Live
Throwing Copper (1994)
The latest album from my adolescent life to receive a fresh listen through older ears is Live's Throwing Copper. The singles from this album bombarded radio and music video programming (hell, they probably still do), while the album itself used to get a runout alongside Korn and Metallica during the occasional late 90s pissup.
Personally speaking, I found them to be a bunch of pseudo-heavy tryhards, though my opinion of them certainly got worse when they ditched the pretense and became a full on Christian rock band. Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk was largely to blame for this, though I will admit that I thought him a decent vocalist (even if he was another 90s alternative singing-like-he's-constipated dude).
However, it's twenty years since the album's release, and probably twelve or thirteen years since I last heard anything from the album, so in the spirit of The LOAD Project, let's see if we can find the cause that has seen the album shift eight million units to date.
The Album
I'm not quite sure what people were thinking.
I can only assume that people purchased the album to get all the radio staples in one place. I can only further assume that a great many people who purchased the album only actually ever listen to the singles.
I make this assumption because, a handful of tracks aside, Throwing Copper consists of fairly asinine pseudo-grunge, featuring blaring riffs paired with wannabe intellectual lyrical content. It's a shining example of the artistic wasteland that was the great majority of 90s alternative radio rock. Actually, I'm sorry, I called it pseudo-grunge - according to Wikipedia it's post-grunge, a surefire sign that music writers have gone too fucking far in attaching the prefix post- to musical genres.
Don't get me wrong. When Live hit the target, they hit the target well. For example, I Alone is the best of the album's hit rock singles, using clearly contrasting dynamics to create a rollercoaster effect for the listener. The chorus is bold and powerful, Kowalczyk shifts effortlessly from hushed low tones to full throaty rock vocal, and the lyrics are one of the few on the album that aren't craptacular. The same can be said for the ballad Lightning Crashes, where Kowalczyk provides his best vocal on the album (or possibly ever in his entire life), the lyrics tell a simple metaphor for the circle of life, and the song uses a steady, gradual upward shift in dynamics. The album's final released single, the oddly titled White, Discussion, is also one of the better songs here. Although lyrically it's utter wank, and at times Kowalczyk brings back that trusty constipated vocal, sonically it delivers an alternogrunge experience akin to that of early Pearl Jam, even if it doesn't have PJ's dynamic bombast, nor pure musical skill.
Sitting smack bang in the middle of the ledger, occupying the 'distinctly average' zone, are the album's other two singles, Selling the Drama and All Over You, and the attempted prog/alternative fusion of Pillar of Davidson. They have their good moments - the singles, as to be expected, have hooky, fistpumping choruses, while Pillar of Davidson makes a good fist of establishing a storytelling vibe through the tune - but neither really manage to keep the blood flowing. Nevertheless, they are still reasonable listens.
Unlike the rest of the album, which I would rather kindly describe as 'turgid'. Waitress is abhorrent; lyrical dreck about how EVERRBODY NEEEDS SEERMMM CHANNNGE wrapped in a grating riff structure. Not since Nickelback have I ever wanted to skip a song so badly. Shit Towne does its best to live up to the name, because it really is shithouse. T.B.D is four minutes of sweet fuck all (even John Cage's famous 4.33 has more going on in it) and Stage fails where White, Discussion managed some success, trying to be all cool, self-assured angry grunge (resplendent with TEH SWEARZZZ) but instead seems like somebody allowed a fourteen year old to write down his thoughts after his parents said he couldn't have a TV in his room.
The Verdict
We really ought to forget that modern rock radio didn't exist in the 1990s. Albums like Throwing Copper are why.
Did not like (a few songs aside).
My rating: 5.2/10
Standout Tracks
I Alone
White, Discussion
Lightning Crashes
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