Now for Something Completly Different...

I recently purchased three new CD's:

Pearl Jam, Godsmack IV and Def Leppard's YEAH!

None of these bands have put out a new disc in several years, so I had high hopes when they all came out at about the same time. As it turns out, Pearl Jam, despite the Slipnot-inspired inside cover, was pretty disappointing. I think the idea was to put out an all-out, bare-bones rock & roll protest album against the war--and war in general.
Instead, you get an over-the-top sound that is not very Pearl Jam and even less listenable, especially in light of its bad mix job and even worse production value. The songs are ok, and track #4, Severed Hand, is even good---for a Black Crowes cover band, but this is supposed to be Pearl Jam, not open-mic jam!

Godsmack will never top their first album. They are the Orson Welles of the Alice-In-Chains torch-bearers. IV is not a bad cd, but its best song is twelve minutes into the last track, which has a (so 1991) silence for almosy eight minutes before it. Not only that, but they do a "Voodo II." That's like Zeppelin doing a "Stairway II" Lame, lame, lame.
I still love the band and will buy their next cd-- ad infinitum. I saw them open for the Black Sabbath reunion tour in 2000 and was blown away. That's the problem. Potential is the heaviest burden... and the most disappointing when not fulfilled.

Def Leppard's covers of songs they grew up on, on YEAH!, are not very creative and in most cases, fall short of the unwritten law of covering a famous tune--making it your own.
Still, they play the hell out of them and you can tell they truly love those songs. Of the three CD's, this one will be played over and over in my crib.