It’s funny how one single detail can break a story. It can render it impossible to take seriously. Like no matter now much you want it to work, it’s impossible to buy if you know this detail. That’s how I feel about discussing what 105.9 KLAZ out of Hot Springs meant to me. This is a story of finding a niche and finding something that felt like it was yours. And one insane fact ruins it.

Let’s start by acknowledging that on the surface, I’m just talking about a pop radio station. Even in 2000/2001, the idea that one of those was even remotely niche was inaccurate. KLAZ played pop music for a mainstream audiences. They didn’t play 4 minutes of noise. This is not a story of being into the underground.

But we kind of need to look at where I stood with pop music. I was 16/17. I was the target audience. As a male, maybe not the target for the big names. But I liked pop. I was a rock listener and I liked that sound. I’ve covered nu-metal in depth. Still liked pop a lot.

What was definitely going on with me was burnout through. The thing about top 40 is you ONLY hear those songs. They get tiring. Also pop was just off its moment in 2000. I think after Bye, Bye, Bye it was all downhill. No more “lost hits.” It was all a bit samey. I didn’t hate what was big mind you. “Hanging by a Moment” was correctly the biggest song of 2000. I just wanted variety.

So trying to describe KLAZ makes sense in light of the later pop movements that came. A lot of KLAZ in 1999-2002 was artisanal pop so to speak. European pop similar to what broke out in the poptimism movements. I can picture Robyn or Carly Rae Jepsen having hits here. It was definitely a stranger place. I heard a lot of indie bands this way.

Trying to list this music now is useless to people because it’s unknown now. Robbie Williams was big in 2000 there to name maybe the only person people know now. Otherwise it was acts like Bell, Book and Candle, Molly’s Yes (who sound Scottish but are from Tulsa), Andreas Johnson (whose Glorious topped the year 2001 for me.) Nobody but me remembers “Touching Down” by Billionaire but it was a jam. It was a place to find pop music with a sleeker synth sound, which has always been my leaning.

It was also where if you liked one hit wonders you heard their second songs or even late in the game songs. Like they played STP and Blues Traveler into 2001. I heard Jennifer Paige’s underrated second song there. Same for Shawn Mullins. Yeah a lot of One Hit Wonderland acts aren’t OHW for me for it.

And part of the power of it was rarity. You couldn’t just go look a song up on Shazam then save it to Spotify or download it even. I alluded to The Lost Hit, the Reply All podcast episode on a song that got lost even though it was a hit. (So Much Better by Evan Olson, absolute banger.) The song vanished to the point the cast happened to track it down. There are many songs like that I’ve lost for good. (That song I heard in a Kroger a few years back.)

KLAZ itself was a bit rare. I had to tune it in just so to hear it. That made it all the more special to listen to it. This happened weirdly a lot in 2001. Buffy novels were extremely hard to get for some reason in 2001. When art required a challenge to obtain, it mattered more. This is an idea lost in 2026 when everything is at hand instantly.

KLAZ thus is in my mind the perfect symbol of lost art. It’s something that can’t be recreated. I drifted away from pop music in the following years but even if I went back, the landscape changed. It’s a perfect little jewel of a memory. I’m nostalgic for it explicitly because it’s lost to me.

But I alluded at the start to a detail that makes this story funny. See the DJ was inevitably a factor. The guy they had doing DJ work was great. He was funny, likable, young, only 4 years older than me actually. He seemed like a rock star DJ in the region. Nowadays if you ask people to name a DJ, maybe the only one they can name is Bobby Bones, whose show is syndicated nationally. In 2001, my version of Bobby Bones was…Bobby Bones. Yeah, the DJ on KLAZ when I listened at night made it to Dancing With The Stars. I’m not even kidding.

The thing is, that only makes the story a bit cooler. Granted, he’s far from associated with that kind of music now. But it’s cool that the voice I heard in the dark of night was a voice that would go on to be huge. So you add that feeling of being onto something special early. A very cool asterisk on a cool story.

Next time: New X-Men

Art often comes in pairs in weird ways. Sometimes it’s intentional, like the volcano movies. Sometimes it’s coincidental like Trancers/Terminator. Something just gets in the air. So it is I’m looking at albums from (a version of) bands I loved who lost a key member released in 2004. In this case it’s personal resonance that casts the similarities, but they’re there. Last week, I ended on Collective Soul blowing it. This week: Creed.

Alter Bridge’s debut “One Day Remains” is not a Creed album to be clear. Scott Stapp was central to who Creed was as their voice, face, and cowriter. Removing him and replacing him with Myles Kennedy, who cowrote a few tracks with guitarist Mark Tremonti who wrote the rest solo, dramatically alters the band. So even though Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall, and drummer Scott Phillips were in Creed, this isn’t Creed 2.0. It’s a new band.

Who are we kidding? I bought this album as if it was a Creed album. To me, the fact that Tremonti was playing and the other two were there made it Creed. I was in for Tremonti’s work and the opening single sounded just like Creed so fine, it was Creed. And unlike with Youth, I got exactly what I wanted. Why? Well, that requires an in depth look at one of my favorite pieces of art of the 2000s.

So as with every album I love, track by track.

Find the Real: We open with a strong statement of what’s to come. It’s harder edged than the standard Creed song. Kennedy has an almost sarcastic delivery. It’s a song that feels like it’s pushing to see if you’re actually going to go with this new project. And you know what? I was sold immediately. Part of it is Tremonti is in full control here with some of his boldest work ever. I came for him and I got him. But honestly, Kennedy is the star on this track and this album. His delivery just grabs you. And the lyrics are so good. It’s so clear thematically. This sets the tone.

