The Singles Jukebox

We should maybe pick our rock singles more carefully in future, eh?…

[Video][Website]
[3.71]

John Seroff: I have a friend who books music for a living and his evocative term for the whole P.O.Ddle of the LinKornsmack genre is “turd rock”. I can’t do much better than that.
[2]

Martin Skidmore: They’re an odd mix of grunge-metal, even heading towards thrash sounds at times, and a singer who sounds more West Coast dreamy. This is an odd combination, but not necessarily a bad one. Nonetheless, the overall effect is a lack of power up front, though in all honesty I think the backing a is a bit halfhearted too, lumbering more than driving, and the end result is very tedious.
[2]

Chuck Eddy: Didn’t get what was supposed to be interesting about these dudes back when they were the token metal band approved by rock critics (give or take System Of A Down, who at least seemed something other than generic); don’t get them now. Loud-but-not-hard yawning-chasm guitar “rock” whose somber shapelessness is not justified by the fact that it comes off unobtrusive in the background. As screamo-ish crapola goes, though, I suppose the airy Queensrychish chorus parts could be worse.
[4]

Ian Mathers: Deftones’ Saturday Night Wrist is an excellent example of a really good album that doesn’t really have any bits that would do well here in the crucible of the Jukebox. I loved the nominal singles, but really they worked best as the most overt flourishes on a heavy, atmospheric mood piece. Which is really just me hoping that “Diamond Eyes” works better in the context of its album, because aside from a rather more swooning chorus than usual (and, err, worse lyrics than normal) it seems rather low key and milquetoast for these guys.
[6]

Doug Robertson: This strains with so much frustrated emotion of the overwrought angst kind that it’s currently undergoing testing as a possible cure for constipation.
[5]

Tal Rosenberg: If you took away the thunderously dull metal music and the thunderously dull, dated clichés in the video (broken glass being blown about, slow motion headbanging, rock band rocking out in front of spare black screen), all you would have is new age music. And it would be shitty new age music.
[2]

Anthony Easton: I wasn’t really on board, thinking of it as good to excellent for a genre I really don’t care about, but the video has barn owls, and barn owls are so fucking awesome that it made the whole thing sparkle in darkness.
[5]