Album Reviews

Chevelle
This Type Of Thinking Could Do Us In
Epic Records, 2004

5 Anuses out of 10

Review by: Eliminator

Chevelle is pretty much a new, watered-down version of Tool. The inspiration is obvious. Their first video was even a Tool-inspired stop motion video. On this new album Chevelle continues to bring a bit of Tool-inspired hard rock to the table. Although the songs are much more polished and mass-consumption-ready than anything Tool has done, they do have a good song or two in them.

On This Type Of Thinking Could Do Us In Chevelle bring forth the same "teen angst" style of songs they've been making for the past few albums. These are songs of angst that the MTV teenage crowd will definitely enjoy. They are just short and simple enough to make the teenagers love them.

The one problem with the album that I found: No real stand-out cuts. If you've heard the two singles--"Vitamin R" and "The Clincher"--you've pretty much heard everything on the album. I've listened to the album a few times and none of the cuts have me going "DAMN! THIS SHIT IS TIGHT!" That's not to say it is a terribly bad album. Much like the Daft Punk album I gave a similar critique of, this album is an alright listen... the first time or two you hear it. This is definitely not "classic material" by any estimation. I hate to accuse this fine Chicago band of making disposable material, but truth be told this is the kind of album you download from the internet, listen to a few times, and never bother to buy the album even though you are going to post a review of it on the internet.

The album starts off with the single "The Clincher." It leads into "Get Some" which is a good song. This is followed by "Vitamin R" the anti-Ritalin lead-off single. Every other song after that sounds pretty much like one of those three. Although I applaud the anti-Ritalin message of "Vitamin R" I can't fully get into this album because there aren't any "defining" tracks anywhere besides the two singles.

So, in conclusion: The album is just so-so in my humble opinion. It is one of those albums where the singles are all that matters. The rest is just filler. A lot of today's most popular albums suffer from this same problem.

Track Listing:

1. The Clincher
2. Get Some
3. Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)
4. Still Running
5. Breach Birth
6. Panic Prone
7. Another Know It All
8. Tug-O-War
9. To Return
10. Emotional Drought
11. Bend The Bracket

Back to Music Reviews