Papa Roach
Crooked Teeth
Alternative Metal
Eleven Seven Music
May 19, 2017
Can be found at most major retailers, Online at www.paparoach.com,
iTunes and Amazon
The first listen of this album makes one feel as if Papa Roach have reached back into their original rap/rock roots while attempting to appeal to a larger audience with more pop and hip/hop influences. Listeners will find some of the tracks to sound like old school Papa Roach but other tracks are a bit more interesting.
Papa Roach have been together as a band since they were students in High School in Vacaville, CA. The band formed in 1993 and their first ever stage appearance was at a Vacaville High School talent show. They have released several successful albums over the years. Their first major label release, Infest, went triple platinum in 2000; followed by gold album Lovehatetragedy (2002), platinum album Getting Away With Murder (2004), The Paramour Sessions (2006), Metamorphosis (2009), Time for Annihilation (2010), The Connection (2012) and F.E.A.R. (2015). Having sold over 20 million albums nationwide over the last 24 years they are mostly known for their songs “Last Resort”, “Between Angels and Insects”, “She Loves Me Not”, “Getting Away With Murder”, “Scars”, “Forever”, “Lifeline” and “Getting Away With Murder”. They have made themselves a household name in the rock industry.
Crooked Teeth is the band’s ninth studio album and the first single released in Feb 2017, “Help”, topped Billboard charts and was received well by the music community. There were two other tracks released this year but they didn’t get nearly as much appreciation. One was track 6 on the album, “Periscope”, featuring Skylar Grey. That track sounds completely different from anything heard from this band before. Jacoby Shaddix rap skills are featured on track eight, “Sunrise Trailer Park” along with rap artist Machine Gun Kelly. This album transitions from rock to rap to pop and back to rock again by the end. It’s definitely something different from this band and shows they are capable of adapting to the trends in music popularity. By the end of the album, those who were hoping for a ground breaking new sound from Papa Roach will be left unfulfilled whereas those who haven’t followed them for years may particularly enjoy it. The lyrics and the instrumentals don’t stand out as anything profound, just your garden variety made for radio material. The album does feel a bit over produced and loses the raw metal sound that the band had back in the 2000’s. Over all this album was entertaining with the first listen but became rather redundant and boring after a few listens.
Rating this album 3 out of 5 mainly because of the attempt of originality found in a few tracks, otherwise not much on here screams greatness.
