3 Doors Down - The Better Life

The Mississippi-based quartet 3 Doors Down has only one thing that sets them apart from other hard rock bands: lead vocalist Brad Arnold is also the drummer. The group shops the sounds of Pearl Jam and the Goo Goo Dolls, pointing at what they like, picking it off the shelf, and throwing it into the stew. While the music on The Better Life, their debut, sounds overall both competent and confident, the songs themselves are equally uninspired and clichéd. For example, the riff from the track "Loser" is straight out of the Alice in Chains songbook, adding much more cringe-worthy lyrics ("Addiction needs a pacifier, the buzz of this poison is taking me higher"). In fact, most of the lyrics zero in on well-worn rock themes of aggravation, confusion, and frustration, feelings that 3 Doors Down will easily coax out of discriminating listeners. --Jason Josephes Amazon.com

Still Awesome

If you have heard 3 Doors Down on the radio and are curious about this band, this is a great album to start with, their first. There are so many hits on this album, and even the lesser known songs rock. "Down Poison", "By My Side" and "Smack" are probably my favorite songs of the lesser known on the list. Overall, this album is great. I love the song "Be Like That". August 16, 2008

Accessible rock that's rough around the edges

3 Doors Down's 2000 debut "The Better Life" is an appealing album from a band that exudes a lot of potential. While they don't really distance themselves from familiar sounds of lots of 90s alternative rock, they display some good songwriting and instrumental talent. Singer and drummer Brad Arnold speaks of anger, depression, and troubles in life, but his delivery and raw emotion set him apart. Musically, their sound is unrefined rock, often pretty hard. The heavy guitars and rough percussion are tough, yet the songwriting is clever enough to put them to effective use. There are some well-constructed pop songs here, as well as some deep-album tracks that are equally worthy. The songwriting is not consistent to the point that every track is as good as the last, and towards the end there are a couple skip-worthy songs. But overall, "The Better Life" is a worthy modern rock album.

The first song is the monster single "Kryptonite," an unforgettable pop rock song. Arnold's lyrics emit loss and confusion, yet very emotionally. The guitar riffs at the end of the song and early pluckings are part of what make this song so great. The next song was also a single, "Loser." I like this song a lot. The lyrics speak darkly of depression and addiction. My favorite part is towards the middle, when the song breaks into a furious guitar battle, before dipping back into the spinning midtempo of the beginning. "Duck and Run" is an inspiring song with a great performance from Arnold, a highlight. I think my favorite song, though, is "Not Enough," a well-written and memorable song about a struggling relationship. "Be Like That" is a slow, sad songabout troubled yet hopeful folks, I remember this being a hit too, and for good reason. "Life of My Own" comes off as very similar to "Not Enough," but it's pretty good too. The title track is fast, classic-sounding hard rock with a great guitar line. "Down Poison" is the album's most disturbed song by far, an eerie and loud but quite effective track. "By My Side" is not bad but forgettable, and the faster "Smack" is better. The final song "So I Need You" isn't very memorable either.

"The Better Life" is a very solid and enjoyable album of late-90s styled alternative rock, but it's a very accessible sound that should appeal to many types of listeners. Except for a few slight missteps towards the end of the tracklist, it's a very nice album to have and I recommend it. July 9, 2007

Good introduction to rock

This is the first rock album I owned. It got me into rock at a time when talentless hacks like Limp Bizkit were dominating the airwaves. I, like many others, got into it after hearing the catchy Kryptonite on the radio. Back then I would have given this album 5 stars. But as I said, it got me into rock music and as a result I found out about much better bands. Six years later, after hearing a wide variety of music, this album just seems a bit bland to me.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad album. It's got some pretty good hooks and the guitarists aren't bad. Brad Arnold is a decent vocalist, although he can sometimes be a bit monotonous.

But now I'm going to focus on the negatives, because not many reviewers have done that yet.

I didn't really like the guitar tone. I can't really explain why but I think it needed better production. Of course, this is a minor problem.

Also, I didn't like how the guitarists always played in a staccato style. Although it works really well on fast paced songs like Smack, they often used it when it was inappropriate. I felt they should have held their notes longer on songs like Kryptonite and Better Life. Often there will be very noticable gaps between their notes, with nothing to fill them in, and it ends up sounding pretty amateur. It also makes the playing sound very mechanical and lifeless. It kinda takes the soul out of the music, if you know what I mean.

Also, the drummer, although he gets the job done, was pretty ordinary. It just seems like he's playing the same drum beat in every single song. This is exacerbated by the bad sound production, which makes the bass drum and the toms harder to hear and the cymbols easier to hear. In the end, it just sounds like he's just sitting there hitting the symbols the whole time.

My greatest problem with this album, however, is not the individual songs, but the album as a whole. The songs on their own a very good, but it's difficult to listen to the 11 tracks consecutively because they are too similar to each other. The whole album is very monotonous, lacking in variation to keep the listener interested. There is little variation in the tone and dynamics of the album as a whole. Most of the songs have the typical soft chorus with acoustic guitar followed by a loud chorus with powerchords from the electric guitar type of song structure which was popularised by Nirvana in the early nineties. The problem is this song structure has been so overused by rock bands in the past 16 years that this album automatically becomes mediocre for its overuse of it. Every song on the album except the ballad Be Like That and the last 3 songs utilises this song strucure. The only difference is, the first 6 songs start with an acoustic guitar riff and the rest (apart from the last one) start off with an electric guitar riff. None of the songs start with a drum beat, or ambience or anything different. Most of the songs seem to have the same mood or themes and this makes it very tedious. Brad Arnold's singing is also very monotonous. He hardly changes pitch or volume throughout the whole album.

This is not a bad album for those who are new to rock. It certainly contains quite a few catchy hooks. But in the end, the album, as a whole, comes off quite bland due to its monotony. If you want something heavy, alternative, or if you want variety this is not the album for you. February 7, 2007

Im Passing Away onto the better life

This is the perfect cd by 3dd before they changed their sound (much to my dissapointment). The songs are all in your face, straightforward rock songs so no bulls**ting around and no soft songs (except for 'Be Like That' which kicks @$$!). The better life is my fav song on the cd but all the songs are worthy of 5 stars as they display real talent and appreciation towards the rock genre. I cant compare this cd to any other as its sound is very unique and special in its own right. Pick it up today and ROCK ON! August 18, 2006

Not at all what I expected...

When I first got this album years ago, through a CD club - I fully expected to sell or trade it. Well, I sill have it.
Everyone knows the hits Kryptonite, Loser, etc. - you couldn't turn on the radio back then without hearing one of them. Those songs are fine however, the best songs on the album may be Not Enough and Life Of My Own. Both songs are straight ahead rock with hooks and melodies that grab you.
This album isn't anything new. It's just basic rock that came back after the "grunge" era. A very good rock album and well worth the inexpensive price. July 5, 2006

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