For a band that I really used to like, I can't even listen to the whole song. The vocals are like an obnoxious, overplayed pop radio song, and that auto tune just takes it to another level of bad. Seriously, isn't the auto tune craze over?
Collide and Comatose were such great albums, looking back I would say the pinnacle of their work. When Awake came out, I heard an interview where John talked about how they hired a big name producer for that album, and that producer basically told the band to ditch some of what they thought were the best songs they had written for Awake, because they wouldn't sell records. That producer was Howard Benson, who had just done "Life Starts Now" with Three Days Grace," and I remember thinking how that album lacked in originality and the core vibe of the band, and replaced it with watered down, overproduced tunes. Sure enough, Awake, to me, felt like a bunch of pop-turned-rock songs that came out of focus group sessions rather than the band's creativity. Now, Awake was the band's best selling album to date, but I think a lot of that was riding off the success of Comatose. Move forward again, and Rise had pretty pitiful sales compared to Comatose and Awake, and I think that can be at least partly attributed to people being previously underwhelmed by Awake.
Basically, I think the art that brought out Collide and Comatose is gone, Alive was way too commercialized. Rise was not as bad in terms of selling out, but it just didn't have the power and continuity of their best work, it felt disorganized. This new single sounds like they're trying to go for really mainstream, radio-ready material again... but I doubt it will work! They need another raw rock album again to get back on track.