One Day Remains: The title track is a weirdly minor cut comparatively. A simple believe in yourself track. But damn does it hit. This is adrenaline in audio form. It’s simple but simple is fine if it hits. This hits like a brick. The album does go heavy on the upbeat tracks at first, I should note and it makes sense why. They’re trying to sell you in their strange position as a semi-new band and the darker stuff wouldn’t. So okay, kind of a puffball second song. It’s still damn good.

Open Your Eyes: The most naked “hey Creed fans, this is what you like!” song. It’s got bad Higher vibes. One Day Remains did too. There’s a song later on this album that goes harder on that. But it’s funny. Creed always chased Higher. And always crushed it. This is great. Sounds great. Pumps you up. Puts images of a blue sky in your mind. It’s clean on the ear. Kennedy is phenomenal. Not the best song on the disc but smartly how to sell it.

Burn it Down: Listeners of their very popular second disc Blackbird will definitely hear a sound they know here. Dark, somber, apocalyptic. It’s wonderful. This is when their identity is formed. It’s very distinct. Slow. Creepy. This is a bitter pill that works. Tremonti has rarely sounded better. It’s funny that this is the most grunge either band has ever sounded given Stapp’s Eddie Vedder ripoff claims and he’s nowhere near it. It’s just so wonderfully Alice in Chains in vibe.

Metalingus: This is the worst title on what has to be one of the most universally acclaimed rock songs of the decade and it should be. This wasn’t a single likely because of that title but it’s had a long afterlife in wrestling and I’m grateful for that. This is damn near perfect. Mark Tremonti clearly wanted to get more into actual heavy metal as later albums show and he’s right to. This thing is just as perfect a pump you up song as it gets. But then you listen to the lyrics and you see the true genius. This is about a dream that failed but it’s not sad and downbeat. It’s about saying you’ll go on to the next dream, such as a new band. It really is the great rebound anthem rock needs. The lyrics are beautiful and because Kennedy has clear delivery each word matters.

Broken Wings: Nobody has any idea what this song is about. Song Meanings is baffled. Some say 9/11. Some say loss. Some say guilt. I have no clue. But I know it’s unsettling in a very real way. I have to believe on some level this is about feelings you don’t like and don’t know how to deal with. The point is you have to live with them. I don’t listen to this one often because it’s so much but I stress it’s art. Such a sobering, real song. And somehow not the most heartbreaking song on the album.

In Loving Memory: There is zero dispute about what this is about. Tremonti wrote it about losing his mom and that’s obvious. I hate With Arms Wide Open so much because it’s so obvious and this is somehow just as obvious but a million times better. Maybe that’s because it’s not batshit atonal. This is a song about missing someone that sounds painful. It’s genuinely lovely and it feels like a rock song. It’s still pretty metal honestly. That’s the thing. You can feel this band shaking Stapp’s glurgey side off even when it’s to say you miss your mom. Good stuff.

Down to My Last: The last purely upbeat song on the disc could’ve been the last upbeat song anyone ever recorded. Like you’re not outdoing this. Higher wishes it was this epic. It is to be blunt one of my favorite songs ever. I only put it at #4 in 2004 and I blame it not being a single. This is loud, set the sky on fire feel good music. It’s funny enough also about failing and gratitude. And it’s funny how often that comes up on this disc. Mark Tremonti was clearly haunted by guilt at failing at something. And I’m going to say more at the end. This is a perfect happy song.

Watch Your Words: Such a delightfully bleak song. A simple concept: be careful how you act because there are consequences that hit you before anyone else. That’s a really dominant theme here on this disc, guilt and failure. It’s so clear Mark Tremonti wrote this for himself and it sears. This is a critical song. I really love introspective rock. I wish I had more to say about this because it’s fascinating aurally. So much of their work reminds me of Frank Peretti’s seemingly anodyne but eldritch horror work.

Shed My Skin: This seems like a dark song on the surface but it’s not. Tremonti is still looking at finding the positive in the dark. This is another song about renewal and…yeah it’s really not subtle what’s going on. But it works! This builds to a true feeling of healing. I love that about it. It’s a bit dark and ugly but isn’t letting go of something toxic that feeling? When it builds to a soaring breakdown, it’s pure catharsis.

The End Is Here: Creed seemed to have an apocalypse trilogy going with Is This The End and Who’s Got My Back? I love both songs. And I love this song too. It’s another simple idea: Don’t give up until you have to. That’s what makes it the perfect album closer. It captures the key themes and feeling of the disc. It’s genuinely great stuff sonically, still very rapture themed albeit at end of that cycle. Just powerful.

One Day Remains is a perfect echo to Youth in that it’s a look at the loss of a key member of a band from the perspective of the remaining member. But unlike with Youth, Mark Tremonti is far less bitter. Granted, Scott Stapp was just hard to work with and a drug addict, not the man who stole his wife. But there could’ve been a really nasty album made about a band falling apart and Tremonti doesn’t do that. Instead, this is a meditation on failure and rebirth. Yes, an album about that beats an album about divorce.

That very approach, not dwelling on the past but instead focusing on what’s ahead, helps this album feel like a perfect bridge for Creed fans because if you notice, this is actually a really optimistic album. Most of the songs, even the most metal tracks, have affirmative messages. That was always Creed’s strongest suit and it’s even more effective here. The angrier vibe makes declarations of perseverance sound like they’ve come from people who’ve suffered.

Honestly so much of this is on just how simple the songs are. I didn’t spend a lot of time on Song Meanings parsing tracks aside from Broken Wings and even that’s obvious emotionally. This hit in 2004 when nu-metal and emo were thuddingly blunt after some of the more baffling rock of the 90s. But then Creed wasn’t exactly a confusing band. And I can’t say Alter Bridge will become a lyrically complicated band. In The Deep is as blunt as love songs get.

