| Hints, Allegations And Things Left Unsaid | 1993 |
| Collective Soul | 1995 |
| Disciplined Breakdown | 1997 |
| Dosage | 1999 |
| Blender | 2000 |
Formed by frontman Ed Roland, Collective Soul actually had a massive hit single "Shine" before they had a record deal. That song ended up as the opening track on their debut album Hints, Allegations And Things Left Unsaid, which was more or less Roland's solo project with a backing band (which included guitarists Ross Childress and Ed's brother Dean, with Will Turpin and Shane Evans playing bass and drums respectively) only being added afterwards. Their sound was a sort of bridge between classic and modern rock, and was best expressed on the highlights to their second self-titled album. Their third, Disciplined Breakdown was another modest success with two more hits "Precious Declaration" and "Listen" before going on a somewhat more experimental path with their fourth album Dosage.
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Although quite a bit of Collective Soul's debut album sounds understandably demo quality and was hurriedly assembled (the production is pretty weak as well), and singer Ed Roland is virtually the only participant (the most notable exception being the great Ross Childress solo on the solid hit single "Shine") there are still some fine moments that hint at potential. The acoustic "Heaven's Already Here" is a beautiful cut (and arguably the album's finest moment), the drum machine of "Breathe" actually propels the already infectious song with its' awesome rhythm, the short string dominated instrumental "Pretty Donna" is moving, and "Wasted Time" and "Goodnight Good Guy" have very memorable choruses and overall hooks. The rest of Hints, with mostly second rate songwriting in cuts that aren't really worth mentioning, isn't nearly as satisfying, but overall it's a decent debut and suggests better things for the band, who would really break out with their second release.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The band's second album was an artistic and commercial improvement over their first, with higher quality hit singles, a more creative-sounding atmosphere, better instrumentation and lyrics and stronger hooks. Of the singles, "Gel" has a very creative and awesome riff with a direct song structure and a soaring chorus (arguably the strongest song here), "December" has an effective mixture of somber guitar and lyrics to match, "Where The River Flows" is a memorably grinding song, the biggest smash single "The World I Know" is an excellent and dramatic ballad with great orchestration, and "Smashing Young Man" is a pretty decent rocker with interesting lyrics.
Other standouts include "Untitled", which has such a memorable hook and well-written lyrics, it's simply too good to not have a name, "When The Water Falls" is another nice ballad, and the closing "Reunion" succeeds on account of its' relaxing atmosphere. The rest of the tracks aren't anything terribly special (the opener "Simple" goes by without too much care, "Collection Of Goods" is too repetitive, while "She Gathers Rain" and "Bleed" can't count as anything more than filler). Overall, Collective Soul is a little inconsistent but still holds up very well because its' highlights are very worthy.
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COMMENTS
soulless corporate rock. just like Journey. but it's damn catchy (just like Journey -- most of the time, anyway), which makes everything okay. I love the hits (four or five of them on here!), "simple", "when the water falls", and everything else on here, as it's all pretty even. seven!
[email protected] (John Schlegel)
I pretty much agree with the comment above mine: "Soul-less corporate rock" that still manages to be listenable, not unlike some of Journey's stuff. The production here is nearly perfect, churning out five singles and a few good album tracks to boot. The rhythm guitars and drums sound impeccably tight, really augmenting some of the finer riff-rockers on here like "Gel" and "Where the River Flows." "December" is a nice, slower, eerie song with cool vocal melodies, and the smash-hit violin ballad is a real compositional milestone for a post-grunge band, reminiscing something the Smashing Pumpkins might have done (that's not to say that the vocals and lyrics of the latter outfit don't tune me out of them completely). I also love "Simple," a highly catchy and driving opener. Unfortunately, I lose interest in the album during the second half, where the songwriting is a bit less even than in the first. But there's enough grade-A material here to justify the rating of a 7, and Collective Soul is probably one of the best buys from the post-grunge garage.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
I guess this album is the ultimate proof that Collective Soul are pretty much a singles band more than anything else (although they do have a few hidden gems in their catalog, admittedly). See, there's nothing on here that's bad - at least, not really any worse than the filler on the first two albums - but a lot of it (particularly side two) is just so pointless and generic-sounding. They're attempting to follow pretty much the same style as before, with just as good production but with not as many really good hooks, except in, again, the singles. There's also little predictable patterns in the song structures here and there, like having the guitar solos in the same exact spot (the first five songs), and stuff like tacking on an acoustic intro and outro like it has anything to do with the actual main body of the song ("Blame") or adding in a horn section to hide the fact that the song they're using it in is a rewrite of a previous single ("Full Circle").
