Lifehouse
's follow-up album,
Stanley Climbfall
, stresses impact over subtlety, staying power, or originality. In lieu of 2002's
skate-metal
and earnest AOR
grunge
,
is more at ease than most with
Scott Weiland
's swampmonster vocals and power-crunched guitar riffs. The band also knows how to dig a big chorus out of their thick dynamics when it's called for, a useful tactic reminiscent of
Silverchair
's first album and the big gesturey
rock
of
Creed
and
John Cougar Mellencamp
. Despite this, spread over a dozen tracks, competing with so many other bands with a similar sound,
's angsty FM
is exhausting.
Ron Aniello
Brendan O'Brien
return behind the desks, and their recognizable
hair-metal
production transforms possible sincerity into self-importance and drains the band of any real individuality. ~ Dean Carlson