A big thing that makes the album palatable as a transition disc is Kennedy. See I’m going to anger a lot of music fans who think highly of Kennedy and argue he wasn’t a dramatic shift from Stapp. Now he’s a lot better as a vocalist but Stapp was always pretty damn good too,, just an unbearable presence. Kennedy is a fellow bold figure. He has a great voice that evokes the metal gods more than the grunge gods, like I hear a lot of Dio in him. He’s not a shrinking violet though. He’s not Gary Cherone. And dear God, when he joins Tremonti on guitar, he matches him in skill which says a lot.

That’s the thing. I want to break Creed out of this band and I can’t and honestly why should I? I was in on Tremonti as what I considered the voice of Creed. Listening to this, he sounds very purely Tremonti. His work here is the best he’d done to date. Tremonti always wrote the musical side of the band which really helps that continuation feel. Of course they still sound like Creed when that side hasn’t changed at all. (Marshall left the band for Weathered but has been with Alter Bridge straight through.) There was a bit of a shift going forward with the full band writing songs after this album, but I’ve listened to a lot of their work after this while writing this and it’s all this sound.

One Day Remains is an interesting anomaly for me as a writer and music consumer. Typically I do these pieces as a way of trying to understand why I jumped off listening to a band. I admit I’ve only heard Blackbird after this. I liked it but didn’t feel I had to listen to more. But as I’ve written, I’ve been listening to more of their stuff and it all hits so hard.

What this is ultimately is an airtight set of songs. I don’t know that I’d cut any of these honestly. One Day Remains is the least essential and it’s still an incredible song. It’s an album that felt game changing to me in 2004 and still does.

Next time: A tribute to KLAZ.

Blender was released in October 2000. Youth was released in November 2004. Right then and there, I can explain entirely what happened to my fandom for Collective Soul. Yes, I listened to Disciplined Breakdown in September 2001, but that’s still an over 3 year gap between new work. Anything I say next is irrelevant next to the blunt fact that the band vanished for three years for me. I moved on.

So let’s look at Youth in that light. Not so much a bad album, but the moment they became the high school buddies I outgrew. Like I saw them in concert after this in 2006 but we lost touch after that. No hard feelings. We just moved apart.

That said, this isn’t very good and looking at why takes several forms. In a way, this makes every mistake the band ever made at once. It’s repetitive. It’s dull. It’s shallow. It’s so mean. It shows a band angry at the idea of growth. New guitarist Joel Kosche is fine but one gets the sense he was hired because he put up with Ed Roland’s tyranny more than that he added anything. Enough setup. Let’s dissect Youth.

Now before I get going, I have to FINALLY address a rumor that was later confirmed that I learned while researching this album because it explains way too much. The band’s ex-guitarist Ross Childress had an affair with Ed Roland’s wife, possibly even marrying her for a bit. The timing adds up 1:1. The art reflects this. No wonder Roland gets psychotic at the topic of Childress. (Thanks to Austin Vashaw for the alert)

Better Now: The first song on the album is a perfect leadoff track. It’s nakedly a divorce song and it’s a great anthem for moving on from a bad situation. Ed Roland was newly divorced and this feels authentic. It sounds big. It’s definitely bold. I think this is by far the band’s worst song. See, it’s so ungodly smug about the topic. It’s so in your face about how much better life is after a divorce and that’s a really nasty topic! I don’t like having my face rubbed in someone’s midlife crisis. I didn’t like it at 20. I don’t like it at 41. We’re not in for a fun time.

There’s a Way: The band saves face massively with this song. This is the Collective Soul I love. I saw the theory it’s about writing and that tracks. It’s very much about trying to crack a piece. It sounds incredible. This album actually moves hard away from the synths and gets a bit rootsier. Those are still there but here you can tell they’re trying to get more grounded. Sounds great. Kosche kills here.

Home: Yeah this isn’t a good song at all. It suffers from the bizarre structure to have verses with one clear sound that works and a miserable sound on the chorus. It’s also kind of preachy. Like they get back to talking faith. Bad call. This is just an ugly song and the shifts break it more than anything.

How Do You Love?: Maybe I’m starting to get why it’s been 20 years since I tried to listen to this. It’s another really bad, moody song. This is why divorced guy art is the worst art ever. Like it’s so self obsessed. I’m not here for it. That it’s in the hands of Ed Roland, the most vindictive man in pop-rock is really a bad thing. This is a slog. And in the light of the double betrayal, it should have some reasonance

Him: This is short so it’s cute. But God can I tell this is about his breakup on both levels and honestly, this is kind of where you have to see what happened. It’s clearly about someone specific. It’s bad though. I hate this kind of music.

Feels Like (It Feels Alright): Okay, the band gets back to happy music. This is where their other big flaw kicks in. This is them trying so hard to do what worked in the past. This is just a weaker version of what genuinely killed on Blender. It’s hollow. I don’t buy it. This is pure “whooo I’m fine” energy. But it’s fake. And it should have worked because I was happy in November 2004. I was having a great time. Not here. This song annoys me.

Perfect to Stay: I like this song! It’s just a sweet love song that still feels the band. It’s a bit slow but honestly, trying to be manic isn’t working. It’s genuinely pretty and kind of hopeful. I think we needed that tone on this disc. That said, I only like it and we need more love to balance how much I hate here.

