Our Lady Peace's Somethingness

Our Lady Peace released their latest album "Somethingness" recently, and naturally I felt compelled to write about it.  It had been nearly six long years since their last release of "Curve," and fans had been been clamoring for this one.  Well I should say that some have.  There is still that divisive split on the sound of their music post-Mike Turner.

I get it, I really truly do.  The last few years have seen bands that I adored for 10+ years have a shift in their sound that I just can't get into.  The Foo Fighters are a great example of this.  Their change of direction the last two albums is unlistenable from where I stand.  Bush, another of my favorites, took a long hiatus.  When they came back, their sound was a tad different, but I still liked it.  Their next release was passable, and their last one was utter trash.  No trace of Bush at all in that synth-pop sound.  Even Collective Soul who had been putting out great music since '93, seems rather dull on their last release.

I say all this to let you know I was a bit apprehensive when I knew OLP was releasing new stuff.  What if they suck now too was a common thought running through my head.  They had released a single in '14 called "Won't Turn Back" that I thought it was terrible.  (If you want to read my initial review/concern click here.)  If my beloved OLP was now unlistenable, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

They released the first portion of the album back in August on Spotify.  I rarely use Spotify, but this was a definite reason to fire it up.  It was only four songs, and I listened with bated breath.  First impression was: I didn't like it.  I listened to them each again, and thought, maybe Nice to Meet You has some potential.

I let sleeping dogs lie for a few days, before coming back to them.  OLP had enough good will built up with me that it was only fair to give them another shot.  I was pleasantly digging it more this time around.  Nothing earth-shattering, but it seemed like something I could get into.

Fast forward to November 6th, and a dream came true and I finally got to see them live.  They hadn't played Iowa since '95 (yes I looked it up) so this was a huge deal for me.  By this point I had listened to the new songs enough to get a nice feel for them.  Nice to Meet You was far and away my favorite of the bunch at this point, and I remember listening to it three times in a row on the drive there, and liking it more each time.

They didn't play it that night, which was fine because nearly every other song that I wanted them to play they did.  They did play Drop Me in the Water which I knew was the new single, and hearing it live really made it grow on me.  They also played Ballad of a Poet which was unreleased at that point, and I was intrigued by it as well. 

Initially the back part of Somethingness was supposed to be released in October, but it kept getting moved back until it was set on February 23rd.  It was only nine total songs, which if you wanted to gripe about that, I would understand.  They used the crowd-funded pledgemusic.com to release it, so you could get reward incentives for backing the album.  If you have $50,000 laying around they'll even come play for you at your house.

As for the overall sound of the album, it is another step in their evolution.  Unlike my other bands that let me down, I dig what they're putting out.  If you're familiar with Raine's solo stuff, I can see the influence on it.  If you want it to sound like their "old stuff" then you're probably going to be disappointed.  Bands change, plain and simple.  We may not like it, but if you want them to keep going then they have to; it's inevitable.  Luckily for me, I like where OLP is heading.