Customer Reviews

Smile Empty Soul

5 star:		(136)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

This is one of those band who think they are better than what they actually are. And i am actually ashamed of myself that i actually took the time to listen to this album, i was drunk. I feel sad for all the gothic little boys and girls who worship this album everyday feeling sorry for theirselves. They don't even deserve the one star.

I'll take a neutral standpoint on this CD. I will say that I do like it and think Smile Empty Soul has some very... deep lyrics. Some of their stuff I can agree on, but others does make them seem a little out there. By no means is this CD for everyone. It takes the common approach of singing about parents, home, and problems. Thats pretty much all you're really going to find out there today. I'll admit that it is all getting a little old.

The reason I gave it 3 stars?

- The way they write and sing makes it very hard for a lot of people to like because they either don't want to hear about someone elses problems or they are sick and tired of people trying to match Nirvana.

- That was the bad above. The good is that they are very promising, but should shift the topic of what they sing about. The reason I like it as much as I do, is that I can agree with them and almost relate to some of it (but I'm not that messed up). The songs seem to have lots of meaning behind them and can really be understood if you see the videos.

Reader's Digest Version: If you are looking for more than just a one hit wonder, want to be Nirvana, give Smile Empty Soul a shot. You either love it or you hate it.

1 Bottom of a Bottle - 5/5
2 Silhouettes - 5/5
3 Nowhere Kids - 5/5
4 This Is War - 5/5
5 Therapy - 4/5
6 For You - 4/5
7 Your Way - 5/5
8 The Other Side - 5/5
9 Every Sunday - 2/5
10 With This Knife - 5/5
11 Radio In A Hole - 4/5
12 All My Problems - 5/5
13 I Want My Life - 4/5
14 Eraser - 5/5

Smile empty soul are an amazing band and their albums amazing too! I can't believe how good it is. I only heard about Smile empty soul a few months ago,and I'm glad i have the album. Its the best alternative rock album i have. The lead singer/guitarist Sean Danielsen has got one of the best voices i have ever heard, its so nice, and he varies from a soft calming voice to a great shouting voice. Here are my ratings for this album:
Bottle to Bottle- excellent,its v.catchy and was Smile empty souls first single
Silhouettes-easily one of the best songs on the album, i love the lyrics, and overall this is an amazing song!
Nowhere kids-great but not one of my favourites
This is war-i wasn't too keen on this song at the start but now i love it! Its quite a depressing song but still amazing!
Therapy-good song, i really like the verses.
For you-i love this song, also one of my favourites, it kinda relates...
Your way-great, catchy, kick ass
The other side-one of the best songs on the album-AMAZING
Every sunday-good
With this knife-another favourite!!!
Radio in a hole-catchy and cool
All my problems, i love the start to this song! and i like the end rap to it!!
I want my life-a great song, v.sad, but v.good
And finally eraser-good.

Whomever drew the comparisons between The Chili Peppers and Nirvana with Smile Empty Soul has no grounds to do so. Smile Empty Soul are a meaningless band of snotty little pricks who like to boast about how "tight" they are. If they were so "tight", they'd actually try to write something people both under and over the age of 18 can relate to. Instead, the band takes the low road and resorts to childish, cliche bouts of whining. They beg for your attention, but that's the tell-tale tip-off to ignore them. They have a song called "All My Problems" for chrissakes! What a bunch of tryhards they are! I wish faux-agnst bands like these would just keep their mouths shut, because they're not telling an honest story, they're just telling people what their manager tell them to say. The Chili's and Nirvana are classic bands that everyone of any age can relate to, and Smile Empty Soul aren't. It's as simple as that. And just look where the front men of The Chilis and Nirvana are now: Kiedis of The Chilis overcame his heroin addiction and is holding his head up high because he's now sober and drug-free; Kurt Cobain stupidly blew his brains out a decade ago because of his heroin addiction and now has no relevance to the music world. Obviously, Kiedis won. Singers and songwriters are born with talent; they don't get a heightened sense of creativity due to the drugs they use. You never, ever saw Anthony Kiedis glamorizing heroin, even during the period when he was using. Kurt Cobain didn't glamorize his addiction either (he just hid from the truth that he was a junkie and gave himself a shotgun facelift). Using drugs and then gloating about it doesn't make for a good song, and Smile Empty Soul prove it. And despite talented musicians' struggles with substance abuse, their creativity shone through despite their addiction. With Smile Empty Soul, there is no creativity there to shine. The lead singer tries to make a name for himself for the sole reason he does it "for the drugs". Then he tries to be '"deep" and "keep it real" by writing a cowardly anti-war song when he could've written to his government in protest instead.

