Falling Away From Me (Issues - Korn)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Issues - Korn
Date:	29/06/08 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A number of decent tracks feature here.

Disadvantages: The lyrics are dreadful, a lot of the tracks are fairly unspectacular.

'Issues' is the overrated fourth album from Korn; an album which marked a move away from the genre of nu-metal for the band. The music contained within this album possesses an alternative metal sound, it was quite an interesting move in sound for the band but 'Issues' has never been one of my personal favourites from the Korn back-catalogue. The album possesses a total of sixteen tracks and was released through Epic Records in November 1999; just 18 months after third album 'Follow the Leader'. The 'Issues' album possesses a total of 49 minutes of music; the actual run time of the album is 53 minutes, with the final four minutes of closing track 'Dirty' though all that can be heard is static so these four minutes don't really count as music.

Lyrically the music of Korn had always been excellent before the release of this album, third album 'Follow the Leader' was the bands breakthrough album however and with this 'Issues' release the bands lead vocalist Jonathan Davis all too often sings about celebrity life here. The band here mocks the fickleness of fame, I'm sure they loved the money really; they just didn't want the fan to know that. Speaking of fans, the lyrics also give a special mention to them, and how the band hated having to be nice to their fans when fame came; charming. Basically the lyrics portray the bands inflating egos at this stage, fame and fortune had recently come for Korn and the band here saw it fit to moan about how much they hated it.

'Falling Away From Me' was the first single released from this album and is one of the few tracks that I actually really enjoy from this 'Issues' album. The band here puts across its thoughts and feelings about domestic abuse; this is clearly something that the band feels strongly about and this comes across very much so with the music. It's a powerful piece of music, the anti-abuse messages are extremely poignant and really hit home as you listen to this track. Whereas with most tracks the band merely moans about fame, here the best use of it was made by bringing to the attention of millions the importance of reporting abuse. It's an excellent track from this 'Issues' album, most definitely one that I'd highly recommend listening to.

Lyrically this album is for the most part really rather dreadful, instrumentally also these tracks are rather bland and this is most definitely not one of the best albums to be found in the genre of alternative metal. There are a few tracks here that are quite impressive; 'Falling Away From Me' is excellent for a start, as too is 'Somebody Someone', and although '4 U' is pretty much a power ballad; that track too is really rather impressive from this album. This is not the worst album that Korn has ever released as a band, its most definitely not the best, still worth a listen though; particularly for die-hard fans of the band. I'd rather listen to the bands 'Korn' or 'Follow the Leader' albums than this, it's not bad though and if you can see past some of the bands terrible lyrics about fame then a good few fine tracks can be found here.

'Issues' is currently available from Amazon.co.uk for a price of £5.97; I seem to remember paying around £3 in an HMV sale for this one though so it's probably worth looking around and seeking out the best deal if you're going to be investing in Korn's 'Issues' album.

Summary: If you love Korn then 'Issues' is well worth owning, if not then probably don't bother.