Creed fails to be relevant on Full Circle, its first new release since 2001.
It’s hard to believe that someone at Wind-up Records actually approved the release of Full Circle, Creed’s reunion record. Whoever that person is deserves to be fired because he or she has done a disservice to the world.
Creed scheduled the release of its new record, which came out yesterday, after the completion of the band’s reunion tour. The LP’s name is supposedly a reference to a new-and-improved Creed that has come, well, full circle.
The problem is the record sounds as if Creed hasn’t gone anywhere at all — as if it didn’t even take a break, even though the group disbanded in 2004. Full Circle is everything most university students remember about Creed from middle school: cheesy and over-dramatic melodies mixed with shallow and forgettable lyrics.
The album is simply a painful listen from start to finish. Nothing is catchy, nothing is clever, and nothing is new. In fact, Full Circle is the perfect reminder as to why bands like Staind and Puddle of Mudd have been irrelevant in the past decade.
The new music is just as bad, and possibly worse, than it was when “With Arms Wide Open” undeservedly dominated the airwaves.
Frontman Scott Stapp still sings in his trademarked brand of indecipherable baritone mumbling, which still makes every song sound like a joke.
His melodramatic singing, grouped with power chord over power chord and layered drumming, just reeks of arrogance.
Every song is big and atmospheric in scope, and it seems the members still think Creed is the most important band in the world, and they probably believe that they craft the most epic songs on Earth.
But the tracks don’t come off as epic — they’re just tiring. Not only are these songs shallow to begin with, but they are then stretched so thin by hasty guitar solos and piano-driven bridges that every single one of them overstays its welcome.
But even as laughable as the over-dramatic music is, it’s really Stapp’s lyrics that comically take the cake. Even after a few years of inactivity, Stapp still has the undeniable ability to write lyrics so cheesy and generic that even Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger may shake his head in disapproval at first listen.
“Don’t Give Up” features the laughable gem of a verse: “You walked away in silence/ You walked away to breathe/ Stopped and turned around to say goodbye to me/ I’m pleading as your leaving, I’m begging you stay.” The readers of this review deserve an apology for being subjected to the aforementioned lines.
And the wordplay is even more ludicrous on “Bread of Shame,” which features lines such as “With a burst of cold wind/ As the night fades through/I am left on my own/ Clinging to hopes of you.” These lyrics sound pretty similar to an eighth grader’s diary entry.
What really makes Full Circle so bad — aside from the singing, songwriting and instrumentation — is that the material is so much of the same from the band. What was terrible and unwanted by music fans on Creed’s previous records has been carbon-copied onto Full Circle.
Many people realized Creed’s music was awful and stopped listening in 2002. So why is the band subjecting music lovers to its heinous sound all over again?
1/2 a star out of 5
klucas@umd.edu
