Review of Human Clay
By Bill Gienapp
On Christmas day one year ago, I
got a phone call from my buddy Caleb, who wanted to know what new albums I had
just received. Now Caleb is my main man when it comes to anything musical, and
although he inexplicably disses my beloved copy of The Cranberries' To the
Faithful Departed every chance he gets, his opinion tends to carry a good
deal of weight. Anyway, our conversation went something like this:
Caleb: So what albums did you get?
Bill: Umm... I got blah blah blah and blah. Oh, and I got Human Clay by
Creed.
Caleb: (long pause) You're not serious.
Bill: What? What's wrong with Creed?
Caleb: Bill, please tell me you at least didn't ask for it.
Now here it is, one year later,
and I'm still grappling furiously with that burning musical question - is Creed
considered a good band or not? I mean, nobody I've talked to seems to regard
them as anything but the most derivative group on the planet, yet Human Clay,
their sophomore disc, has been bouncing around the Billboard Top Ten for nearly
sixty weeks. What's the deal - does their entire fanbase live in Nebraska or
something? I will admit that the cover of Human Clay (in which an
amorphous clay figure bursts out of the ground holding a pocketwatch) is pretty
cool, but that's about as far as my Creed infatuation goes. I may be one of the
twelve people in the country who still hasn't grown sick of "Higher"
(it's just too damn catchy!), but I simply don't get what the appeal of the rest
of the album is. I mean, if you like this kind of alternative hard rock, just
buy Pearl Jam's Ten and you'll get an infinitely better piece of music.
Creed has this whole
"brooding/somber" thing going, and while they obviously take
themselves deathly seriously, it's hard for me to do the same when lead singer
Scott Stapp is spouting such laughable cookie-cutter lyrics as "Now I saw a
face on the water / It looked humble but willing to fight / I saw the will of a
warrior / His yoke is easy and His burden is light." Or here's an even
better one - "Hands on a window pane / Watching some children laugh and
play / They're running in circles / With candy canes and French braids." I
mean, honestly... far be it from me to belittle the fruit of one's soul, but
that's about as profound as "Oops, I Did it Again" or "Who Let
the Dogs Out."
So anyway, I pop the disc into my CD
player on Christmas day, and, surprisingly, it doesn't totally suck rocks... at
first. The rhythmic patterns and vocals of "What If" are strong enough
to warrant multiple listenings, while "Are You Ready" is an admittedly
solid rock opener (albeit both are saddled with wretched titles). It's pretty
much downhill from there though, as Human Clay gets bogged down in the
mire of such whimsical wuss efforts as "Faceless Man" and the
painfully overexposed "With Arms Wide Open," not to mention leaden
concoctions like "Wash Away Those Years." "Higher" proves to
be the only song that truly transcends the boundaries of the mediocre, and if
you're dying to have it, well - that's what Napster is for. Otherwise, Human
Clay is utterly lacking in edge or intrinsic worth - it's what devout Pat
Boone fans listen to when they feel the need to cut loose.
Mood:
Sad Break-up
Hear it?:
Wait for the radio
