The Used

By ttj90, on September 9th, 2009

Now, immediately, right from the first bar, I’m thinking that this record could go either way.

I haven’t heard of The Used but when I stumbled upon them on MySpace, or in fact, they stumbled upon me, I felt that I recognised the sound. The familar metallic, distorted, rock riff resembling the greats. When the vocals kicked in I felt relief.

I wasn’t listening to some kind of teenage, pubescent rugrats. Which unfortunately nowadays, are all too frequent in the charts.

The Used have been around for a few years. This latest release Artwork is experienced, tight and they certainly do have a good collection of ear-bleeding chords, aggressive melodlic vocals, rumbling bassline and the drums are awesome. I feel the energy from Dan Whitesides kit, I love it, just how it should be.

Burning Down The House is a good rendition of Sir Tom Jones’ track which he recorded with the Cardigans a couple of moons ago. You can imagine it done live on stage, the crowd going ballistic similar to a German infantry in a blitzkrieg on acid.

The energy is what gets me on this album the most. It’s levitating, positive even though the songs are occasionally revolving around sad times, but it is the upbeatness that lifts you up, and tells you that everything is going to be alright.

These are The Used, and if you’ve been too, then you’ll also be part of the Artwork.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdF4R3GrOB0]