Creed - Weathered

The multiplatinum kings of MOR nu metal have gotten a bit more aggressive and intense--to fine effect--on some of Weathered's 11 stellar, radio-friendly tracks. For those who prefer the soft side of singer/stud Scott Stapp and his cohorts, there are the melodic and soaring "Hide" and "Don't Stop Dancing." But more interesting is "Bullets," which finds Stapp raging before a surprisingly heavy and intense musical backdrop. Other highlights include the Seattle-sound throwback "Freedom Fighter," the Zeppelinesque "Who's Got My Back," and the disc's first single, "My Sacrifice." The effects-laden, passionate "Signs" contrasts nicely with the laid-back, world-weary title track and "Lullaby." Ultimately, Weathered gently expands the seemingly fail-proof formula. --Katherine Turman Amazon.com

"Been trading love for indifference, yeah it suits me just fine..."

Stapp's lyrics describe "Weathered" pretty accurately here.

Now, for giving this CD one star, I realize many will give me a thumbs down automatically; but at least let me say this: I am not here to hate on the fans. If you like the CD, that's your perogative. I am not writing this to diss you guys/girls. What I am here to do is describe why I dislike this CD.

"Weathered" has been collecting dust for about 6-7 years now on my CD shelf. But, sometimes before I throw out older CDs like this: I decide to give them another listen with the hope that perhaps the CD would have grown on me somewhat. Nope, I discovered, with "Weathered" nothing had improved in the slightest.

When I said that Stapp's lyrics accurately described the CD, I was not kidding. It is evident that he is indifferent, especially when he sings. Now, the man can sing: but singing requires more then just sound emminating from one's vocal tract. Stapp seems to disagree though as he has absolutely zero passion. He sounds bored and monotonous on the songs - almost as if he was tired of singing his own music, especially the ballad-driven who's got my back? Monotonous singing is never a good sign. When an artist is bored with his own music, there is a serious problem. It makes the CD sound not only forced; but fake and empty. The emptiness makes the songs sound flat to my ears, making me tire of the vocals easily, especially when the vocals get repetitive to the point of annoyance. Perhaps, I may be allowed to go as far as saying that Stapp and Tremonti sound as if they just slapped together songs for a CD that would gain more cash. There is no passion in the vocals - or CD - at all.

Lyrical content is also very lacking - some of them are downright cheesy and embarrassing. Lyrics such as "so now you live on in the words of a song, you're a melody" or "I'm trying to find a reason to live, but the mindless clutter my path" combined with unpassionate singing make the songs sound absolutely ridiculous. The lyrics are just bad poetry and seem slapped together. If Stapp does not even try to make his own music with a small margin of seriousness, why should I take the band seriously? Let me not forget that a lot of the lyrics are cliche and stolen from other sources: "ashes to ashes and dust to dust", "give love to all", and "for you the bell tolls" are all phrases that we have heard before. Now I'm not insinuating that quotations/lyrics/inspirations from other sources are bad; but when you find the cliched lyrics in every song, it just gets tiresome. It gets very irritating to try to listen to.

But, that is only part of it. On many songs, hypocrisy is at an all time high. Stapp sings about loving unselfishly or to "give love to all", yet throughout the rest of the album, anything but love can be seen through their songs. What we get, on the coherent songs, is a right-wing Christian message bashed over the listener's head again and again in a self-righteous manner. Lyrics such as: "Unlike those who hide the truth I tell it like it is/If the truth will set you free/I feel sorry for your soul", "See the signs now", "Believe what you will/that is your right/but I choose to win/I choose to fight" and so on seem like condemnation rather than love. Now, I'm a Christian; but I absolutely hate it when anyone, in this case a "band", acts self-righteous and judgmental to anyone who does not believe in the same thing as them. Then they turn around and claim to be teaching others to "give love to all" (in the song Lullaby). This aspect also adds to the fakeness of the album, along with the monotonous vocals. It is both irritating and laughable at the same time, if that's possible. On one hand, the preachiness is just annoying; but the monotonous vocals and terrible lyric writing make me want to laugh with embarrassment.

If that was not bad enough there is the instrumentals, which all sound the same. The songs all seem to have the same chords played in the background, only slightly modified from one another. This also adds to the grating aspect. Tremonti and Philips seem bored while playing in the background as Stapp wades painfully through each song at the forefront. They're given nothing to do but play the same chords, albeit slightly modified, over and over again.

