Saliva
Blood Stained Love Story
Island Records
Where do I begin?
Do I start with the fact that Saliva has been producing very generic rock music since 2001 and has produced one album that has been slightly reworked and packaged as five albums complete with new music?
Or should I start with the “rock star look” that, for Saliva, is just looking ridiculous? With their fifth album, Blood Stained Love Story, Saliva prove that they are still around and making increasingly generic and radio-friendly rock.
How about the fact that this is a perfect example of record labels taking a decent band and dumbing-down the music to make it sound like everything else and therefore sell more? The Saliva of “Click, Click Boom” and “Your Disease” is gone and corporate Saliva is here. It’s too bad. They were pretty good when they first broke out in 1999.
Here’s where I do give them credit: None of their albums have a parental advisory sticker and all but one of the members thank God. Now for an album named Blood Stained Love Story you’d think that it’d be filled with yelling and swearing and not nice things. This isn’t fluffy-frilly, but it’s something I’d let my elementary–school aged son listen in on. Songs like “Broken Sunday” and “One More Chance” sound just like hundreds of others songs that have been played over and over on the radio, so having him listen to two more that could be played won’t make much difference. Although, me being a critic, I wouldn’t let him listen to this because there are hundreds of other songs that are better.
The members of Saliva are covered with tattoos, a couple have makeup; their hair is either long or spiked and dyed, and they have the pissed off rock star scowl. Now if their music didn’t sound rehashed, overdone and made-for-radio, that would be perfectly normal. Even though Saliva still looks like the hard rock band they were, Blood Stained Love Story sounds more like something that Nickelback threw out.
Saliva: http://www.saliva.com
