Lostprophets - Liberation Transmission Review
Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 07.19.2006
Oh Bob Rock, what you do for the the once great.
Lostprophets - Liberation Transmission
Release Date: June 27, 2006
Label: Columbia Records
Produced By: Bob Rock
First Single: Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
Recommended Downloads: Everyday Combat, Broken Hearts, 4:AM Forever
Lostptophets is:
Vocals: Ian Watkins
Guitar: Mike Lewis
Guitar: Lee Gaze
Bass: Stuart Richardson
Keyboards: Jamie Oliver
Drums: Josh Freese
Tracklisting
1. Everyday Combat
2. A Town Called Hypocrisy
3. The New Transmission
4. Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
5. Can't Stop, Gotta Date With Hate
6. Can't Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won't Save You This TIme)
7. Everybody's Screaming!!!
8. Broken Hearts, Torn Up Letters And The Story Of A Lonely Girl
9. 4:AM Forever
10. For All These Times Son, For All These Times
11. Heaven For The Weather, Hell For The Company
12. Always All Ways (Apologies, Glances And Messed Up Chances)
Total Runtime: 48:52
The first I ever heard of the Lostprophets was right here on this very site from this review. Now allow me to say that I very, very much disagree with the review. The band's debut album Fake Sound Of Progress has SOME nu-metal elements in it, but Start Something was a hard rock record with some other elements added for good measure. One thing you'll see if you read that old review was that the reviewer also made a lot of baseless comparisons to Linkin Park, and for that very reason I hated the band and Last Train Home for a long time. It wasn't until I kept hearing the song on the radio that it began to grow on me, but hearing Make A Move sealed it. I went out and purchased the record shortly thereafter, and it still remains as one of my favorite albums. It slacks off a bit in the latter half, but the first six tracks are enough to make me enjoy the entire album every time I hear it. So after a two and a half year wait, the band released their newest effort in Liberation Transmission. Needless to say I was excited about it from the moment I heard of its inception, so does that excitement remain after actually hearing the damn thing? Let us take a closer look at the Bob Rock-produced effort.
The album starts out strong with the upbeat Everyday Combat, which carries a lot of the sound that was so prevelent on Start Something, though what's interesting is the guitar part that starts in the outro section of the song sounds like something from ESPN. I know I've heard that progression before anyways. Rooftops, the first single, is kind of hit and miss because while it is admittedly catchy and will probably do well on the radio, it's also really repetitive as the only line you hear in the chorus is "standing on the rooftop everybody scream your heart out...", over, and over again. The well-written balled-esque 4:AM Forever is definitely one of the highlights of the album though, and would probably do well on the radio.
That, however, is one of the biggest downfalls of the album. It seems that damn near every track on this album was written specifically with getting radio/MTV airplay in mind. The production is crisp and crystal clear, but remember what happened when Metallica first used Bob Rock on the Black album? It was their most commecially sucessful album to date. Read that again...commercially sucessful. Even for a band like the Lostprophets who are more or less radio ready as it is, it just feels like there was way too much focus placed on getting a few hit songs out of the album. The band definitely aimed high on this album, and while it is good to set tough goals for yourself, it ultimately fails to do much more than capture a glimpse of the obvious epic feel they were going for. However don't completely fault Rock for this, if anything he's more of a scapegoat for the detractors than the entire reason for the problem.
Overall, there's really not a whole lot wrong with this album per se, but it seems they tried too hard to be what they didn't need to be. When you are a band like the Lostprophets who can already write catchy songs that can do well commercially there's really no sense in trying to change your formula to become even more radio friendly. Sure, there's nothing wrong with experimenting, but most of this album comes off like less of an experiment and more of an attempt to get noticed by the current generation of kids obsesssed with Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance. I'm not suggesting that Lostprophets are an emo band, far from it actually, but when that appears to very obviously be the target audience, what else is one supposed to believe? I think fans from before will learn to like this album, but it will take some getting used to, especially if you were like me and kind of went in expecting more crunchy rhythms and driving vocals like what was so common on Start Something. It's not a bad album by any means, it probably just could have been a lot better had they not focused a little too much on increasing elements that they didn't need any more of in the first place.
The 411: A decent album that falls a bit short simply from the band aiming to be something that they don't need to be. Bob Rock may be partly to blame for this, but more than anything, the biggest problem is a radio band just tried a little too hard to be even more of a radio band. There are a couple glimmers of something much greater (Everyday Combat and 4:AM Forever being the prime examples), but ultimatly they just focused way too much on the wrong things. Give them a couple of years, and maybe a different producer, and I can see this band putting out one of the best hard rock albums of 2008 or 2009. But until then, everybody go to the rooftop and scream for something a little better.