Counting the Days: If the band has a true classic on this album, it’s this. This seems to be the song they carry forward the most along with Better Now. No, this is the good version of that because it’s honest. This is a viciously angry rock song that sings. Kosche absolutely shreds here. The lyrics are brutal. This is Roland venting at the person (or most likely people) he hates the most. It’s a cold nasty song that drops any feel good pretense. I love it.

Under Heaven’s Skies: I like this one too! That’s the thing. There are still good songs here. This is a straight love song with a great rock vibe. This gives the band a rare great soundscape on this disc and I feel like this could’ve been in their best era. It has a great energy. That said, it’s slight. I saw the statement they always had the American Nickelback image. Yeah this is that. I like that. But it’s that.

General Attitude: It’s funny. On the surface, this is another song like Generate or Slow. I love those. I love songs about starting over. I should love this. I hate it. Why? Because it’s smug. It’s so much a “I’m better with out you, haha” song. I can’t stand this tone. It’s not celebratory. It’s cruel. I find myself sympathizing with Roland’s wife in this. It’s also poorly constructed. Like it has to be noted that the last two songs aside, this album’s production just stinks.

Satellite: What a weirdly low key way to end my fandom for one of my favorite acts ever. Satellite barely feels like a song. It’s a very small ballad. It’s not awful but it’s not a song to remember. It’s too small. It tries to be a love song but it’s a bit creepy. Eye in the Sky was meant to be this. That said, ending on such a sobering note fits. It’s the right way to leave.

I didn’t expect this but I feel genuinely heartbroken at this point. See, you have to remember that the order I listened to these discs in wasn’t the one I posted/wrote these in which was chronologically. I listened to Self Titled/Dosage/Blender and those are the three I love. Disciplined Breakdown was a stopgap listen when the greatest hits disc hit and I decided I wanted unheard material. This was a closing note. And it just left me so cold.

I don’t like Youth at all ultimately. I thought it was fine but a relisten tells me it was unlistenable. I think the issue is Ed Roland never got to a place where he could create art after the divorce. If indeed it was the betrayal, yeah, I get it. But the end result is something that alternates between pretending it can be the old Collective Soul and the new being kind of miserable. I think it’s telling the straight happy love songs work best while There’s A Way is just a relief for not being about the divorce. Only Counting the Days lands because it admits what it is.

And as much as I want my hate of this album to be reacting to how much I don’t connect with Roland’s strife, I knew none of that for 21 years. This is just a bad album as a music album and one that highlights how rare it is for bands to last. This still sounds like CS but it’s the version that comes from losing their edge over time. It’s soulless and plastic. I trash how turgid Disciplined Breakdown got but it was real. This is a band destined for the Wild Hogs soundtrack.

I get why I walked away from Collective Soul after this. Yeah, I saw them in concert in 2006. They were good. But they weren’t so good I’ve ever heard a new album since. I didn’t feel the urge writing this either. Working on this project felt like what it was. A nice, perfect requiem to a fandom I had for a time when I needed it. I’ll always spin the three discs I love. But I’m done now.

Next week: Another band I love goes through a dramatic shift in 2004.

Todd in the Shadows has an amazing series called Trainwreckords where he looks at albums that derail a band’s career. I’m going to cut to the chase: Blender is that for Collective Soul. It was their last major label album. Ross Childress left the band after this disc. (WE WILL GET TO WHY!) Dosage launched several hit songs but this was hit less. It is a definite flop.

But is Blender exactly a trainwreckord? Everything to Everyone was similar and I think it’s a hidden gem. Blender isn’t that good. It’s got weak spots. But I’m actually fascinated that it didn’t hit. Because honestly, it’s solid. A B+ rather than an A like last time and I’ll admit, I initially wrote it off as lightweight. But the good here is insanely good and there’s so little bad. Let’s dig in.

Skin: The album opens on an absolute banger. The band said this was meant to be their party album and this delivers. It’s a nonsense track lyrically but goddamn does it hit. The hook is great. It’s tight at 3:10. The synth work is back as unexpectedly is a bit of that hippie vibe from Self Titled. I threw this on as I wrote this entry and it’s just such a tight feel good blast I lit up. And even though the lyrics are nonsense, it’s clear this is a love song. It’s great. Could’ve been a hit.

Vent: Hoo boy, we hit this album’s big issue immediately. It’s Dosage, Also. This is so common when a band has a hit disc. They redo the hit disc and this is Heavy 2 down to the placement. It’s another “I hate my label” track. Yeah, you’re fine after this Roland. That said, this song absolutely kills. Best guitar work on the disc. Lyrics are fire. It’s wonderfully angry. It’s funny. It’s awesome.

Why Pt. 2: The first single is a perfect lead off track. It’s not the best song on the disc but it’s a good example of what the band does well. The guitar work is hot next to Ed Roland’s cold vocals. It’s a solid song about a bad relationship. Please do take note of that theme. The only reason I think this wasn’t a hit? Well… Linkin Park really throttled music that fall. I need people to understand how much this sound was dead the second Hybrid Theory hit. This feels like it belonged to another time and yet the band had hits 20 months earlier. And if this died, the rest of the album was doomed.

10 Years Later: Another bad relationship song. A true ballad from the band which largely skipped them. It’s very slow, very downbeat, and brilliant. Like if you want to know how December 2000 felt put this on. It’s the sound of realizing you’ve lost everything. Roland sounds so good. It’s almost seductively sad, honestly. Like sonically, this is a vibe I want to live in.

Boast: Another argument song. There’s a weird level of darkness for a party album. This definitely feels very personal and I’m convinced, albeit with no evidence, this is about Roland’s tension with guitarist Ross Childress. It feels very direct in a way their other songs don’t. It’s also another sonic landscape I love living in. It’s very melodic yet also angry. The lyrics use a nice conceit, accusations and insults with specifics cut out. It’s very constipated. I can’t explain it. It’s frustrated and glorious.

