Papa Roach: More Emo but improved

Well after a 2 year or so silence from the NOcal band, a sobered up Jacoby Shaddix and Papa Roach returned with their new album titled Getting Away With Murder. The up-side is Jacoby and the band have matured in their music, lyrics, and concerts. The down side? Well there isn't much of one except they've gone slightly more emo.

Lets begin off with the first track "Blood empty Promises ". "I will forgive but I won't forget, and I hope you know you've lost my respect." Those are the words that start what is clearly Papa Roach's best album. You can tell the band has a completely new sound. The only problem is that Jacoby's screaming returns which we all had to listen to during the last album Lovehatetragedy. The song obviously shows it's meaning when Jacoby sings/screams the chorus words "Does it run in your blood to betray the ones you love".

Next up is the song "Not Listening". The musical sound is similar to the papa roach tone that we've all heard in the past albums, and the song shows Jacoby still has the baddass image to him, especially when he sings "I'm not listening not anymore".

The third song on the cd, titled "Stop Looking Start Seeing" is one of my least favorite songs on the cd. The band sounds extremely disorganized on the song and to me the drumbeat sounds completely offtempo with the rest of the band. The song makes you think that maybe Papa Roach took a little too long absence from the music scene.

Next up is their third single from the album. "Take Me" starts to show Jacoby's emotional side; a side which we hardly saw throughout the past. His emotional side shows when he sings "My soul is in a coma and none of my friends can tell". What I do enjoy about the song though is how after the 3rd chorus the whole tempo changes and then Jacoby half sings/half says "Does anyone around me feel the same? Put your fist up and vent your pain".

Fifth song on the cd is their first single and title track "Getting Away With Murder". I will not go into much detail about this song because I am sure most of you who are reading this have heard the song by now seeing it got extremely overplayed (well here in Atlanta anyway). Anyway this is Papa Roach at their absolute best, and apparently the record company recognized that when making it the single. For the first time on the album there is an instrumental break, which is pretty rare for Papa Roach to do. But after that Jacoby takes his voice a whole octive higher and to me thats what makes this song great.

After that comes "Be Free". The song lyrics are horrible, all he is singing about is getting drunk and getting into fights after playing shows. While this song does show Jacoby's past before sobering up, it is without question the most disappointing song in the album. After you hear this the first time you will think that it is the only time you want to hear it.

Song seven on Getting Away With Murder is "Done With You". Along with GAWM, and Scars this is the elite of the album. The song is talking about a really bad relationship with his girlfriend when he is attempting to sober up. You get the impression she did not help too much with helping him get over his addiction. The music in the song is really good too because drums arent played throughout the entire song. Dont get me wrong, the band has a good drummer, but for this song drums are not really needed.

Next up is the album's second single and the song that people of all music genres recognize Papa Roach for. The song is "Scars". Pretty much the song was a hit single waiting to happen. Like on "Getting Away With Murder", i won't go into much detail on this song because i am sure everyone of you has heard this. For once the record executives picked the best songs to be singles on the album.

After Papa Roach's ballad comes the titled "Sometimes". The song at first begins off with an acoustic guitar and Jacoby sings what would make you think he is seranading his girlfriend or something to that effect. Then after he sings "and i am searching for the answers," the distortion kicks in and you then remember you are listening to Papa Roach and not Simon & Garfunkel.

The tenth song is "Blanket of Fear." Along with "Be Free", the song is the worst on the album. The singing is too raw and the song is general is just BLAH. That is really the only way to explain it.

The next to last song is titled "Tyranny of Normality". The song is pretty much ridiculing the media. It is a really political song and if you do not want to know their views skip the song. Other than that the music without the lyrics are really good. And for once Jacoby's screaming sounds decent when he sings/screams "I mourn the death of outrage, the obiturary's on the front page".

Finally the album comes to an end with the song "Do or Die". I am in love with this song, probably because I can relate to it. The point of the song is well as Jacoby states in the song "Its never too late to live your life the time is now its Do or Die". The music is really amazing too. I love the guitar riff. It really fits the song adequately and along with the other parts of the music the song is a good ending to Getting away with Murder

track list
1. Blood (empty promises)
2. Not Listening
3. Stop Looking Start Seeing
4. Take Me
5. Getting Away With Murder
6. Be Free
7. Done With You
8. Scars
9. Sometimes
10. Blanket of Fear
11. Tyranny of Normality
12. Do or Die