Side one of this album is mostly pretty good, though, if not exactly as inspired as Collective Soul was. Like I said, the singles are easily the best things on here - "Precious Declaration" has a nice heavy riff over an addictive, somewhat dancey, rhythm (with effective stop-start verses) and the even better "Listen" is driven by a neat bubbling organ groove with probably Ross Childress' best solo on the album, a 'riding through the city' atmosphere and more hooky melodies. "Maybe" is also pretty good, nicely produced and flowing acoustic uplift, and even the aforementioned "Full Circle", "Smashing Young Man" rewrite or not, is still pretty entertaining and funky, a song just as good as its' predecessor. Despite the great bassline thrown in there, though, the title track is a pretty lame cross between "Precious Declaration" and "Simple", and starts the album on a downhill slide that it only partially recovers from.
Yeah, the latter half of this album is indeed a mostly unnecessary stretch of music. There's boring, generic balladry in "Forgiveness" that doesn't really move me as much as it wants to, standard pop songs in "Link" and "In Between" (this has no reason to exist in the light of "Maybe", since it's pretty much exactly the same song), dull awkward rootsy stuff in "Giving", an odd redoing of the "Collection Of Goods" style in "Crowded Head" (when will all this recycling end???), and... an actual really cool closer in "Everything" that's hidden underneath all the blah stuff! What a nicely arranged jangly guitar singalong track that one is, and I dig that bouncy bass-driven verse. At least the band had the good sense to reward me after sitting through their most mediocre material! Not that it can get the album out of the eternal pit of used bin mediocrity, but it was a nice try anyway.
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COMMENTS
I can hardly even believe what I'm hearing. I guess it's just about on par with the Rolling Stone review (another story). I don't really want to address Mr. Karn's review point-for-point, but let me just say that his review displays a sad lack of appreciation and understanding of this all-too often unappreciated, but truly beautiful, Collective Soul album. To even use words such as "blah stuff" and "pointless"....most inappropriate. Disciplined Breakdown is not about being blatant or abstract; it is an emotional (sometimes mutedly and quietly), mature, masterpiece of music.
nah, Nick's right, this album is boring as shit.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Collective Soul's fourth studio album finds them incorporating electronic elements into their driving alt rock sound, not to mention orchestral embellishments in a few tracks. Unfortunately, these additions to the songs don't improve their quality - in fact, the rhythms and nuances are mostly a detraction making them sound a bit too forced and stiff (this is particularly true of the simplistic "Run", and "Crown" even sounds like late period U2 electronica in this respect). Not only that, but the vocal melodies on a few tracks are painfully obvious and generic ("Not The One", "Compliment", the acoustic ballad "Needs") and the overall tone of the music gets a bit dull, due to the sterility of the atmosphere and the lack of interesting musical ideas.
None of the tracks are exactly bad, however, and the first three are actually highly worthwhile - the opening "Tremble For My Beloved" rocks out with a memorable and uptempo hook, the most well known hit "Heavy" has a nice radio ready chorus and industrialized riff, and "No More, No Less" (the highlight of the whole set) works extremely well with its' simple but addictive bassline leading its' catchy ass-shaking chorus groove. The other songs are less interesting, but the Ross Childress-penned "Dandy Life" is a decent diversion, "Slow" has a memorable if generic riff, and "Generate" has the most notable energetic presence (a solid, fun melody on this one). In all, this is a decent post-grunge record that certainly has its' share of highlights, though most of it you can live without ever hearing again.
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