Stanley Climbfall

by Dean Carlson

Lifehouse's follow-up album stresses impact over subtlety, staying power, or originality. In lieu of 2002's skate-metal and earnest AOR grunge, Lifehouse is more at ease than most with Scott Weiland's swampmonster vocals and power-crunched guitar riffs. The band also knows how to dig a big chorus out of their thick dynamics when it's called for, a useful tactic reminiscent of Silverchair's first album and the big, gesturey rock of Creed and John Cougar Mellencamp. Despite this, spread over a dozen tracks, competing with so many other bands with a similar sound, Stanley Climbfall's angsty FM grunge is exhausting. Ron Aniello and Brendan O'Brien return behind the desks, and their recognizable hair metal production transforms possible sincerity into self-importance and drains the band of any real individuality.