Turn Around: Ed Roland had fights on his mind. Another bad relationship song but a much prettier song. This is a nice song even as it deals with an argument. Lyrically, it’s just so nice. Once more, the band creates a great soundscape. They’re all in on the synths. It’s hard not to see Childress getting pushed out. But man this works. It’s all so very 1998. It’s so clear this is not a band ready for 2000.

You Speak My Language: The band’s only cover on an album is an interesting case. I actually prefer the Morphine original but I dig this one too. It was built on turning a sax solo into a guitar solo. It’s a very different sound for the band, much harder, but I love it. Also where the party feel is actually there. It’s a genuine blast of a song.

Perfect Day: Elton John does a guest verse here and it’s a mistake. He’s too distracting on a very lightweight song. This is just a simple song about someone having a good moment. It’s one of the most forgettable songs the band has actually. So having Elton John feels like a lot for nothing. He adds nothing. Which stinks because at this moment Elton John was actually really great. A miss really.

After All: The other truly forgettable song on this disc. I really won’t waste much time on it. It’s kind of inert and bitter. It sounds bad. It’s another song about a relationship falling apart. CCR didn’t deal this much with the end of a relationship. You can feel this is actually about the band’s tension. Doesn’t make it good.

Over Tokyo: Really love this song. It’s about dealing with grief and wishing you could escape it. It’s angry and driving. Sonically it’s again a perfect landscape. As I’m writing about this album, I’m realizing this was probably their best collection of these. It’s just interesting to listen to. It’s hard to miss how bitter it is but it’s a good bitter. Though I can’t stress enough: Was this a party album? Doesn’t seem like it!

Happiness: The last song on the album is a good hard driving rock track. And it’s also incredibly bitter. It’s basically “I’m better off without you.” And that’s really a sour sentiment on such a fun song. I love this track to be clear. It is in fact quite solid with a real driving beat. It’s just that it’s hard to miss what a dark track it is lyrically. Ed Roland needed to chill. Still, the sound boosts it to a strong recommend.

So I’m left with a quandary. Obviously I think pretty much every song on this disc kills. But this is still a bit off for me. And I think it comes down to just how sour this is tonally despite the sound. You can’t miss how bitter the lyrics are. It’s also not a particularly deep album thematically beyond a breakup. (After this album, Ed and Dean Roland went through divorces so it was on their minds!) That definitely doesn’t wear well.

But this deserves better. Like I said, it’s bad luck that it hit at the moment it did. This sound was dead. You had to have the songs the way Foo Fighters did. These are not good enough to overcome the death of 90s rock. It’s very good, not great.

This is indisputably an ending. Ross Childress left after this. (Can barely keep in why now.) The band’s sound shifted a bit. We’ll get to Youth next. But before we get there, a look at the two songs on their greatest hits album, which actually was a hit.

Energy: The last great Collective Soul song. I’m not saying they don’t have near great coming. But this is a monster. It’s bluntly a song about someone who is a parasite. It sounds big. The guitar work is insane. The lyrics are blunt if a bit weird as for years I thought he said “I think you left me for their government” which is bizarre and the line. IDK. It’s classic.

Next Homecoming: I like this song but I don’t love it and I can’t say why. It’s just a bit off brand. It’s not bad but it’s a weaker version of better songs. It feels too much like several at once. The guitar is a bit too aggressive here weirdly. I don’t know. Not how I want the classic era to end.

Next time: Youth sends me out the door.

Okay, so the band stumbled with Disciplined Breakdown. A hit off a soundtrack kept them alive and they realized that formula worked for them. And would 9 years later with a song off this album. This was the big rebound and it bought them the rest of their career. Dosage is the big album for fans after self titled. There were huge hits. It’s the band recovering from the brutal experience of Disciplined Breakdown, It’s a definite win for the band. It was one of my favorite albums growing up.

And it still is. Yeah let me note no matter how critical I’ll get, I love this album. I do. It has some weak bits but the highs here are the highest of any art I’ll ever cover. I care about this disc. So let’s dig in.

Tremble For My Beloved: Images of Edward Cullen stopping Bella Swan getting hit are fitting as this scored that scene. It’s the perfect use too. Tremble For My Beloved is one of the best songs Collective Soul ever recorded. It’s the right way to start the album as it’s a very synth heavy song that marks a declaration: The organic hippie sound was dead. Time to meet 2000. The imagery is very spacey. It’s very bold. Definitely more pop. But I need to stress how dead the grunge scene was. Going pop was surviving. And besides: They were great at it. This song’s lyrics are underrated as they really sell the imagery even more than the sound. Ross Childress sounds alive too after a soft last disc.

Heavy: Maybe the best of the tell off songs the band ever did. Honestly, I kind of wonder if this ended that thread for them. I’m not sure if any songs after are actually about the management fight. This is. But it was a huge hit for them because it’s universal. It’s a perfect angry rant at someone who hurt you. That hook of “all your weight/it falls on me/it brings me down” is art. The guitar work here is impeccable. It burns from that perfect opening riff to the end. Short too. Which is good. This is still a long disc.

No More, No Less: Here is an oddity. It’s long. It’s rambling. It’s kind of got a weird tempo. And I kinda love it. The thing is, this song is alive unlike the tracks on Precious Declaration. Childress really does bring a sound that sears here. It’s about an interesting idea, asking for patience with someone. The speaker admits vulnerability and that’s a nice concept the song sells. I didn’t think of this as running 5 minutes. It’s a nice cool off.