Smile Empty Soul is a Nirvana/Grunge trio whose focus is of the "Mom And Dad, you suck and you made me feel like dirt" type. Indeed, all the hallmarks of this "pathology" are represented here:

· Troubled youth finding a refuge from a grim life in chemicals: ("Bottom Of The Bottle).
· Wanting not to be like one's own parents and take up the chains of their existence ("Silhouettes).
· Hurting because parents and society will not accept the children they got as they are instead of the children they hoped ("Nowhere Kids").
· Resentment and anger at having to fight wars society picked for them to fight ("This Is War").
· Anger at being subjected to psychotherapy ("Therapy").
· Humiliation in trying to fit in ("For You").
· Refusal to conform to the prison life adults have prepared for them ("Your Way").
· The sad and dreadful certainty that every family is "f**ked up" in its own way ("The Other Side").
· Bitterness at the hypocrisy of religion ("Every Sunday" and "I Want My Life").
· Putting away the love one has for his parents so they can't hurt you anymore ("With This Knife").
· Find the love you needed but never got from your parents in another "nowhere kid" like you ("Radio In A Hole").
· Telling society they can take all their advice and criticism and shove it (" My Problems").
· And the pain and anger one feels toward his parents when they feel ashamed of you ("Eraser").

Having come from a family that was "toxic" in many respects, I can sympathize with our singer's point of view. Actually, my family was far more "toxic" than most-far more than I ever have let my children know about. But after all these years, I can look back and note a confusion of effects. Two separate problems tend to get fused as one. On the one hand, there are the genuine issues we may have with our families. On the other is the ominous burden of taking on the expectations of adulthood. As teenagers, we tend to vent our frustration and anger at our families as if they alone were placing the weight of growing up on us all by themselves. It is only in retrospect we come to understand that much of our anger was misplaced. Now that I have raised three children myself and have been at the other end of the stick, I have become more forgiving toward those who came before me. Watching my own parent grow older and frailer, I have come to the startling realization that they were only human beings after all. They were never as "large" as I thought they were. Even if they had done everything right, growing up would still have been hard and painful.

So why buy this record? Isn't the subject matter rather ugly? Hasn't this all been done before?

Songs are quite a bit more than their lyrics and Smile Empty Soul play with a great deal of aggression and appeal for anyone who loves the siren call of hard rock. More inventive and fresh than most, this band just rocks. There is always a time for these kinds of sentiments in everyone's life. Even as a fully certified "adult", every once in a while it is quite satisfying to flip the "bird" to it all.

First of all ive been reading some of the 1 star reviews for this cd and most of them ive seen say "angry teen music" and how these guys are druggies. Well im sorry to break it to you most of the music your listening to the musicians have been on drugs. For example Megadeth, Red Hot Chilie Peppers, Nirvana, and many many others. With that said lets talk about the cd. My favorite tracks are Nowhere Kids, This is war, The other side, and most the others. There really isnt a bad track but bottom of a bottle gets repetitive because ive heard it a billion times. Sean is a pretty talented vocalist and a decent guitarist. I think he shines best on this is war. Im anxious to see how these guys along with seether evolve their music. Well thats all ive got good to listen to when your in a pissed off mood. Oh and before i forget to the reviewer and you know who you are, that said something about the lyrics about family problems are bad because its not a "real problem" well until you have lived in a hostile family you wont understand so dont make a stupid ass comment like that until youve been there. Have a nice day

