Berth

The Used are totaling all the pluses

Today Utah-based rock band The Used consists of four members: Bert McCracken on lead vocals and piano, Quinn Allman playing guitar and providing backup vocals, bassist Jeph Howard and drummer Dan Whitesides. One of the founding members Branden Steinckert who played drums left the band last year, and it was the only change in the collective’s line-up since its formation in the mid 1990s. Probably such stable relations within the band has led to its success, as when the self-titled debut album was released in 2002 it quickly attracted both the critics’ and the audience’s attention to The Used. Since then the band has participated in a huge number of tours around the US and the world, worked on albums and did other things typical for a rock band. Today the guys decided that time has come to total all the pluses and please the fans with a story of their creative work. Gathering the most interesting material from its tours and albums The Used has picked out the worthiest moments and put them all into a compillation of live recordings called Berth. The collection consists of hits only and embraces all the periods of the band’s creative work.

Berth is impossible to ignore

The Used’s debut record, 2003 album Maybe Memories, world tour In Love And Death and many other significant events have found reflection on Berth. Though there are only nine tracks on the album each of them is remarkable for its special sound and unique energy that can be present at live shows only. Shouting crowd, tunes somewhat different from the studio recordings and a complete delivery of each band member are the factors which make it impossible to ignore this outstanding record. The opening composition Take It Away strikes with impetuous drums and dissonances, and I Caught Fire that has been occupying an honorable place among the band’s best songs for a long time already sounds newly due to the musicians’ more spontaneous performance. Changing drums and inelaborate melody of Taste Of Ink are refined with crowd’s singing some of the couplet fragments. Uneven rhythm of Blue And Yellow makes it one of the most complicated tracks on Berth, whereas outrageous song I'm A Fake, also the fans’ favorite, pleases with its screamed catchy chorus that are sure to be sung along by many. A calmer track Hard To Say conquers with reflective lyrics for a great number of listeners have surely experienced the same doubts as are touched upon in the song. The album closes with Maybe Memories, the first song ever written by the band and it is definitely going to remain in the history.

Quantity sacrificed, quality at stake

On the one hand some might well suppose that a compilation consisting of nine songs only means that in five years the band has not created too many songs that would deserve being called hits. On the other hand it is but clear that no band has ever been as scrupulous and self-criticizing as The Used with its selection on Berth. Anybody can make a collection just picking out some compositions from each album, but The Used is not about to choose the beaten track. That is why the guys have sacrificed the quantity to some extent putting the quality at stake and have hit the target. Thus they have managed to tell everybody who is eager to learn about the growth of their success and demonstrate what a real rock band is able to do on stage. In fact the idea is to prepare the audience for an absolutely new creation that is going to hit the stores this spring already. The Used is currently working on the next studio album and even being so busy the collective has found time to prevent its fans from getting bored. Such industry cannot help being underestimated and regarding all the merits of The Berth we are by no means going to get bored at the time being.