Needs: This could’ve gone on Precious Declaration and fit. It’s a slow, simple love song. That said, crazy as it is, Collective Soul didn’t really do love songs until now and they’re crazy good at them. This song works so well. It’s just bluntly effective. The lyrics are phenomenal. Childress really shines here, giving the song a nice acoustic flow. Roland has rarely sounded better. The song is so well structured, building to a nice breakdown at the end. This is a strong example of something I don’t like done right.

Slow: Not a single. Could’ve been a hit. This is the band at its loudest and simplest. It’s about the mania that comes with freedom. The refrain feels both sarcastic as in “don’t tell me to slow down” and a message to yourself to dear God slow down. It’s sonically one of their high points. It sounds soaring and bold. I bought this album on my 16th birthday and it sounds like what you’d blast that day. I have no notes.

Dandy Life: The second song in a row about feeling good. This is a wonderful oddity. The only song Ross Childress wrote and sang and it could feel like a guest track. In fact the band ignored it when they toured with the album as Childress was long gone. Honestly I don’t think it feels out of place. A different voice and writer but this fits perfectly. It sounds so good. It’s got that pastoral spacey vibe that unites the album. It captures just a good positive energy. Childress is a fine vocalist and writer.

Run: The big hit on the disc and rightly so. This is a volley back to The World I Know’s joy at arrival with “okay, now what?” It’s very confused and frustrated, even as it’s an anthem. It’s lower key and dark though. The lyrics express deep anger at getting what you want and it’s not satisfying. That’s an emotion I get. The song truly is the anthem for recovery from depression. I like how messy it is. The strings are gold and it’s very pretty but also dark and ugly. It’s truly necessary. I like it more than The World I Know honestly.

Generate: There are 11 songs not including the hidden track and if I could argue for a cut, it’s this. Not that it’s bad. But it’s weirdly ephemeral. Like it’s definitely very pop and I can tell they wanted this direction. But it’s a weirdly unexciting song. The loop that drives it is very plastic. The whole album is synth heavy but this is when it really doesn’t fit. It’s too much a swing in the opposite direction of Disciplined Breakdown and that didn’t really work but neither does this.

Compliment: This makes up for it. Maybe the cleanest song the band has ever recorded meaning wise, a naked plea for affirmation and a reaction to not getting it. This is an angry song as a result. The lyrics sear. Ed Roland is, as I’ve noted, an ugly man but that ugliness is needed to express a real emotion. On a sonic level, this is impeccable. It’s also very synth heavy but what synths! This is the inverse of Tremble For My Beloved with a feeling like being in a library. It’s so dark and moody.

Not The One: Um, is it okay to now call out the obvious: There is a real “not okay” feeling to this album. And it will get way worse on Blender. I’m actually fascinated by how downbeat the album is with three very dour songs to end it. (Before the hidden track.) This is a strange song. Kind of a waltz. It’s a simple idea, realizing you’re not the ideal person for someone. It’s kind of sad, slow, and genuinely pretty. I really like this song a lot. It’s experimental in a way that highlights the ambition of this disc. If Disciplined Breakdown was just so much been there, done that, this is a bold try.

Crown: This song is possibly the darkest thing the band ever recorded. It’s very similar to Run, a meditation on the legacy you leave. It sounds so bleak. The synths really dominate here. So much so that we might start to notice a guitar player would feel out of place. I think it’s a perfect album closer and it underlines how well this album was put in order. There’s a genuine flow from the light of Tremble to this. It really conveys burnout, which was after all what the title referred to. This song aches to listen to. It’s a perfect conclusion to a classic disc.

53 seconds of silence.

She Said: The actual album closer is a hidden track release of She Said, the closing number to Scream 2. It was on that soundtrack but was wisely slipped on Dosage to officially be in their canon. And yeah, it should be there. It’s an important bridge song. It doesn’t sound like Disciplined Breakdown. It feels like the band shaking off their worst instincts and trying. There’s some synth work here that’s great. It’s extremely pretty. It’s definitely the end of the band doing neo-hippie stuff. It’s smartly a hidden track though. Doesn’t fit as officially on the album because it’s a bridge.

I love that I can say after 26 years I still love Dosage. If the album has a weakness, it’s that it is a much less organic sounding work than self-titled. I said Childress was underused on Disciplined Breakdown but he’s even more sidelined here. The synth work dominates in the second half. That said I like that stuff. It works far more than the cabin vibe of the last disc. This is a modern sounding album, at least as work from 27 years ago goes.

The biggest strength the disc has is the lyrics. Ed Roland tends towards very vague work but this is their most direct album. It’s a very cohesive album too. It’s hard not to see it as the band looking at life after the catastrophes that plagued them. They seem happy. That scares them and you want to assure them a huge crisis looms. It’s honest in that way though. Depression sufferers don’t and shouldn’t trust their joy.

Dosage remains all I thought it was. Next time, an album I’d written off until a recent listen.

As much as I wanted to write these entries in order of how I listened to them, on an artistic level you can’t discuss Dosage without looking at Disciplined Breakdown first. Sure, I had no issue listening to them out of order. But Dosage’s worst traits are all present on the middle disc. Explaining how Collective Soul got from high to a lower high requires understanding what a dramatic rebound Dosage was from this album.

Because I’ll be blunt: If I listened to Disciplined Breakdown before Dosage, I wouldn’t have made it to Dosage. Disciplined Breakdown is a frustrating album. The band was in a fight with their former management. They had no money. And none of that changes the fact this is a fatally slow album. Going from the tightest rock album possible to an album of slow rootsy ballads was a bad idea. There are a few rock songs and the good songs are great, but when I did my relisten to these 5 albums I barely endured this one. Still, I’d never call Disciplined Breakdown a bad album. Or will I. Let’s go.

