Who We Are

Lifehouse's hit making potential

If popularity of the bands could be compared with material objects than a fisherman's floater would be the best association for a success of American band Lifehouse. For seven years of their existence Lifehouse has managed to knock together a pretty impressive fan base, which looks quite natural since their albums never sank lower RIAA's golden level. And here the whole peculiarity lies. The fan base they enjoy is quite a shaky thing, some people join it, some leave it but few people stay in for a long time. And there are some explanations for this phenomenon. In 2000 the band burst into the rock mainstream with their outstanding debut album No Name Face and their single Hanging By The Moment was labeled as the most played song of 2001. It seemed like the band appeared form the nowhere and many admirers of the bands like Creed or Nikelback met Lifehouse with arms wide open. But despite huge expectations the band failed to achieve the same results with their following albums. Records were sufficiently good for those who heard the band for the first time but there was nothing ground shaking for those who knew them by their debut. So it all looks like the band is always staying afloat, it never sinks but it never rises. Yet it must be admitted that Lifehouse do have a hit making potential, which always keeps their ex and current fans in a waiting condition. So let's see how the situation may change with their new album Who We Are.

Who We Are offers lots of supremely well-written songs

It must be said at once that Who We Are is quite an appropriate title. The band's fourth studio project picks up where the band's 2005 self-titled release left off. Basically this is a set of sensitive and emotionally driven songs. The stylistics is pretty the same – the mixture of post grange and pop rock that fits the format of Creed or early Coldplay. Emotionally, the songs create a slightly depressive and sad mood yet filled with sparkles of romantics. So, as far as you can see, Lifehouse like to be themselves and don't really like the idea of great changes. And they have all rights to act like that. But there is one undeniably good fact about the album - overall Who We Are sounds better than both of their previous albums. The band presents a pretty catchy and stylistically diverse material. The album starts with a nice rock stomper Disarray, which has both indie subtleness and hard rock power. It is followed by up beat pop rock representative called First Time. There are great ballads too. Broken in particular sounds quite addictive and stands as one of the best songs on the album. The most unexpected and outstanding song is definitely Joke, it sounds lovely, positive and poppy which is very uncharacteristic for Lifehouse. And finally, the band also doesn't mind playing something in the vein of Brit pop. Track called Mesmerized for instance sounds like Travis.

The album's driving force is vocals

As concerns the album's production work it all sounds pretty familiar. Who We Are is not a departure from those things the band was doing before in this respect. The album sounds qualitative and confident. Lifehouse never had problems with sound and they don't have them here. All the instruments were recorded accurately and the mixing was done professionally. But still the overall sounding of Lifehouse differs from that of their stylistic colleagues with its softness and dark deepness. The main driving force of the album is surely vocalist Jason Wade, he has a terrific rock voice and he knows what to do with it. He can distinguish all the subtlest moods of the songs and tries to support and bring them over the top. He can scream when it is needed and he can sing very delicately too. However, if there is someone to blame that some songs from the Lifehouse's catalogue sound alike it is Wade again. But this can't be helped; to be the first in line – such is the lot of all vocalists. So, with Who We Are Lifehouse bring nothing really new, but the album itself is quite a worthy thing – it is full of nice and qualitative music. Sometimes rock sounds good simply because it was supremely well written. Who We Are deserves attention from all the band's admirers ex and current.