Our Lady Peace - A Decade

It should be noted that in the term “greatest hits” the word “hits” is plural for a reason. It assumes that there is, in fact, more than one hit on the release.
A Decade by Our Lady peace is the bands latest release, featuring a collection of “greatest hits” and a few bonus tracks. However “Somewhere out there” is the only “hit” song on this disk. This begs the question: should this be called a “greatest hit”album?
For those not familiar with the bands previous work, Our Lady Peace play a brand of radio-ready rock that Clear Channel eats right up. And why wouldn’t they? The bands songs can be appealing to soccer moms and pre-pubescent children alike; they can finally agree on something to listen to on their morning drive to the junior high!
The bands sound is frankly contrived and predictable.The singer is clearly a card carrying member of the Eddy Vedder fanclub, and the rest of the band takes cues from Pearl Jam as well. However, where Pearl Jam were writing songs with meaning, Our Lady Peace seems content to write songs about absolutely nothing at all.
The bonus tracks on the record give us a glimpse into what a more creative version of this same band would sound like. The opening riff to the unreleased “Kiss on the mouth” draws to mind later generation U2, but that quickly drops out to make way for the bland vocal delivery once again. The Final unreleased track is perhaps the albums only saving grace. Vocals aside, this song finds more in common with The Killers and The Strokes than with Soundgarden or Pearl Jam, which is a welcome change.
The bottom line is that this record has come 15 years too late. Its post-grunge sound, while heavily watered down, would have likely drawn legions of fans in the early to mid 90’s. But alas! We are forging ahead into a new millennium, while Our Lady Peace seems content with the days of ripped jeans and flannel shirts.

Overall Rating: 4.5