Writing hooks is a craft many a would-be music superstar lacks. They have the looks. They have the hard-earned instruments their parents bought them. Probably they also have the ability to dole out an above-average Poetry 101-level lyric or two. They may even inexplicably have a record deal. But woefully they can't write a hook, and their hopes for world domination and pop culture penetration are suddenly dashed, forcing them to return to the nether regions of suburbia and finish school via correspondence.
Live is a band that, after the explosive Throwing Copper ended up in many critics' and listeners' best-of lists for 1995, was almost forced to pack their bags due to dwindling sales and sonically complicated albums. The mass apathy that their successive albums evoked didn't so much stem from their left-of-center tinkering with Middle Eastern religiosity and seemingly darker themes, but with lead singer Ed Kowalczyk's apparent amnesia towards the art of composing a solid hook. The songs were grand and punchy, but their hooklessness made one ultimately bored.
Birds of Pray, their sixth and possibly last outing for MCA Records (R.I.P.), is Live's definite return to form and finds them, in good "I Alone" fashion, belting out glorious choruses about faith, family, and peace, all the while taking the listener back to the days of glories past, when having your audience memorize every line of your song was more prevalent than babbling senselessly about incestuous freaks and weeping dolphins. Crunchy and singalongy, the first single "Heaven" is a fine demonstration of this, since it sees Kowalczyk acknowledging the existence of a celestial higher place, citing the life of his 2-year-old daughter as a more convincing proof of a heavenly home than what any apocalyptic apologist might ever offer.
Following a curiously thematic line, other songs ponder similar aspects about the divine. "She" seems to equate the influence of a woman to the pull that the Spirit can have on a person, while the idealistic "The Sanctity of Dreams" alludes to "an empty graveyard" and "a place where no one waits to die before they go into the light" and where "the blind have sight." To some, the mid-tempo shuffle of "Run Away" may simply detail the story of a girl needing the affection of a man in order to heal the hurt of past loves, but a careful reading might even suggest that the healing she's seeking transcends relational boundaries. Sometimes the spiritual imagery is taken to over-the-top heights, however, especially when Ed resorts to likening the physical attributes of his significant other to an object that deserves his unreserved worship ("Sweet Release," "Like I Do"). There's nothing particularly sacrilegious or heretical about his musings, but they can come off as a tad obsessive to virginal ears.
This takes us to the negatives. Though it's nice to see the Live boys rocking again, once you get to tracks ten or eleven the mix starts to sound a little too homogenous, and the band has a hard time slowing down or maybe throwing in an acoustic change of pace for variety. Not only that, but like other bands who've released albums in this post-Iraq era, they somehow fall prey to cliches and feel compelled to write about war and religious conflict; nobody can deny these are topics that should be addressed, but please... when you do so you could at least try to be a little poetic about it, not sophomoric and whiny ("The crucifix ain't no baseball bat / Tell me what kind of God is that?" from "What Are We Fighting For?"). Noble sentiments, but painfully recyclable in the end.
Missteps aside, it's safe to say that Live have redeemed themselves with Birds of Pray. It took long, but they've finally flown back to a place of normalcy, jettisoning their past pretensions and superfluous eccentricities, and settling for something that, though not necessarily groundbreaking, sounds familiar and makes sense in the context of everyday life. They say their search is over and that whatever it was that was lost has been found. The only thing we can do is join the festivities and rejoice with them.
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Brendan BoughenAfter a brief fling with hip-hop beats on their previous album (which didn't quite work), one of the bestselling college rock bands of the 90's are back with an album that returns to their roots; straight, driving, rock and roll. In other words, Live doing what they've done since hitting their zenith on 1995's Throwing Copper. As comebacks go, Birds of Pray is fairly unremarkable musically; that…Similar sounding releases
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