The 25th-year anniversary, let’s be honest, is usually a way to part punters with their cash. I know because I’ve had my wallet emptied many times by these things.
Here’s one a little different. You see, you might love “Human Clay”, you might know every damn nuance of it. Me? I decided I wouldn’t like it. I know “With Arms Wide Open” and “Higher” like everyone does, but I decided – based on no evidence as per the modern way – that I wouldn’t like it.
Then two things happened. I went to a gig with Alter Bridge headlining and it was really very good, and then I reviewed a Scott Stapp solo album and it was excellent.
So yeah, look, I might be wrong about this Creed thing. Shall we find out together? So in a first for reviews, this is part review, part live blog, because I’m listening to this for the first time.
“Are You Ready?” Well, are you? I wasn’t. Big, expansive. Like Stone Temple Pilots. Dammit. I wasn’t ready for this – what if it’s all that good?
Almost like I knew the following song was called “What If” really – this isn’t just thrown together, you know! It’s more of the same, starts with a brood and explodes into something great.
Okay sound.
By “Beautiful” it feels like I’ve got the feel, but like “Say I” it’s heavier than I expected.
But they aren’t a one-trick pony, “Faceless Man” kind of changes the vibe, but only by building slower than the others. They all have bombast, even “Never Die”, which is almost sparse, thunders into its chorus.
The songs are quite lengthy too. They have room to breathe, thanks to the skill of everyone here, and actually, they are better when they are a little more sparse as on “Wash Away Those Years”
The album proper ends with “Inside Us All” and you could argue it’s the best thing here, but in common with all these things, there’s a raft of bonus material.
Handy if you like “Arms Wide Open” because there are loads of versions of it. “To ‘Young Grow Old'” is way better, as it proves beyond a doubt that Stapp can roar like Chris Cornell, and “To Whom It May Concern” lurks in the shadows, like “Is This the End?”
The live tracks are fun, particularly “Roadhouse Blues,” sigh Robby Krieger, and if they’re never going to improve on perfection with “I’m Eighteen,” then they give it a bash.
The thing fans are going to go mad for is the never-before-heard gig from San Antonio in ’99.
There’s stuff on here not on “…Clay,” like “Ode,” which has the same flavour anyway, and “Torn,” together with “My Own Prison.”
“Are you ready to have some fun?” asks Stapp before “One,” and the mic’d-up crowd is.
And if Creed still doesn’t strike me as a “fun” band (they are too earnest and serious for that), then they are a good one.
This two hours proves that, and it also proves that I was wrong again. If you’ve been a fan for 25 years, you know already, but if you haven’t—in fact, especially if you haven’t—leave your preconceptions behind and listen to “Human Clay.”
Rating 8/10
