Living in Dog Years – Neurotica

Neurotica's second album, Living in Dog Years, showed a vast improvement over their lackluster debut. Once again produced by AC/DC legend Brian Johnson (a resident of their native Sarasota), the album saw the band coming into their own as a groove-oriented hard rock outfit. Powered by insistent rockers like the title track, "Ride of Your Life," and "Touch the Sound," this was a pretty impressive affair, and it was no surprise that it eventually attracted the attention of Smackdown Records, which reutilized many of its tracks for the band's eponymous 2002 release. Whether Living in Dog Years' original, more straightforward hard rock arrangements fare better or worse than their transformed nu-metal counterparts is really a matter of opinion, but the band's versatility is already clearly on display here, thanks to the variety of styles explored on tunes like the melodic, Cult-like "Stars in My Eyes," the bluesy "Said She," and the ten-minute groove colossus "I Like It One Way." ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide