Damn you Goo Goo Dolls and your legacy. You’ve gone and ruined modern rock music with your pop hooks, bland melodies, and benign lyrics. Now don’t get me wrong, you guys were a good band and should have been what you were and that should have been it. However, you ended up being the ninth chevron, opening the Stargate to light alternative adult rock radio. This is nearly unforgivable in the same way that Jar Jar Binks is guilty of undermining the entire Star Wars universe. You cannot undo what has been done. If you guys would have just played straight rock and roll and went away, maybe, just maybe, there wouldn’t be a whole generation of sound-alike alternative pop rock bands teasing me with their almost goodness.

Alas, here I am writing about It’s Alive. I want to like them. I want to like them more than I like other bands of their ilk. I can hear their potential clawing to be free of either self-imposed limits or a producer’s restraints. It’s Alive hail from Florida and consist of Zach Webb (vocals), Clay Haywood (guitars), Juice Dean (bass), and Eddie Matta (drums). As a band they sound great. They’re tight. I surmise they utterly rock live and would probably asplode my head with awesomeness. Their debut, Human Resources, is just on the cusp escaping mediocrity, but it never quite pulls free. Their embrace of safe radio play makes me want to shake some sense in those boys so they’ll straighten up and shred right.

The opener, “The Bottom”, has a nice intro with plenty of strength. There is a this catchy guitar hook and at the six-second mark the drummer goes into half time. I love it. Then there is a change at twelve seconds and “The Bottom” morphs into blandness. It’s Alive’s potential is generously peppered throughout Human Resources. “The Bottom” has plenty of good moments but the second song, “Pieces”, flows from “The Bottom” as if it’s the same song. There is some Linkin Park stoic piano in “Pieces” and I died a little on the inside.

“Liar” is actually a strong song on its own and I think it’s getting better and then “Back Into the Rain” comes back with Linkin Park stoic piano. Crap. Crap. Crap. I’m trying to root for these guys. As I continue, I notice It’s Alive’s strongest offering is the next song, “Questions”. “Questions” has a solid, driving beat and nice guitar work by Haywood, including a solid old school solo. If “Questions” was It’s Alive’s weakest offering, they’d be in a much better place. Unfortunately, it’s the peak of the album.

The rest of the record becomes a little too self-indulgent and angsty. Webb’s vocals hover around being too whiny without crossing over to any extremes. Enough of his whine bridges the songs when better riffs and hooks would do the trick. By the time I hear “Selfless” and its similarity to a number of Goo Goo Dolls ballads, I don’t want to finish the album. It’s a shame too since “Dialysis” is full of competent drumming from Matta. “Changing Colors” could be a crowd pleaser if the chorus didn’t invoke so much pop sappiness. “Fool For You” and “Can’t Love Me” nearly put me to sleep.

One of the reasons I started migrating to metal in recent years was because of the proliferation of bands like 30 Seconds to Mars, 3 Doors Down, Hoobastank, Lifehouse, Red, The Used, Semisonic, and Since October. All of these bands have something in common: untapped greatness. They aren’t “bad”. Some of them have pretty good music. However, the curse of the Goo Goo Dolls is a siren song beckoning bands to the island of meh. Modern rock like this is filler music. It sounds good in the background but is hardly timeless.

I hear potential in Human Resources. It’s just on the cusp, but when I love a particular moment, it’s wiped out by a soulless hook or bridge. Rock is supposed to be raw and Human Resources suffers from over production and overly polished arrangements. I’d be willing to bet It’s Alive would convert me to fanboy in a small bar and playing what comes natural. But until they can translate their raw intensity to an album, I’m throwing them on the pile of band carcasses left by the Goo Goo Dolls’ harvester robot.

3.0/5