Smile Empty Soul and everything they stand for is a cliche. Don't like war? Then put down the crack pipe, bong, and pill bottle, get off your duff, go to Washington, and physically protest. Otherwise quit the complaining. Oh, and don't forget to vote in November. But seeing how unmotivated Smile Empty are, they'd never actually try to make a difference. They just like to whine and let somebody else make decisions for them. Smile Empty Soul sat back and let all these horrible things in the world happen, so they are, in a large part, to blame for their own dissatisfaction with the state of the world. Smile Empty are all talk and no walk. Don't whine if you're not willing to try to change things. As for the drug anthems, and the singer's love affair with pill-poppin'', well, all I can say about those is keep on downing them pills, kiddo. We all hope you keep doing "it" "for the drugs", guy. You'll be one less braindead clod the world has to deal with. All that time Smile Empty Soul have spent lighting up, they could have used on doing something productive, like creating a better record, or trying to get rid of these injustices they so passionatly whine about.

Before I begin, I would just like you to know that I harbor no ill wishes toward SMILE EMPTY SOUL or any other incredibly generic band. I just think that they really really suck. Pissed as I may be at their music, I'm sure these guys are really great people. Now the album.

SMILE EMPTY SOUL is a three-man-band led by vocalist/guitarist Sean Danielsen, and are the only band to disgust me slightly more than BREAKING BENJAMIN. Though no small task, SMILE EMPTY SOUL deftly captures everything unoriginal, fake, and clichéd about rock music.

I've listened to the album at least 20 times, and there is still absolutely NO redeeming qualities that deserve more than one star. The musical aspect of the album is amazingly bland, though some sections do have some pretty interesting guitar parts (see 'Silhouettes', which also has the best vocals on the album). Derek Gledhill, the drummer, is pretty capable in his area of expertise, but that's about it. There's no mind-blowing, awesome solo, no catchy hook, no insanely cool riff. It's just some power chords built on the same old formula, for most of the album. 'Bottom of a Bottle' is nearly the perfect song to describe the album as a whole. The introductory music doesn't capture me in any way. Sean's voice is actually very good when he's singing, but when the guy starts trying to scream or whatever he just sounds like he's trying to take a crap.

The lyrics are oh-so typical of the 'hardcore-dude' image that everyone wants but no one wants to admit to wanting. It's retarded. They basically say:

"Hey, I'm my own man, and men who are their are their own man rebel against stuff, like the government and U.S. forces in Iraq. And parent's totally suck, cuz they don't let men who are their own man be their own man, because they don't let them do drugs and stuff, which is really dumb because drugs are f__king cool, and I'm cool, and so that's why I do it for the DRUH-UHGS!!!!! And religion sucks, because God and stuff like that is just stupid and it takes control of you and won't let you be your own man, unlike drugs. Drugs are the SH_T!!! Drugs liberate and free me from oppressive forces like the f__king government. And I'm against the f__king government. And religion. And parents, because they won't let me be my own f__king man. And i've got big bad emotional problems, so stay outta my big bad emotional way and let me be my own f__king man, or i'll write a song about how your controlling forces force me to not rebel against things. If I don't rebel, then I don't have a career, and men who don't have a career aren't their own f__king man. And religion sucks. F__k."

Completely unoriginal, retarded, crappy crap.

Thank you, SMILE EMPTY SOUL, for reminding me just how stupid 90% of modern rock music really is. These guys got signed because of their rebellious messages and (name)'s near-awesome voice, nothing more. Rebellion is what will sell records, and SES proves it. Completely, sickeningly generic music that is only worth it if you don't know any better. But since you do know better, there IS no excuse. DO NOT BUY THIS. 1 star.

Oh yeah. 'This is War' is an AWESOME song, and probably the best on the album. Except the lyrics suck ("we'll blow your f__king head off for our country"), trying too hard to sound deep and meaningful, rather than just BEING that way... so nevermind. Still 1 star.

I bought this Cd a month ago and it is amazing. It is the best Cd I have heard since Nirvana ended so tragically in 1994. I would say that this is so worth the 20$ that I paid for it. I will leave you with two words BUY IT!!!!