Released on July 21st Burn, Burn is the 7th album put out by Our Lady Peace. It’s too long a time between albums (4 years) and it’s also the first album not to have involved collaboration with an outside producer, having instead been produced by band vocalist Raine Maida. The one that I have is the deluxe version with 2 extra songs.
Ok so the cd stars off nicely with the first single All You Did Was Save My Life. It’s a mid-tempo song with Maida singing, in a lower tone, about gratitude. Dreamland features some good drumming by Jeremy Taggart. Lyrically it’s about working hard & struggling and dreaming about better times when things are going good for you (In this dreamland the kids are alright, And the sky is blue.. ).
Monkey Brains sounds a lot like Brit pop except for the chorus part. The song’s foundation is set by the tandem rhythm section of Duncan Coutts’ bass work and Taggart’s drum. Towards the end the song’s time signature changes drastically; extremely experimental for the band. The End Is Where We Begin is up next, another mid-tempo track about taking more chances and not giving up. A little atmospheric feeling (reminds me of a cold, autumn night) haunts Escape Artist, helped no doubt by the keyboards.
Refuge is a semi-ballad and probably the weakest song on the album. Never Get Over You, the second single, is the song about a breakup and the feeling of loss after that. The song was praised by Billboard as being a ‘killer ballad’. White Flags compares a relationship fight with the state of the world and it’s wars (And this whole world is gone crazy, God’s gone a little lazy). Signs Of Life is another intimate & personal struggles song.
Paper Moon is one of my favs of this album, calm laments of aging in the guise of a wonderful song. Steve Mazur’s guitars shine on this one. Bonus track #1 is Time Bomb, about being stuck in a rut of life. While bonus track #2 is the very different The Right Stuff, which I humbly state, should be a single. It’s a great track and very cool. Overall I like this album better than the previous one, Healthy In Paranoid Times, but I sure hope they don’t take 4 years before the next one.