“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Carl Sagan on the Pale Blue Dot.
“Carl Sagan rolling in his grave,
We all lie to ourselves sayin’ it’s just a phase
Yeah, we’re all fucked, yeah, we can’t be saved
Now we know that we’re all gonna get it”
Theory Of A Deadman – Dinosaur.
Look at social media for two minutes and you’ll know TOAD are right. We’re beyond help and beyond hope. The idiots have taken over and their acolytes are cool with it.
But here’s the thing. At least on “Dinosaur”, if these are the end of days, then, brother we’re going down swinging (there’s a song title in there, somewhere….) and more importantly, TOAD are back.
This is metaphorically back, you understand. What I mean is where 2020s “Say Nothing” was a little too poppy, then “Dinosaur” (which was produced by Jason Mraz’s producer and recorded where Abba made their shits hits) is the sound of one of the worlds best pop rock bands. Simple as that.
So “Dinosaur” surveys the end of days and gets its fists up in the air, “Medusa (Stone)” swings, even if its discussing destructive love (and if I don’t mention hooks, then can we just assume every song here has one).
All of these are around minutes long and in another lifetime they’ve all got hit single written right through, “Sick” for example would have been a gold record in 1988, now its counting Spotify streams in the hundreds of thousands. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.
Just before the album came out they released “Two Of Us (Stuck)” as a single, and yes, it samples the pop song, but gives it a modern twist, and right in the middle is another of the singles. “Ambulance” is a little heavier, but at the same time, its got Tyler Connolly rapping on it. Something of a bridge between the last album and this, its brilliant. Even if I’ve got no intention of “going home in an ambulance”.
The album was always going to have a power ballad, and its got “Sideways”, but they actually rather cleverly follow this up with “Get In Line”, perhaps the heaviest thing on the record. If this is going to start a mosh pit then its going to start it here. There must be something in the Canadian water, seeing as Three Days Grace have made a career out of this too.
“Head In Clouds” is warmer than a summer breeze, and actually all the country stars that I review on this site have this type of reflective, mid-paced rocker, to say its got mainstream appeal is rather redundant seeing as Theory Of A Deadman are massive whatever I say. “Hearts Too Wild” probably underlines why. It’s “Never Say Goodbye” for the streaming generation. “Summer Song” is a little more punky, as it goes. A there’s a bit of Everclear here, and that’s never a bad thing. It is over and done with in two and a half minutes, and rhymes “Summer” with “bummer” and “funner”, which is genius, however you look at it.
“Dinosaur” is 35 minutes of pop music, on one hand, but its pop music that rather neatly proves that Theory Of A Deadman” are back …..and far from extinct. I’ve resisted that awful line until the very end, and you probably stopped reading this a long time ago anyway.
Rating 8.5/10
