Albums by this artist

The Distance To Here (1999)

Secret Samadhi (1997)

Live

The Distance To Here

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

Live The Distance To Here MCA, 1999 RiYL: Third Eye Blind, Tonic

If Live sounded completely out of ideas on 1997's rambling Secret Samadhi, the crisis actually worsens on The Distance To Here. The disc is a collection of lame, tepid ballads, from the outlandish howling of "The Dolphin's Cry" to the overblown melodic grandeur of "They Stood Up For Love." When not flaunting their collective musical egos, the group resorts to ripping off its own past successes, particularly on "Run To The Water," which is nothing more than an operatic recasting of the modern-rock hit "Lightning Crashes."

The hard-rocking tracks ("Sun"), which attempt to get the band back to the groove-rooted rock of 1994's Throwing Copper album, sound terribly stereotyped. Indeed, they're indistinguishable from the "alternative rock" mush of bands such as Third Eye Blind or Tonic, which is an incredible disservice to a band that was once so promising. The rest of The Distance To Here is filler. There's no doubt that Ed Kowalczyk is a powerful and sensitive singer, but behind his voice there is no music.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.