Break the Cycle [PA] by Staind

In 1999, one of the hottest tours of the year was the second round of the "Family Values Tour", featuring the undeservingly successful Staind opening the show. While most had not heard from the band by the time the show graced their cities, they turned many heads and before long the many rabid fans of larger acts like Limp Bizkit and Filter were running to get a copy of their major label debut "Dysfunction", including the two semi-hit singles "Mudshovel" and "Home".

It was nearly a year later when the collapse of the raw emotion and anger died out in frontman Aaron Lewis. Good news for him; not-so-good news for those of us who were truly inspired by his ability to feel such passion. The death I am referring to is the success of the single featuring our good friend(right!) Fred Durst, a live edition of "Outside", a song every teenager with a radio could recognize. It is rumored at this point that nearly a full album of heavy and hard hitting material was put away in the artist's vault, and the group started fresh.

The outcome was the sophomore effort "Break the Cycle", which fails to deliver anything more than a future recycled record in a run down used record store. The preteens who at one time were feeding on their NSync and the like are now closer than ever to what we call home. At the time of this report the album is in the Top 10 of the soundscan reports, a feat that few artists in the genre that Staind once belonged to can excel in. The album is more accurately depicted as a 50 minute CD single, as all the songs are flat and boring, and no more lyrically challenging than that of a Blink 182 impromptu. Discover the wonders of musical richness, poetry, and everything you love about music anywhere but here, because all we need is more whining manic depressives in this world.