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Band: The Used

Album: Vulnerable

Release Date: 26th March 2012

Record Label: Anger music group/Hopeless records

Despite the previous albums of a more hardcore approach, this time around have less of the angry, angst-ridden lyrics colliding with the screams of Bert McCracken, and more of the slower, heart wrenching ballads that fans alike have taken too. When the band first came into the rock scene in early 2000, they were quickly accepted and their reputation grew quickly, this was due to their rather unforgettable frontman and also their quick friendships with bigger bands from the Projekt Revolution tour such as My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Taking Back Sunday. Three albums, two DVD’s and an EP later, and here they are with an album that very much differs from the typical and slightly more comforting style of The Used.

The first track 'I Come Alive' is far from the band's more usual tracks such as 'The Bird and The Worm' and 'The Best of Me,' but it does still have something about it that still clings onto the general feel of The Used, which is usually angry, and screamed. Then, the next track 'This Fire' surprisingly feels more fitting, and you can hear something in McCracken’s voice that hasn't been present in quite some time. 'Hands and Faces' with its powerful bass lines and drum beats, exhibited by the ever pleasing Jeph Howard and Dan Whitesides. By the time you are at track number four, 'Put Me Out' and 'Now That You're Dead' you almost feel as though you are listening to the amateur, but amazing first self-titled album, which many fans really clung onto.

Amongst all of this, they threw in a few ballads that exhibited McCracken's voice in a way that hadn't really been touched on before. 'Give Me love' 'Moving On' 'Getting Over You' and 'Hurt No One' are songs that hold the same value, and message as the old music, but are presented in a whole different way, with less anger behind the words, but a more nostalgic outlook on the issues raised, no doubt taken from the bands rough lifestyles and experiences. Then there’s 'Shine' which using lyrics such as 'Make a choice. Shine on.' and 'It's my time to shine, do it my way, cause it's my time' really enhanced the bands development as not only musicians, but people. In the middle of all these ballads, it would seem rather strange to have a heavier, angry 'Kiss it Goodbye' but I think it was so they made the point that anger can still be incorporated and be a good song amongst all of these.

The album ends with the track 'Together Burning Bright' which between McCracken’s heavenly voice and the complimenting guitar by Quinn Allman, made for an amazing song. The most known lyrics are 'We are only sparks, but together burning bright' which does make the whole album seem like a journey through something, all the problems, and then at the end, the whole thing is solved.

All in all, I think that the album is very much on par with the other ones the band has made, the only thing that has changed is that they have tweaked the sound a little, but it is still recognizably The Used.

Research

I have begun to research the different types of music journalism- i have looked quite a lot about reviews. I looked at three different album reviews for an music album that came out earlier this year, and looked at the different ways to set our a music review. One of them had wrote their opinion track by track, which i thought was very useful because it gave the reader a better insight into the album, and how the tracks reflected the meaning. of the album. Another review was slightly more vague, it looked only at a few key tracks on the album and focused a lot more than the last one on the band members and what the writer had thought about their participation on the tracks. I think this was just as useful if not more than the previous one i had looked at because it looked at all aspects of the album, not just the music, but the composers as well. The last one i looked at did a lot of just finding things to fault the musicians for and going off track, not really talking about the actual tracks on the album. This, i think was pretty much a waste of time because all the writer seemed to do was complain about the musicians. When i plan to write a review, i think i will write one using the layout of the second one. This is because i really liked they way the writer didn't just rant off about just 'this one song he really hated,' he wrote about most of the tracks- how they flowed, how they matched whatever one came before and after them, and how they were compared to previous albums. I also liked the way he talked how much the band had changed from the transition from the previous album to the current album, and how the members style had changed throughout this too. But, i also think i would incorporate the depth that the first reviewer went into to describe the tracks.