Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Review: Darius Rucker - Learn to Live (2008)



Release Date: September 2008
Length: 43:28
Genre: Country
Today I want to tell you about a little band called Hootie & The Blowfish. It was a popular band throughout the 90's, and even if you don't think you know who they are, you probably do. Just look up the band on Youtube or something...........yeah, that band. Well, after the band split in the last few years, their lead singer, Darius Rucker, decided to pursue a country music career. His first album has become relatively succesful, and because of his supposed talent, he has become the second black person to win a CMT award. I am not personal to modern country (actually, I dislike it very strongly), but I had decided that this album was something I had to hear solely due to it's connection with 'Hootie'.


The album does have a couple things going for it. First of all, a good most of the songs sound different in some way, giving it a somewhat fresh sound. Secondly, he has a fantastic voice, and the instrumental is pretty quality in itself, not really seeking shelter under all of the overused melodies by pop groups such as Rascal Flatts. That's where the praise ends, however. Like most modern country I have encountered, the writing is far from satisfactory, and it relies on catchy sounding lyrics and melodies (which it certainly has) to entertain the listener. He seems to enjoy singing his music through stories, which leads back to a woman regardless of what the story he's trying to tell is. The repetitive nature of the lyrics completely breaks the flow of the album to the point where it almost sounds like you are listening to a loosely-related series of songs instead of a record.
The songs aren't really very impressive either. With an exception of his great voice, he just starts singing about generic country related topics (love, dreaming in some sense, and his definition of "life") which just wears you down after listening to this for a while. I enjoyed a few tracks however, in one sense or another. One of these songs,Alright, reminds me a bit of "Hootie: Country Edition" would be like, and it has a bit of catchiness on top of that. One song told an okay story, the track titled Learn to Live, about an old man telling our hero to "learn to live", with a bit of neat accompanying lyrics. There were then another song or two (Don't Think I Don't Think About It and It Won't be Like This for Long) which are a bit catchy, but otherwise not very notable.
The rest of the twelve track album is filler, and its a shame, because this album could have been a breath of fresh air to a dying genre. He did say that he planned on releasing three to four albums, and if I find the need to, I will review those too. In conclusion, if you are one of the people who enjoys country, by all means purchase this. It is certainly better than just about everything else I have heard out of the genre. However, if you are a skeptic or a Hootie fan going "there's no way that this could be bad!", you will probably be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Grade: C-
Notable Tracks: Alright, Learn to Live

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