly slides out of it almost as regularly. All the song does tend to the older stuff and the overall feel is rather odd the song doesn't have quite the same sparkle as some of the tracks from the early albums. However it is a good end to the album and does step back up into the good tracks rather than the above average ones of the middle of the album.

Sadly the album doesn't feel totally like an OLP album, instead it feels a bit more like an OLP minus Mike Turner album Raine seems to try as hard as possible to carry the album on his brilliant vocals but sadly they aren't even strong enough to support this rather disappointing album. For the true OLP fans it's not really what we would have liked, however you may want it just to say you have them all sort of thing. It's worth a listen, but you'll find you're self going back to the earlier stuff sooner rather than later which is a shame, though it's not as mainstream sounding as Gravity or HIPT it's also not as raw as Naveed, Clumsy or Happiness, nor is it as experimental as Spiritual Machines. It does sound like OLP are trying to get back to their old selves but with out Mike it could be rather difficult, hopefully the next album (hopefully their will be a next one) will go back to the raw venom of the early OLP stuff as this falls short.

As an album (disregarding my love of early OLP) it's a mixed bag really, a solid overall effort of rock music which borders on mainstream but isn't really that radio friendly on the whole. Of course the opening tracks are wonderful and through out the album little trickles of OLP magic are apparent, sadly they often are little trickles.

Trivia:
The album is named after a line said by Jack Kerouac and funnily isn't the first bands reference to him, as he was also mentioned in “All for You” from Gravity in the lines “Jack Kerouac, Kerouac on the road/ And in my head”.

"The End Is Where We Begin" is going to be the second single from the album released on September 14th.

The album is a surprising 38 minutes or so long, making it a rather short one, though a deluxe edition does add 2 more tracks "The Right Stuff" and "Time Bomb", sadly they aren't on the version of the album I bought. 

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