Dead and Buried (Dead Letters - The Rasmus)

Member Name: NikkiH

Product:	Dead Letters - The Rasmus
Date:	28/07/04 (546 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A couple of good tracks

Disadvantages: Overshadowed by the dire

My daughter was the first person to bring The Rasmus to my attention. She is an avid music channel viewer, and started to sing a song around the house quite a lot. I later found out that the group behind the song were Finland based band The Rasmus, and I started to like the song she was singing, which was called ?In The Shadows?, and then their follow up single grew on me, so very unlike me, I bought the album based on how much I liked those two songs.

Opening track ?First Day Of My Life? starts off as if it is going to be a very heavy guitar drenched opening, but then the lyrics come in and they soften the track, making it much more listenable straight away. The bassline and the chorus mean that this becomes a grower. The lead singer Lauri Ylonen has a very good voice, which would not immediately strike you as a rock voice, especially as the pitch is higher than you?d expect, and the trademark rockers rasp is missing, but the band compliment his talents perfectly. For hardened rockers, there may be too much of a pop influence for it to hit the right buttons for them though.

Even though the band have been together for over a decade, and had already achieved a great deal of success in the rest of Europe, it was their recent release ?In The Shadows? which gave them the success they had been chasing for so long in The UK. As I have mentioned, this is one those songs that from the opening chant of ?Oh Oh Oh Oh?, to the catchy chorus, many people have found themselves humming or singing this song without even realizing they had taken that much notice of it. The verses are quite subdued, but it is the chorus which really jumps out and gets you to listen, and for me I love the lyrics ?I?ve been watching, I?ve been waiting, in the shadows for my time, I?ve been searching, I?ve be
en living, for tomorrows all my life??.sometimes are we all not a little guilty of that??

The band claim that each song on the album was written in the form of a letter, and all that differed with each track was the subject matter. ?Still Standing? is written to lover who for whatever reason is apart from the singer. Not one of the best tracks on the album, as the 1980?s influence just seems to have taken over a little, and it does not really sit well alongside all of the other songs.

The start of ?In My Life? reminds me so much of Audioslave, and then as if the band bottled out of trying to match them, they end up reminding me more of a pumped up Ocean Colour Scene. At this point, I was starting to think my money had not been well spent, and were the band really cheesy music lovers who had managed to con me with two decent single releases?..Well, my worries were pretty much worsened with ?Time To Burn?, as it is a Def Leppard rip off as far as I am concerned, and my earlier question about why it took the band so long to achieve success in The UK is now answered?because when you look at the current favourites on the music scene then The Rasmus just cannot compete, and mainly because they offer nothing new, nothing different, and they are poor copycats I am afraid

?Guilty? momentarily lifts my spirits, and takes me back to how much I enjoyed the first couple of tracks on the album. This song is guitar driven, a little heavier, but it has more heart than the two previous tracks put together. ?Not Like The Other Girls? carries on redeeming the band somewhat. It is a soothing well written track, and probably my favourite out of them all on this album, which would probably do well as a single, as I am sure there are still people out there who crave a good love song.

From being all loved
up, the band come up with ?The One I Love?, which is a tale of a lover scorned, but the band are just trying too hard to be taken seriously as rockers, and this just comes out as neither a good pop or rock song, and leaves you feeling rather flat, and ?Back In The Picture? had me physically cringing for the band. I would love to ask them what they wanted to try out on this song as the lyrics are terrible, and they end up sounding more like The Bangles than an up and coming pop rock band.

I am sure it will come as no surprise to you that ?Funeral Song? is an extremely melancholy affair, but that aside it is a damn good song. The emotion bubbles on the surface of every word, and rather than pleasing me, it just angers me that the band have not managed this standard of song all the way through the album. If they had, then I am sure their success would be long lasting, although I am sure by this time next year, they will join the ever growing list of??.who were they?

There is a special edition of the album which was meant to be available to all UK buyers, but as I bought mine from CD Wow, I think I got the standard release. The only reason I mention this, is that there are 3 bonus tracks on the UK release. So, would I recommend this? Hand on heart I would have to say no, because the lows far outweigh the highs, but make up your own mind, and if you want to find out more about the band then check out www.therasmus.com

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