Saturday, January 28, 2012

Let's give this another try...

Artist: Breaking Benjamin
Album: We Are Not Alone
Released: June 29, 2004

The 1990s is and always will be by far my favorite era for music.  I probably listen to stuff from the '90s more than I listen to music from all other eras combined.  Personally, I see nothing wrong with that; why should anyone not listen to what they like?  Yet sometimes people will ask me if I ever listen to anything else, and the answer is that I absolutely do.  You might see from an earlier blog post that I am a pretty big Genesis fan (from before the '90s).  One of my favorite groups from the 2000s is Breaking Benjamin, and We Are Not Alone is the album that got me interested in them.

By the time Breaking Benjamin achieved big success in the early 2000s, the nature of rock music had changed quite a bit from the grunge era of the early 1990s.  There was the post-grunge era of the middle and late 1990s that was a little more down-to-earth and mainstream in nature, but around 2000 or so, things began to swing in the opposite direction.  We saw bands such as 3 Doors Down, Seether, Staind, and Audioslave (the latter led by Chris Cornell) that at first achieved success on the pop charts but who over the long run garnered a more focused following.  By around 2003, rock (at least as we know it from the 1990s) had moved almost entirely out of the mainstream.  Personally, I had stopped listening to pop radio stations around this time and started listening to rock stations.  (I basically never listen to music on the radio anymore, but that's another discussion.)

The type of music that such bands released in the early and middle 2000s was not radically different from the grunge material from about ten years earlier, but there were some noticeable differences.  The sound was a little more intense, while the vocals played a more important role.  Also, the songs seemed to lack the social conscience found in, say, the early days of Pearl Jam or Soundgarden, and instead expressed more personal experiences or emotions.  It is within this context that Breaking Benjamin released We Are Not Alone, which was actually their second album.

"So Cold" obviously was the big hit from this album; it is also the first track.  Back in the fall of 2004, I remember having the radio on all the time hoping it would be played (which it frequently was).  If you haven't watched the music video for this song, I would recommend doing so; it's actually interesting and well-done.  The other two hits come later; "Sooner or Later" is in the middle, while "Rain" is the last track.  The former is like a low-key version of "So Cold"; depending on your mood, it might be a little more enjoyable to listen to than "So Cold" is.  "Rain" is the slowest track on the album, just as the last track is on so many other rock albums.  I'm actually surprised that it didn't achieve more mainstream success; it is clearly geared towards a more popular audience.

Most of the rest of the tracks honestly aren't that distinguishable from each other.  Tracks 3-11 are all under four minutes, which makes it a little easier to get through.  Still, I tended to rate the songs below more on their uniqueness than I have on other reviews.  Of the non-released singles, "Follow" is my favorite, though "Simple Design" is a close second.  "Firefly", "Break My Fall", "Breakdown", and "Away" are pretty intense songs that are good in their own right, but again there's virtually no experimentation at this point.  Indeed, the listener might be exhausted by the time "Away" comes around.  "Forget It" is a calmer and, frankly, enjoyable break, along with the aforementioned "Sooner or Later".  I will say that I find "Believe", the second-to-last track, to be catchy.  I think that's because it's more upbeat than many of the previous tracks.

There are a few issues to address both with this album and with this era of music as a whole.  This is a really good album, but with little innovation within the album, it was questionable as to how far Breaking Benjamin and other bands could carry this sound.  Indeed, here nearly eight years later, this style of rock has quickly fizzled out while not much of note has succeeded it, though Breaking Benjamin did put out some other good tracks later on.  In any case, We Are Not Alone is an enjoyable album that also captures a unique and important moment in modern rock.

Track #, Name of Song, Duration, My Rating

1. So Cold (4:33) - 10/10
2. Simple Design (4:14) - 9/10
3. Follow (3:16) - 10/10
4. Firefly (3:07) - 8/10
5. Break My Fall (3:23) - 8/10
6. Forget It (3:36) - 9/10
7. Sooner or Later (3:38) - 10/10
8. Breakdown (3:36) - 8/10
9. Away (3:12) - 7/10
10. Believe (3:18) - 9/10
11. Rain (3:25) - 8/10

Here's a link to the "So Cold" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTiGlNDnOtE