Review Summary: Rap-metal fans will most probably be disappointed at first. But listen with an open mind and you'll find it difficult to press stop
Before the release of Lovehatetragedy, Jacoby Shaddix was quoted saying "we're leaving the listener a little more room for their interpretation of the song". If Papa Roach are good at one thing, it's keeping their promises! Lovehatetragedy sounds like Papa Roach all right, but with a few distinct differences to their first well known album, Infest.
Jacoby (a.k.a. Coby Dick) does very little rapping this time around, instead it's pure, adrenaline driven hard rock. The signature P. Roach riffs are all still here and so are the energetic shouts and rantings
That's not to say that their not experimenting with new sounds. The song Singular Indestructible Droid begins with tribal drum beats and primal-sounding chanting, leading into an intro bassline, further giving way to an undeniably hooky guitar riff and passionate vocals by none other than Jacoby himself. Papa Roach publicly stated that they wanted the follow-up to their debut album, Infest, to have a much more mature tone, and on that point they rightfully succeeded. By creating a healthy mix of rock and rap-influenced-rock lead singer Jacoby Shaddix (formally Coby Dick) is able to sing more, and rap less, which, depending on your liking of Papa Roach's music, is good or bad.
To those missing the hard-rock, rap-stunts aspect of Infest, you will find a much older band with much more melody. lovehatetragedy's first single, "She Loves Me Not," is a pop-inspired romp through a troubled relationship which feels somewhat alienated on the album. The real winning tracks come in the form of "Time and Time Again," which has been recently featured in Pepsi Blue commercials, and the title track "lovehatetragedy."
As a prerequisite for most bands in this day and age, Papa Roach decided to feature a cover track of the Pixies "Gouge Away." As an example of the new emotional tone to Papa Roach, the song "Dark Clouds," Jacoby proclaims:
"This is making me crazy / These black clouds following me / So I look for signs of light / But rarely I see them."
You can see that things are much more organized, it almost feels as though the album was designed with a clear mind, instead of the disjointed Infest which stuck with a general tone, but featured ideas all over the place. With lovehatetragedy, things appear more concise with several ongoing themes present in each song including references to skin, depression, and love.
With a more emotional sound album, Papa Roach no longer becomes mixed in the shuffle of "hardcore bands" who scream, whim, and come off with a bad attitude. While the latest addition is not quite punk, it's not quite nu-metal, and it's not quite straight rock and roll, it does feature elements from all three of those genres and melds them together in a sometimes melody filled, sometimes beat filled rock session that brings Papa Roach to the surface of MTV wannabe's and rejects. Not saying that Papa Roach is wanting to be on MTV, it just may be better to remove them from that mindset and let them creatively explore their music rather than think about what some inane VJ thinks.
As a follow-up to Infest, lovehatetragedy proves that the sophomore curse isn't always as bad as some band's make it out to be. Even with the more emotion filled music with may drive off longtime, hardcore Papa Roach fans, this album proves that bands get better with age and maturity.
Individual track ratings:
1. M-80 (Explosive Energy Movement) (2:27) 8/10
2. Life Is A Bullet (4:05) 8/10
3. Time And Time Again (2:59) 6.5/10
4. Walking Through Barbed Wire (3:05) 8/10
5. Decompression Period (3:59) 8/10
6. Born With Nothing, Die With Everything (3:50) 8/10
7. She Loves Me Not (3:30) 7/10
8. S.I.D. (Singular Indestructible Droid) (3:49) 8/10
9. Black Clouds (4:02) 8/10
10. Code Of Energy (4:04) 7/10
11. Lovehatetragedy (3:13) 7/1
