Staind
The Illusion Of Progress

"The way I am / you'll never change / 'cause the way I am / is the way I am" sings Aaron Lewis in "The Way I Am," one of the songs from the brand new sixth Staind album, and he's not joking: this "The Illusion Of Progress", even after several listens, is exactly what the Springfield rock band has accustomed us to for almost 10 years, without the slightest change in direction: albums referring to post-grunge, with flashes of Nu Metal and pop from TRL, with songwriting deeply focused on explaining how much life sucks.

And also in this album, as in its predecessors, it opens with one of the Hardest tracks of the work,"This Is It", where Staind revisit the raw Nu Metal of "Dysfunction"; moving along the same lines are "Break Away" and "Raining Again", both more than adequate, but strategically enigmatically placed: being rather heavy tracks, they could have served to raise the pace among the numerous ballads, but are oddly relegated almost to the last position.

Other positive notes of "The Illusion Of Progress" are indeed the ballads "Tangled Up In You" and "The Corner": the first, acoustic, thanks to a particularly inspired performance by Lewis and a beautiful violin backing represents the album's highest emotional point, while the second is a remarkable epic ballad featuring the vocal addition of an African-American gospel choir; these described episodes have above all the merit of opening new horizons for the band, and are surely what Lewis was referring to as this being the most "musical" and technically inspired Staind album.

However, it is a pity that the great musicality and inspiration sadly stop here: other episodes like the aforementioned "The Way I Am" and the hit "Believe" suffer from a heavily insufficient songwriting, see for example the chorus of "The Way I Am" or that of "Believe": "If you believe in me / life's not always what it seems / believe in me / 'cause I was made for chasing dreams" brr.. (however, the video for the single is amazing, with the only flaw being a worryingly overweight Lewis).

The list of insufficient tracks unfortunately doesn't end here: there's the very boring "Save Me", which seems to read the listener’s mental invocation, or pieces like "Rainy Day Parade" and "Nothing Left To Say", simply flat.

On the instrumental side, I'd point out a good rhythmic section in "The Way I Am" and a very good guitar work in "Pardon Me", but, for the rest, the instrumental aspect often willingly leaves space to Lewis's voice.

In short, when all is said and done, we are faced with yet another transitional work for Staind, who simply refuse to return to the excellent levels of "Break The Cycle"; certainly, there are notable tracks, but they are overshadowed by too many "filler" tracks. The concluding "Nothing Left To Say", then, leaves a spontaneous, sad interpretation: that Staind, after this mediocre album, really have nothing more to say?