Stop, Please Just Stop

After the Used’s last album, it seemed that they had had found a way to make catchy, hardcore-inspired music that was able to be radio friendly while keeping true to its roots. In Love and Death however, shows us that the Used had gotten very lucky, and decided with their new release to screw it all up.The new album is lacking in many areas, except for one, radio pop. Most of the album sounds generic and boring, with none of the intensity of their previous effort, which is a shame. The songs are boring, with pop-friendly music that belongs in a movie soundtrack from MTV more than anything.
It’s hard to believe the sentiments that the Used’s lyrics portray, such as “I must abuse myself/I’m against all that I’ve made up/Set in stone the sun will come/And I hate light/You know I hate light/To me it looks so pretty burning”. Maybe if the lyrics weren’t so generic, so corny, there would be a possible chance that the listener would think that it’s genuine. With such awful musical accompaniment however, they just don’t fit in any way, shape, or form.
Maybe the Used are branching out, but if they are, it would be better if they broke up. The world has enough sappy, overtly corporate rock, and it doesn’t need any more. They should have stuck to what made their last album so successful – heavy guitars with slick breakdowns and vocals that would switch at a moments notice between singing and gut-wrenching screaming, not whining.
To put it simply, ignore this album. The effort and quality is seriously lacking.