Precious Declaration: The hit off the album is by far the best song. I could be critical of starting with your best but that’s a common trope. Precious Declaration is by far the strongest rock song on the album. It’s about the fight. It’s not their best song on it but it’s great. It’s an angry song. Ed Roland is a pissed off dude. The song is blunt too. It really is a scorched earth declaration that feels cathartic. The guitar work, which I will get very critical of, is art here. This feels like 1995 CS. Warning: We rarely meet them here.

Listen: And we immediately land on a weird note. Listen is an uncanny valley hit. It should work. It sounds like a rock song. It’s up tempo. It’s got a solid guitar sound too. It’s so close. But you can’t miss: This is a dead inside song. I guarantee it was considered for self titled and went on to fill space. Like it’s a giant shrug of a song. It’s unmemorable. I like it decent enough but it’s the 10th best version of this song by this band.

Maybe: It’s funny that there are two hits Collective Soul never stopped chasing. December has emerged with Precious Declaration. Shine haunts them even worse though. They made so many versions of Shine to the point on their next album they ripped off one of those with Run. This is a damn good version though. It was written for a dead friend. You can tell it was. It’s sweet and honest. That said, it’s a bit too soft and sappy. The strumming sound is weak. I think the band was way too happy to write glurge this album. This is the good version.

Full Circle: I’ve likely heard this song more than most on the album but I blame putting it on a playlist and not taking it off. Because no, this doesn’t work at all. It’s terrible really. The sound of it is just bad. Kind of squawky. Ross Childress is not hitting here on guitar. Still on the hippie territory lyrically and I think it’s a gift they got rid of it for Dosage. These are really awful lyrics. But more than anything else, this screams trying for a hit with no actual desire to write a hit meaningfully. It also hits on something important: By 1997 we were done with that idea. Lyrics of “love and peace” sound hollow in 1997. It’s bad.

Blame: God this is close to being great. The guitar is fine. I like the lyrics. But there’s no energy here. And I know why: This is almost 5 minutes. Time to really hit on that. There are way too many 4 minute plus songs on this album with 3 minute ideas. This is definitely this band’s Be Here Now. This song runs on and on with no drive.

Disciplined Breakdown: YES! I come to one of the two other songs on this album I unabashedly love, the title track. Disciplined Breakdown is a perfect song about losing your mind. It’s short, fast, tight. The song feels like a creepy version of the experience rather than an angry one. It’s as hard as the band goes here or ever really. It just burns. No notes.

Forgiveness: God I hate this song. It’s so sludgy. Like it wants to be a song about as the title suggests forgiveness but it runs so long. It has no energy. The guitar is this weird semi plucking thing that’s very 1997. It’s clearly a jam band vibe and it’s slow. What’s funny is I think the band eventually figures this out. This is very Blender/Youth. But not yet.

Link: Seriously again with the hippie shit. As I write about how much they tried to keep doing these songs, it’s really clear the band was done here. It feels like they were known as the hippie rock band and had to stay it. And it’s empty. This song is so boring and uninteresting. God, Run is hitting so much harder.

Giving: I’m being weirdly cruel to this album for a key reason: I know how much better Dosage is. But there’s a sad paradox in that I heard this after Dosage and Blender and it helped push me out the door. Oh, this song? Uh, it’s lazy. Are this and Link different songs? They’re not. Next.

In Between: I’m nicer to this song simply because there is a pulse. Like the last few songs feel like the band reigniting for Dosage. They also just tilt the album to a better state. This feels like a perfect, well in between song. It’s still rootsy but Roland tightens as a writer. It’s a solid song. That said, Childress just isn’t on here and he’s going to burn soon.

Crowded Head: I like this song but it’s weird. This feels like the most un-CS song yet. Which is funny because it’s another mental distress song like Disciplined Breakdown. But it’s strange. The bridge is genuinely unnerving. It feels like it’s too raw. But it works. It definitely feels like the band finding an experimental voice. This is ultimately a good song.

Everything: This song makes me wonder what if the album had sounded like this, Disciplined Breakdown, and Precious Declaration. I mean I know. Those three songs are what the next three albums sound like. This is a killer track that lets me end by talking about what I love about the band. It’s melodic. It’s soaring. It has a cool sound that’s distinct. Roland sounds great. Childress is still underused but he’s effective. This feels like a bridge to Dosage.

So that’s a mixed result. 5 songs I like. A couple I have mixed thoughts on. One or two I hate. And a number I’m bored by. This feels like what it was: A band recording because they had to. It’s obvious the band had to know their original style wasn’t working out. That said, it’s not like these songs vanish. There’s a big hit off the next album that feels like the perfect version of the bad songs here,

I have to note the band actually had a huge hit in 1997 with She Said. It came after this album and on the Scream 2 soundtrack, as it closes that film. I won’t cover it here…because it was a hidden track on Dosage. I will go in depth then. But I think that much more pop heavy song was a big turning point. It showed the band who they could and should be. Grunge was dead. They were built for Y2K.

So next time? I look at one of my favorite works of art ever.

Welcome to the first of the new form of Why2K. I’m keeping this a weekly column but no more 25 years earlier rule. As long as I connect it with 2000-2009, it goes. (That said after some weirdness, mostly 2001) Three of the albums here I connect with the decade. Next week I look at a 2004 disc.

I want to start this project with a brutal truth: You fall out of love with even your favorite artists. I grew up on Garth Brooks and I’m done with him. I grew up on Aerosmith and realized I like but don’t love. I love Creed but they’re blissfully sealed at four albums and I doubt I’ll ever really need to worry about them.

