This must be a Wonderful blessing.....

Hmm...blessing. From all the pop sh!t that is cramming my radio- that's exactly what Staind is doing. Saving me from more syruppy pop-synth garbage that is coming around in a never ending apocolyptic shmorgasborg. Well, with that being said, let's find out what makes them a blessing...

The first song that I heard from Staind was " Been a While". I was sitting on the beach, and the intro was so soft that I had to turn it up. That was the first rarity that started a chain of events. Then, a very...dark [I think this is the word I want] and very hurt voice crooned into the airwaves. This prompted me to sit up and stare at my radio as if it grew a head and was having a normal conversation with me. I was impressed with the first block of lyrics- something that is ever so ever rare in the normal radio world [naturally with a few exceptions...]. That was the second thing that was rather rare. Third was the fact that by the end of the song, I felt like my heart and soul had just been ripped apart, and I felt like I was about to cry. And crying all in itself is a very rare thing. Talk about blessings...

So, my day at the beach concluded with me in a thinking state- quite unimaginable since I'm blonde- and wondering who the hell this man? band? was. Well- the music gods are good- MTV played the video. And that vid in one word was a total:

wow.

I truly understood now why the song had such an effect on me as I stared at my radio on the beach. But, alas, the band had a totally effective name- Staind. Staind what? Heart? Soul? Mental scar-age? I didn't know what it was for, but it sure as hell caught my attention [yet another rarity since I'm ADHD positive...what?]. Then after the first hit, came "Fade" and "Outside". Both very good, very moody and still hit me with the slack-jaw staring impression as "Been a While". At the time, I was big into Linkin Park- and I still am- but the emotions that were stirred was something I don't think LP will even hold a candle to.

As a highly well-informed fan of LP, I knew- and still- know nothing about Staind. I finally bought the CD, Break The Cycle in January. And it would seem that since I feel like I just went through the biggest emotional wars of my life in about an hour, Staind has me totally addicted. I don't want to go into great detail on each track (since my attention span is being stretched just writing this), but if you were remotely as captivated as I was when I heard the singles that were released, I would most certainly recommend the Parental Advisory version of Break The Cycle (after all, what good is the impact of the lyrics if they're bleeped out?).
Just be warned- it's rough, heavy, emotional and most of all, it will leave you looking at the ceiling while you wonder if you just did a total re-run of every emotion you ever felt...I can't wait for the next album (due May 20, 2003).