The sad thing is that I subjected myself to listen to "Weathered" a second time with some small margin of hope after putting it aside for 6-7 years. Now I remember why I stopped listening to it. Even sadder, is that Stapp's uninspired lyrics seem to state the obvious about the band. "I'll scream it from the mountain tops, pride comes before a fall," he yells in "Freedom Fighter". For a band that claimed "Weathered" was their "Joshua Tree" album-wise there's too much pride with a less than mediocre album (Weathered) as a result.

I guess the proof is in the pudding - or I should say - lyrics. June 4, 2008

Dense, meaty 00's hard rock

Creed copped grief over the years as they were considered lightweights. Which always confused me since they were at least as heavy as many other bands that were lauded by the purists as great hard rock bands. I mean put up just about any of their albums against stuff like a lot of Deep Purple or Thin Lizzy and you'll find Creed just as heavy. Not necessarily as good, but as heavy. So quite why magazines like Classic Rock always felt compelled to put them down I'm not sure, apart from the jealousy factor.

And so that's my whine. As to the music? Well IMHO;

This album is in my mind the heaviest of the three Creed albums. Not that My Own Prison wasn't somewhat raw and attacking, it's just that here the band are able to manipulate their attack better and use their years of experience to create a more satisfying listening experience. With a general philosophy of everything louder than everything else Scott Stapps beautifully powerful roar swoops and soars through and over heavy rock stompers like the opening Bullets, a statement of intent if ever there was one.

As the album moves through it's numbers it becomes apparent that not every track is a gosh darn classic. I mean I've listened to this album plenty of times and still have trouble recalling the details of Freedom Fighter and Who's Got My Back but the fact is that even the more anonymous tunes here still fit on the album. They are consistent, if unspectacular.

Of course what got this album to hit the stratosphere sales wise wasn't just the groundwork laid with the previous album but the heads down rock of songs like Weathered which ride a seductive vocal melody atop a slow stomper of a musical attack. Not to mention the huge hit that was My Sacrifice, a soulful effort that can be taken in a number of ways. And that is a good thing as my gut instinct is that people don't want to be preached at. If they wanted that they'd buy a Gregorian chant album or something wouldn't they! And while this bands and Stapps in particular religious bent is well known for the most part they are smart enough to leave their lyrics open enough to interpretation to allow everyone to enjoy them.

As for the rest of the album, one of my favourite ever Creed numbers is Stand Here With Me where Stapp uses every ounce of that roaring voice of his to bring together both strident and lamenting aspects. But apart from that I find little use for songs such as Don't Stop Dancing or Lullaby, being the sort of tunes I listen once and then studiously ignore.

And that's why I can only give this album a low four stars. It is a good rock album but it's marred by a dud track or two above the allowable quota. November 17, 2007

Great

This is just a great cd. Love them or hate them, Creed made a stellar cd here. The absolutely perfect "Stand here with me", "My Sacrifice", "Weathered", "Signs", "Freedom Fighter" are all as infectious as they are quality! Just great stuff. Sure, there are a couple slow points, but that is to be expected.
This is just an excellently (if not overly) produced and executed cd. Thats all there is too it. November 14, 2006

Weathered Creed

When the rock group Creed stepped out of the studio for the third time, there were doubts about the band's third album. But once the record's first single: "My Sacrafice" hit the airwaves, it was clear that WEATHERED was going to be an amazing piece of work. And it was, ALL of the record's tracks stand out in their sound, lyrics, and originality. This time around, Stapp delved further into his Native American herritage for new sounds. This is quite apparent for the track "Who's Got My Back?". Amie Stapp along with the Tallahassee Boys' Choir joins her husband in peforming beautiful vocals for the song "Don't Stop Dancing". Stapp also brings forth his political lyrics again as he had for Creed's debut record. These words took on new meaning after the tragedy that struck our country just two months before WEATHERED's release. These words are really "in your ears" for the tracks "Freedom Fighter" and "Signs". Drummer Scott Phillips takes on a bigger role as well, for he produces more melodies and harmonies for he also performs keyboards. Mark Tremonti also performs bass as well as the guitar for this album, giving even more musical sounds than the group had ever produced. He backs off the distortion and dismisses it entirely for the beautiful accoustic performance on the track "Lullaby". When distortion is used, Tremonti balances it out with a clean guitar tone and this is apparent for most of the tracks. WEATHERED is Creed's most musical and best work. This record is a must have. July 1, 2006

