Lacuna Coil’s fifth album, Shallow Life, is the band’s first Top 20 album in the U.S – it debuted on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart at number sixteen, selling 21,000 copies. This achievement is testament to the album’s more ‘mainstream’, easy listening sound. It is always difficult for a band to try something different; the risk of alienating fans, who often cry, “sell out”, is a real possibility, and yet artists feel inspired to develop musically and lyrically, as well as win over new listeners. It’s a conundrum. However a band chooses to deal with the complexities of synthesizing creativity and the need to sell a record, is somewhat irrelevant, as long a the album packs a punch. A good album demands attention and commands listeners. Disappointingly, Shallow Life does neither.
Lacuna Coil seems to have opted for a combination of sticking to the ‘same old’ whilst simultaneously trying something new, and the result is a watered down mellow-rock vibe. The band has tried to funk up its signature goth-metal sound with some groovy tempo, which works in parts but is inconsistently interesting. The result is a disappointingly familiar sound. The songs are formulaic. They tend to start off with great intros – opening track Survive is a case in point – only to peter off anticlimactically, fading into wanton monotony. The album contains no slap-in-the-face track of awesomeness, like Heaven’s a lie (Comalies) or Our Truth (Karmacode).
Shallow Life‘s lyrics are strongly self-affirmative – a personal statement of independence and survival. I’m Not Afraid says “I’m not afraid/ to take my time/ to live my life/ the way I want to/ I’m not afraid/ to take you down and live my life the way that I want to”, I Like It says “I’m free to do what I like/ I’m celebrating my life/ I’m free to be what I like”, and Underdog says “You are going down/ Down/ At the bottom I have found/ I cannot wait to get back in the fight/ And send you straight to the ground…You can’t kill my soul and kill my dream/ Back down”. The tone of confidence and positivism that envelops the album through its words, is undermined by musical content that lacks intensity and force. The incongruity between the album’s message and its music is further encapsulated in some pansy-ass ballads that are just blagh! I am always up for a great metal ballad, not the kind that will send the Celines and Mariahs of the pop-industry into a wild frenzy of jubilation. Wide Awake is enough to send any listener into a coma, and any insipidly nondescript artist could have written final track Shallow Life.
Shallow Life is a nice album: great background music.
