Collective Soul

7even Year Itch

Atlantic

“Now, at long last, comes ‘7even Year Itch, Collective Soul Greatest Hits 1994-2001,’ the band’s highly anticipated best-of collection.”

Translation: career over.

The Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Train and Creed might rock (sort of), but no group from the mid-90’s played harder “geared straight for radio success” songs than Collective Soul. All of them should be wary if their label suggests a greatest hits album. Knowing that rock greatness can only be sustained for so long, Atlantic Records is acknowledging that, with the release of a 7even Year Itch, Collective Soul is only a “Behind the Music” episode away from a totally destroyed career.

Whatever happened to greatest hits albums being released for bands that were great? One hit wonders – or in Collective Soul’s case, four-hit wonders – get their own best of the best albums. According to the press we got on this band, Collective Soul had hits off of five albums. Five. That isn’t a career; that’s a recording company desperately trying to sustain a one-hit wonder. And it’s painfully obvious listening to what is supposed to be the very best of Collective Soul.

Lead singer Ed Roland and the rest of his band never matured musically. Instead of diversifying and exploring the traditions surrounding their music, they continuously attempted to recapture the glory of “Shine,” the band’s one good song. Infectious and rocking, “Shine” was a simple rock song. It was never anything more. Of course, that’s not good enough for the music industry, a body that has never shown the ability to leave a good thing alone. Instead, Atlantic clearly pressured Soul into more and more albums (five albums in seven years is production at quite a clip) in an attempt to get the magic back. Collective Soul’s one shining success (get it?) led to the inevitable: strange sunglasses, new looks, attempts at artful albums, progressively blander music, and consequently, smaller success at each turn. According to the press we got, Dosage, the band’s last album, featured a song that achieved “most-added” status in the Rock, Active Rock and Alternative outlets nationwide for one week. Why not just attempt to praise Roland for not running over pedestrians on his way to the Quickie Mart?

It’s pointless talking about the actual songs on the album; after the triumph of “Shine” the songs blend together, both aurally and in a “hey, this is that one song” sort of way. Unfortunately, that’s how Collective Soul will go down in history: known as nothing more than composers of ‘that one song.’

And what few songs that do stand out on the 7even Year Itch stand out because of their similarity to other singles. “The World I Know” could literally be the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris.” There is no discernable difference between the songs. The two new songs on the album aren’t any better. Wedged between singles that any casual listener might recognize, “Energy” and the “Next Homecoming” are clearly base singles, designed to be nothing more than more catchy filler. The fact that they are hidden amongst familiar tracks seems to indicate a lack of faith from Atlantic. The only thing worse than the total lack of creative drive on the album is the title itself: 7even Year Itch? Was that the very best the band could come up with?

No band can sustain itself if it seeks only to recapture its former magic; Collective Soul is a case study in pointlessness. The band’s entire existence was dedicated to recording another “Shine” and it never happened. Releasing a greatest hits album isn’t going to change that.