Creed releases their best effort

By the time 2001 had come around, Creed had established themselves as one of the top Rock bands in the world. Their 1997 debut album, "My Own Prison" showed the great potential that this band had. "My Own Prison" was an album with a very raw sound that was dominated by guitars. While "My Own Prison" demonstrated a very strong Rock sound, one problem was that the guitars of Mark Tremonti often overpowered Scott Stapp's vocals. As a result, we never really saw the full potential of Stapp's vocals on "My Own Prison". A unique thing about "My Own Prison" is that the band demonstrated a strong Christian influence. On the band's sophomore effort - "Human Clay" they moved away from the Christian influence and polished up their sound. However despite the fact that the Christian influence wasn't nearly as prevalent, there still was high quality in the music. Most importantly, Stapp's vocals and Tremonti's guitars stuck an equilibrium allowing each of them to showcase their amazing talents. As a result I had "Human Clay" as the Best Album of the year 2000. Now Creed faced the difficult task of following up an amazing album. This follow-up was 2001's "Weathered" - and despite being criticized by many, this album surpasses "Human Clay" in terms of quality. The only thing that prevents this from being the Best Album of 2001 is that U2 released their own masterpiece - "All That You Can't Leave Behind" (my pick for Best Album of 2001).

There are two major changes that happen on this album. First up, Bassist Brian Marshall is no longer with the band - leaving Creed as a trio (Stapp, Tremonti, and Scott Phillips). Bass duties are now picked up flawlessly by Mark Tremonti. The second big change is that Creed mixes things up more on this album. Creed isn't afraid to improvise and experiment on this effort. They move away from the classic guitar formula they used on the first two albums and even make significant use of keyboards (in which the duties are picked up by Drummer Scott Phillips).

Here is a review of each of the tracks:

"Bullets": I admit, when I first heard this track - it did not impress me. It still doesn't impress me. I found this song to be a raw, guitar sound that seemed a cross between heavy metal and punk rock. I think this is the weakest track of the album. However, I still have to give Creed some credit for trying something different. Overall, this song is going to showcase Tremonti.

"Freedom Fighter": This song still also has a raw, hard-rocking grunge-like sound that Creed fans are accustomed to. This song gives Stapp more of a chance to showcase his vocals. This song didn't impress me much each.

"Who's Got My Back?": After a slow start to the album, it is on the third track where things really pick up. Creed assembles a 8 minute 25 second masterpiece. One of the highlights of the song is the use of a Cherokee Indian Prayer at the beginning and the end. The use of keyboards is very prevalent in this song. While this isn't necessarily a song about the American Indian, the lyrics can relate to the plight they went through ("There's Still Time; All that has been devastated; Can be recreated"). This song is a masterpiece and really demonstrates why Creed became on of the elite bands in music.

"Signs": This song goes back more toward Creed's trademark grunge-like sound. Here is another example where Tremonti's guitars and Stapp's vocals are in great balance. Many criticized this song, but I really enjoyed. Listen to how Stapp digs deep on the chorus by singing "Come with me...". This song discusses "Signs" that effect society today - age, spirituality, sex, and racism.

"One Last Breath": Creed "tones it down" for this song. Stapp's vocals are incredible and contain real emotion as Stapp reflects on the things that happened to him in his life as he thinks his life is over (as he knows it). This song contains some spirtitual references to God - particulary "Somewhere in His grace; I cried out heaven save me". There even is almost an orchestral quality to the melody at parts of this song. Perhaps the only thing this song is guilty of is that this song was overplayed too much on the radio.

"My Sacrifice": "One Last Breath" has gentle segue into this song. Like "One Last Breath", this song was overplayed a lot on conventional radio. However, musically this is one of the better tracks on this collection. Stapp's vocals shine on this track as well. The orchestral quality to the music also exists on this track. Phillips has some great drumming.

"Stand Here With Me": Another solid song. Tremonti delivers some of the best guitar riffs on any Creed album. Unlike in the early days, Tremonti delivers the guitar work without sacrificing Stapp's vocals.

"Weathered": This song deals with how the hardships of life eventually wears down someone. This is a song in which Stapp delivers another amazing performance - making this song worthy of a title track. Creed mixes up the tempo on this song - and it works.

"Hide": Creed continues to tone it down. This song demonstrates a typical post-grunge radio-friendly sound, but once again Stapp delivers a flawless performance.

"Don't Stop Dancing": This song also demonstrates the post-grunge radio-friendly sound. Not a bad song. Unfortunately it demonstrates much of the cookie-cutter sound that was soon to infiltrate conventional radio. This features a guest vocal from Stapp's sister Amy.

"Lullaby": While the album starts with a very raw and hard sound - things are "weathered" down by the end to this very soft and gentle sound. As indicated by the title, this is a lullaby.

Creed demonstrated a lot on this collection. It is too bad that this would be their last album before splitting. This collection is highly recommended. June 13, 2006

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