Anyway, let's start things off with a review I forgot to do in May!
If I hadn't listened to Shinedown's back catalogue before listening to this album, I probably wouldn't have been so keen to give this album a try based on the first few tracks I heard. They're not bad songs but despite being heavier than singles released from their last album like "Cut The Cord" and "Black Cadillac", the amount of actual Rock songs on Attention Attention is a bit too slim. Album opener "The Entrance" is a pointless atmospheric introduction (yay concept albums!) to the true album opener "Devil", a solid lead single with heavier percussion, a great guitar riff and some catchy backing vocals in the chorus. This song's a good example of Shinedown's ability to write good Rock songs built around a single musical hook and multiple vocal melodies; it's just a shame it's not the best representative for the album to come.
As someone who liked The Sound Of Madness and Amaryllis more than Threat To Survival, it's good to hear tracks with more power translated through each instrument into proper Rock. Songs like "Pyro" and "Evolve" are energetic and contain some more aggressive vocals and riffs to kick down your ear-doors whilst title track "Attention Attention" is a good song for fans of previous material due to the slower, punchier rhythm and lack of needless experimentation. However, these Rock songs are the smoked ham and mustard between damp, mushy slices of Pop bread in this disappointment sandwich.
"Get Up" and "Special", a pair of straight-up Pop songs built around piano melodies and featuring string/synth accompaniments instead of guitar riffs and pounding percussion, might have the passion as far as songwriting goes but they'd be more at home on a Take That album, blasted out by some floppy haired twat on one of those vapid talent shows about hard-done by twenty year olds who just really want to make music for an audience of about 70 million paying customers. I'm aware that Shinedown are no strangers to the softer, more emotional material but something about these tracks felt more hollow; more commercial. That's my biggest issue with the album.
The bulk of the music would easily fall into the Pop Rock bargain bucket, right next to Fall Out Boy ("Kill Your Conscience") and Goo Goo Dolls ("Creatures"), even if the band have put their own unique twist on these tracks. "Black Soul" does a good job of compensating for the introduction with a heavy chorus but what we needed was more tracks like "Monsters" or "Darkside"; songs that are slower, still vocally driven but contain those great guitar melodies and the energy of a Rock song, even if they also feature those Pop aspects here and there.
Thankfully, the band limit their curiosity to experiment to one track at the end of the album: "The Human Radio". The bizarre mix of Electronic and Rock could've been a great song with a few more Rock elements but otherwise, it's not bad. The use of vocoders and more prominent synth melodies reminded me of Muse without the pretentiousness and it's a good song to listen to before "Brilliant", the uplifting outro and strong finish to a mediocre record...up until the last minute of noise, but you can ignore that. Despite my general panning of the more commercial aspects of the album, the band do a great job of arranging the musical variety without compromising the narrative about overcoming mental issues related to low self-esteem and negativity.
The Rock tracks have been strategically placed between Pop (Rock) numbers to avoid a monotonous sound and to give fans old and new something to get stuck into if they want to pick and choose tracks instead of enjoying it all in one sitting as intended. Plus, due to the commercial nature of the album, the mix and production values are on the upper-middle end of the Rock scale. This album definitely could've been a lot worse and whilst I wasn't hyped going into it based on Threat To Survival and what I'd heard of it so far, I don't feel like I've been insulted in the way albums with too many Pop elements like Concrete And Gold - Foo Fighters left me feeling.
From the perspective of someone who likes Rock/Metal music, Attention Attention is either an awesome Pop album or a weak Rock one. I personally would've preferred maybe one or two more (Hard) Rock tracks instead of Pop Rock or Pop songs but at least it didn't suffer from the second half slump that modern Rock/Metal albums tend to do. I rate it 5/10 and would recommend it to people who don't lean too heavily towards being a Rock or Pop fan, as it rides the line for casual listeners but won't win any prizes for either genre. However, bands like Metallica could learn a thing or two from the tracklist and musical variety; it's refreshing to hear an album that doesn't feature all the stronger material in the first 50% followed by complete and utter shite until the final track in order to trick listeners into thinking they've heard a great album.
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