Everclear - In A Different Light Review

Posted by Scott Rutherford on 10.18.2009

What's old is new again...

I like musical curiosities and this album certainly fits into that category. The story? Grunge heyday band Everclear releases an acoustic based album of their most well know songs but with a completely new line up. This band passed it’s used by date at the turn of the century and sadly became a parody of the grunge movement when the nearly 40-year-old front man and band founder Art Alexakis was singing about daddy issues and complaining about just how tough life is.

For me, while never being a huge fan of the band I certainly did enjoy a large part of their output and songs like “Santa Monica” where part of my early 20’s soundtrack and are fondly remembered. There was often made comparisons to Nirvana because of Art’s passed drug use and drug references but in terms of sound, they were eons apart. Everclear were/are a band that will never capture the imagination of the public but offer up tasty helpings of 3-minutes pop gems…even if the subject matter ends up becoming a trifle overbearing on occasions.

As with most bands driven by the one personality, the line-up expanded past the core trio of members and eventually all collapsed under the weight of itself and Art, ever the soldier regrouped and carried on with a complete new brigade of musicians. However, instead of treading over the same soundwaves again the bands sound morphed into something mellower with heaping helps of keyboards, piano and acoustic guitars. Which again brings us to A Different Light.

Before the cleansing of this revamped line-up happened again in the past couple of months, they ducked into the studio to recut a selection of their most well know songs and a couple of newies to capture more what Everclear are about now and how the old songs have evolved since their original grungy roots.

The Track Listing

1. Everything To Everyone - 3:18
2. Wonderful - 4:21
3. At The End Of The Day - 4:40
4. Santa Monica - 3:54
5. Summerland - 4:07
6. Here Comes The Darkness - 4:52
7. Father Of Mine - 3:51
8. Fire Maple Song - 4:15
9. Rockstar - 3:19
10. Learning How To Smile - 4:08
11. I Will Buy You A New Life - 4:35

Two quick points before reading any further…

• As I will always point out, I LOVE the short track listing. I will always be a staunch believer that any release should only contain 10 songs or at a stretch 12 songs max but never go over 45 minutes running time.
• I have purposely avoided listening to any of the original recorded versions of these songs and in fact, some of these songs I fail to recall. I want to judge this release on its merits without constant references to the previous releases.



Before I start breaking down some of the individual tracks my impressions overall are positive. I like how the more mellow approach didn’t translate into slower tempos and I also like that more acoustic based didn’t mean lack of rockin’ guitars. Sure, they aren’t as abrasive or upfront as before, but it helps add sonic beef to the songs when that beef needed injecting. I can’t believe I just resorted to that terrible joke…

Anyway, the songs…

As I just said, there is still muscle in these tracks and no better example of that than on “Rockstar”. This runs as close to the “original” sound as you can get but there is a definite toning down in the aggression and ample amounts of wry-fun that really come to the fore when the descending chord patterns that kicks in post chorus. It’s a fun and vampy song that becomes more glam because of the new context it’s been placed in. I added it to my iTunes playlist after one listen and my bet it will be there for a good while.

Elsewhere, old favourite “Santa Monica” gets the detuning treatment and the added depth of tone certainly helps update the sound of the song. As keys bring the track in, the first thing I notice is that the guitars have a clean crispness about them, almost as if you are playing an electric guitar unplugged on the lounge in front of your TV. I also liked how the dynamics have change within the song and the new lush instrumentation has added depth to what is essentially a simple song. I also LOVE how they have kept most of the drum patterns original employed by old drummer Greg Eklund keeping all the old propulsivness without getting in the way of the new feel.

What goes for “Santa Monica” goes for practically every other song. You can’t mistake this as not being Everclear, but changes to how the songs are played have given new life and context. Really, chances are if you are reading this review you already have some inkling if you are going to give the album a chance or not and really, you should at least give it one fair listen because they are gems hidden in old warhorses.

I also should note that I have not got the greatest attention span in the world (hence the rule on the amount of songs on albums) and I never got bored with this offering although the songs do start getting a little same-y after a while but moments like the CD closer “I Will Buy You A New Life” just remind you at how catchy Everclear can get and the cleaned up production updates the sound enough to get new enjoyment from listening all the way through.

Perhaps the song that has benefited most on In A Different Light was “Summerland” which was an album track from Sparkle & Fade. The original version gets lost in bad production that comes with a shoe-string budget but just brims with new life on here and the addition of new instruments and better recording smarts from Art make it a real highlight.

Another obvious song for revamping was their biggest hit “Wonderful”. This song was already a more subdued version of the band but instead of treated guitars playing frilly guitar lines we get keyboards, piano flushes and lush production highlighting what was already cool about this song.

However, the best song on this set is “At The End Of The Day” which is one of the two new tracks on this set. You can tell it was written with this line-up in mind as all the new elements I’ve mentioned plus the addition of female vocals it actually has made me extremely curious to hear Everclear’s next offering due out next year.

In fact, Art should take a leaf out of Suicidal Tendencies’ playbook and re-record their debut release World of Noise which has always suffered from being a glorified demo and lack of good production. This new line-up would really add to this seeing as “Fire Maple Song” from that debut sounds great here and Alexakis has always wanted to release World of Noise in a better context.

The 411: I like this and that comes as a surprise to me. I expected some nostalgia to carry me through some tracks but for that to wear off and me to force-listen the rest to get to the end of this review. I think this album is a extremely enjoyable and while it certainly doesn’t come close to being the best release of the year, it is far above most releases and I believe can be listened to by any lover of pop rock and enjoyed. Recommended.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]