Twelve years on from their debut, Daughtry are set to release their fifth album called ‘Rattle That Cage’. Firstly, let’s dispense with the American Idol rubbish – Chris Daughtry and his eponymous band have always been rock and not the fluff that the Idol stuff suggests. In saying that, the new album, is different to the previous releases in that it is nearly all poppy in content and it’s as if he wanted to relive those pop tart times. The first track, ‘As You Are’ is all quiet with the occasional thumping drum patterns backed by heavy chords. On its own it’s a damn good AOR song, but when the album is filled with similar constructs it does become wearisome.
The highlight is the catchy ‘Backbone’ with its bluesy feel overlaid by plenty of ‘whoa, whoa’ opportunities. ‘Death of Me’ is back to the pop structure, which in my opinion, is retrograde for this band. It is very well done, but they could do so much more. ‘Deep End’ is a piano-led ballad, ‘Gravity’ is another pop song but it actually injects interest with a simply brilliant bass line throughout. ‘Stuff of Legends’ starts differently at least with a distorted bass, but returns quickly to the formula. Final track, ‘White Flag’ has me waving one I’m afraid as the piano intro heralds another ballad interspersed with some (albeit very good) bursts of guitar…they just don’t happen often enough.
I wanted to like this album and each track is innocuous enough and from most you can derive some enjoyment, but as a package, I will not be listening to it from start to finish again. Sorry Chris, go heavier, go back to guitar-based blues influenced, heavier stuff I know you do so well…please!
