The Used Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
It isn't completely fair to compare the Used to My Chemical Romance, despite their associations in the past (they covered Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" as a team) and surface similarities. The Used have deeper roots in punk (there's a reason why former drummer Branden Steineckert high-tailed it for a gig with Rancid), and they always were more purely emo than MCR. Nevertheless, the Used's third studio album, Lies for the Liars, sure brings to mind The Black Parade, particularly in how the Used pile on lurid, florid art rock trappings upon their pop-punk, borrowing vocal arrangements from Queen and imagery from The Wall (this time, it's the worms); the album also has a song called "Hospital" that recalls the deathbed escapades of Gerard Way. But where Lies for the Liars really shares similarities with The Black Parade is in how it's a big-budget escalation of the band's sound designed to leave the emo tag behind. While there's a haze of pretension hanging over some of the record -- nowhere more so than on the awful single "The Bird and the Worm," a noisy hookless cluster of staccato strings, druid vocals, and narcissistic emo romanticism -- this plays more poppy than proggy, as the Used dabble in all sorts of classic pop sounds, kicking off the album with a sleek, echoey new wave guitar and then spiking the chorus of "With Me Tonight" with blaring horns straight out of Chicago. All this flair gives Lies for the Liars some lightness if not levity, since the Used is, like all bands of their ilk, a very serious band, diligently plundering the deep uncharted avenues of the soul. Try as they may to inject some humor into their music -- the mock-shuffle on "Paralyzed," the two-step gallop of "With Me Tonight," the "liar, liar pants on fire" chorus of "Liar Liar (Burn in Hell)," which was probably meant ironically but sure doesn't play that way -- this is a relentlessly sober affair, churning with glum guitars and an eternally adolescent sincerity. It's not funny, it's not fun, but it wasn't meant to be: it was meant as a collection of tortured love songs ("Earthquake" and "Find a Way" boasting the sweetest melody and harmonies here) and teenage solidarity anthems ("Pretty Handsome Awkward," which winds up sounding like a clumsy come-on). Ironically enough, that splashy production and infusion of pop on Lies for the Liars may very well keep away the adolescents who stuck with the band throughout their first two records -- there's nothing that angsty teenagers like better than aggression, which isn't necessarily absent here, but it is tempered -- and may keep them from speaking to any listener a few years removed from college. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
To buy Berth one has to (A) be an incredibly huge fan of the Used, and (B) not already own 2003's Maybe Memories. Just as that CD/DVD combo served as a placeholder until the guys released In Love and Death the next year, Berth (also a CD/DVD set) functions in primarily the same way for spring 2007's upcoming third full-length. The audio album is hardly even worth its presence with a mere nine live cuts (drawn most heavily from In Love and Death) that are little more than Bert McCracken about to run out of breath at any moment and sporadic fan cheers at the end of each track. There's no way even the most rabid fan could be satisfied with these songs, since even though McCracken is an intensely passionate frontman -- and the Used an intensely passionate band -- the raw energy a great live show has just doesn't transfer. Overall, these tracks are pretty disposable. As for the DVD, it's packed with about two-and-a-half hours of live concert and studio recording footage, random tour hijinks, music videos, member testimonials, and a rather off-kilter but amusing Q&A session; it also briefly touches on the fall 2006 departure of drummer Branden Steineckert (who is noticeably missing from all of the proceedings). This provides more information on the Used than any normal person could ever possibly want, but is surely enough to satisfy those hardcore fans. But again, it's hard to see the need for any of this considering all the bonuses on Maybe Memories. Berth should only be purchased by those who get giddy over finding out how the guys spend their downtime on tour, what they would bring with them on a deserted island, and most importantly, will they eat the snot of a Bled member? The answer to that last question, by the way, is yes. ~ Corey Apar, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Used's In Love and Death is their official sophomore album, following the tide-over hodgepodge of 2003's Maybe Memories. They've found some harder guitars in the interim, filling "Take It Away" and 'I Caught Fire" with directly energizing chord progressions that spill over rewardingly into triumphant choruses. "Away" even revitalizes the ridiculously played-out singing guy/screaming guy dynamic that the Used and so many of their peers unfailingly deploy. The rest of In Love and Death plays directly to the bruised souls and bleeding hearts of tortured teenage scribblers everywhere, incorporating emo/punk revivalist genre touchstones like tortured/sweet vocals, jarring time shifts, and elaborately-layered production techniques. Overall it's a promising effort from the Used. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Maybe Memories is wrapped in solemn artwork, contains two full discs of audio and video material, and even includes a heartfelt thank-you from the bandmembers themselves amidst its liner notes. And while it's honorable for the Used to be so appreciative of their newfound fame that the young group would issue a collection of live material, music videos, unreleased studio tracks, and behind-the-scenes footage, the reality is that the band really only has one full-length album out. Collections like Maybe Memories used to be golden parachutes, an easy way to fulfill one's contractual duties. In an age when media consumption advances faster than the record companies can move, Memories feels more like a way for the Used to remain economically soluble while they record an eventual follow-up. After all, despite the unchecked, almost masochistic levels of soul-searching that guides vocalist Bert McCracken, and even though the Used convincingly bind that emotion to their herky-jerky alternative metal, the Used haven't distinguished their music enough from their contemporaries to make Maybe Memories work for anyone other than their most rabid fans. However, if you are said fan, this record is for you. Besides the aforementioned live material (which fades annoyingly between each track), highlights include McCracken's gothic take at the ivories ("Sometimes I Just Go for It"), as well as "Zero Mechanism," an early home recording that actually sounds better than some of the debut, since its vitality isn't choked by the sheen of professional production. ~ Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Utah's the Used sound like a lot of different bands on their self-titled debut album. The sequencing of the disc seems intended to give the early impression that they are a metal band, but as the album goes on the music softens to hard rock and even ballads backed by strings. Similarly, lead singer Bert McCracken starts out howling, but by the third track, "Bulimic," he is affecting a Perry Farrell-like hoarse delivery, and later on he even sings in a nearly normal voice. (Sometimes, as in the seventh track, "A Box Full of Sharp Objects," he alternates approaches between verses and chorus.) The musical development mirrors the lyrics, in which McCracken begins with typical expressions of youthful frustration, culminating in the fifth track, "Poetic Tragedy," written in the third person, which depicts a suicide, but then begins to find satisfaction in romantic attachment to the point on the album's final credited track, "Pieces Mended" (there is also a hidden track long after the end), that he is proposing marriage. (Along the way, he drops the "F" word casually numerous times, but the album does not contain a parental advisory sticker.) So, The Used has a definite progression, musically and lyrically. But it is also all over the map in terms of musical approach. Some of it could be played on MTV beside Creed and Vertical Horizon, some of it recalls the rage of Fuel, and some goes even further into forbidding metal. That range should give Reprise Records, the band's label, plenty to work with, but it may confuse potential fans. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
