Review Summary: An attempt to create a memorable album proves once again futile for Saliva as they once again deliver a record full of just about everything we’ve heard before.
It’s a curious thing how we can once listen to an artist, instantly recognize a song or two by them, and then years later we forgot they completely existed. Sometimes this happens because we get caught up in other music and no longer pay as much attention to what we heard before, and sometimes it’s because nothing they did after what we heard was memorable. Saliva is one of those bands that haven’t done anything memorable in a long time. Back Into Your System was a fun album, and had some of the best songs in the bands career, but nothing afterwards really lived up to it. On their seventh studio release, Saliva return with one less member and an album full of their typical rock tracks, but does any of it deliver?
The answer is, quite simply, no. Throughout the eleven tracks here we are given an album full of cliché and mediocrity. Album opener “Badass” (I mean look at that song title. Really?) is a terrible attempt to grab fans like “Ladies and Gentlemen” and “Always” did. It’s a desperate attempt to kick start the record with an aggressive track but it just doesn’t work, and it doesn’t help that its one of the only aggressive tracks on here. Throughout the album we can find that there are much more power ballads and slower tempo tracks here and the band are just not presenting any creativity. Sure, the ballads are the sound of the band trying to branch out and do something memorable, but it just doesn’t work here as the songs not only sound the same as everything else they’ve done but the same as any other typical rock band. Tracks like “Better Days”, “The Key”, and “Turn The Lights On” are all slower songs that try to save the album but just fall flat.
The rest of the band unfortunately don’t help the cause much either. Their first album as a four-piece, guitarist Wayne Swinny is the only guitar player in the band and while his riffs are catchy here and there its nothing special at all and something we hear every time Saliva come up with new material. Bassist Dave Novotny and Drummer Paul Crosby make a good rhythm section but also don’t do much to stand out. As for Vocalist Joey Scott; his lyrics are sometimes painful and his performance is very much boring as he does everything he’s done on past releases and at some points does worse than before.
All in all, what we are given from Saliva on their seventh studio offering is, put quite simply, a mediocre rock album. The tracks blend together well and the occasional fan might be able to enjoy this, but in reality here this album is not only boring and not at all memorable but it’s also nothing new. It might have been passable if they weren’t seven albums into their career, but at this point Saliva need to do something to redeem themselves and stick out like they did in the past because quite honestly, who is really listening anymore?