Collective Soul was my favorite group between 1997-2004. I listened to them nonstop. For my 16th birthday, I bought Dosage and wore it out. I knew every song.

But there’s a funny thing there. I said they were no longer my favorite after 2004. The truth was I’d lost faith a bit earlier but their first album without guitarist Ross Childress was a clear “it’s over” moment. And while I’ve listened to the albums I loved since, I’ve never listened to a new album after. That’s 21 years of my life without loving this band’s new work.

So let’s do something painful. Let’s go song by song. Let’s see how I feel out of love and close the door. I’ll try to approach each disc knowing what I know now and knowing how I felt then.

We begin on what Ed Roland calls the band’s true debut. However I’ll start with an important note: Ed Roland is a repulsive blowhard and the way he’s dismissed their debut should be questioned. He is the villain of this band’s story and its protagonist. I suspect he’s bitter about royalties. (His bitterness towards Childress…will make sense when we get to Youth.) That said, I’ve never heard it so we begin here.

Simple: I feel like the first few seconds are a bit off. I don’t really vibe with them. That said, it almost feels like the band brushing off the norms of the 1991-1994 sound to fully kick in. Once the song begins, it’s perfect. It’s very blunt. A big theme for this album is neo-hippie themes and that’s this song at its core. Just pure feel and express love. That it’s a big rock song is funny. It works though. Ross Childress shreds. Ed Roland is intense. It makes the song feel less sappy than it could be. It’s a great start.

Untitled: So the title is a pun. God is supposed to be unnamed and nobody knows the true name. This song is about God. This is a religious but explicitly not Christian rock song. It’s about a personal path to faith. You know what? Not a bad topic. Live did it with Heaven. And like that song, this is a big loud song. The lyrics kill here. It’s very clear the band means this refrain of love. Which, dear God will get funny in later entries. Hell we won’t even make it through this album without hitting two of the pissiest tracks in 1995 rock. But I still think they mean it.

The World I Know: I think the video tainted this song. It’s not about suicide though it depicts an attempt. It’s about feeling awe. It’s effective. It still carries this deep quality of grief to it that keeps it from being too happy. The point is someone facing highs and lows at once. It’s one of only two songs I know to capture the apprehension of a good moment in life, the other being “Second Chance” by Shinedown. I’m not shocked it’s a popular graduation song (which is how I framed it when I first covered it.) It’s a lovely song and it makes me sad the Wikipedia entry has to have more of Ed Roland’s venting. (The venting was his hatred for Childress who he claimed took unearned credit. Yeah… got a long tease coming.)

Smashing Young Man: My favorite song by the band also highlights that Roland is a dick. This is a diss track to Billy Corgan who only barely comes out behind here. Like I think Roland really needs to look in the mirror because at least Corgan owns who he is. That said, idk, the song will always work. It’s honest. It lands blows about how insane it is to be miserable when you’re successful. And honestly, it may be a bit introspective. I think Roland’s aim is at himself a bit too. Like really this song feels like someone looking at themselves in a mirror and laughing at how good things are. It’s kind of a perfect “Bad Day” type song. Ross Childress shreds here as hard as he ever will. It’s light. It’s funny. The hook is perfect. This entire series exists because I heard this song at a key age.

December: I have complicated feelings about this song. I definitely think it’s immaculately made. I think it hits the spot of what it wants to be. And if I’m honest I dislike it a lot. But that’s the point. This is an ugly song about feeling ugly feelings. That’s the thing. I think the bitterness in Roland works on this album because he confronts it honestly. It’s not hiding how messed up the feelings are. There’s no high ground here. So this is ultimately a great song that needs to be ugly.

Where the River Flows: This album is the last time Collective Soul tried to be any kind of sexual and thank God. That said this works. It’s a reminder it’s still 1995. Stone Temple Pilots, Bush still big names. This is trying to do that and it doesn’t fail. It’s sonically interesting. Kind of unpleasant but in a way that should be. It conveys something nasty and sexual in an effective way.

Gel: I used to use this one at karaoke. It’s good. Amps a room. That said here’s where the neo-hippie thing returns and I think they were really good at this. It’s something the band never lost either. It really comes in on their next disc. This was their best version of it though and I think it’s because the darkness of the band seeps through. That intensity really gives this an edge. I noted Blender is “I’m trying not to fall apart” the album in a piece I abandoned. This is “be kind because I don’t think I am” the song. It’s perfect.

She Gathers Rain: As much as I want the narrative to be looking for the clues Ed Roland is a bastard, I have to be honest. He writes a lot about redemption and forgiveness and healing. His work is deeply humane and this is a great example. This is a song about a woman letting go of pain. It’s cleansing and it has real power. It’s also very much of the grunge moment. That’s what I find interesting. This is a last gasp of grunge that shows why that sound worked from a band moving past it.

When The Water Falls: 3 of 4 songs in a row are on water. Yeah that image is loud here. This is definitely the CS we’ll see after this album. It’s a song about a curious little girl. I think it underscores that Collective Soul wasn’t ever really good at being a rock band. Don’t get me wrong: The rock tracks are great. But this is more honest. It’s sweet and gentle in a way I love. Not a song I put on much but I think it’s good.

Collection of Goods: Another very hippie song. This album really went all in on that. And I love it. It’s fairly thin yes and repetitive but the band was so good at this vibe. In 1995, we needed this. I think people forget how anxiety riddled the 90s were. The art that endures is largely “woohoo! golden age!” This belongs to the “we’re not okay” 90s. Which is a good bridge to…

Bleed: This is a truly great song. It’s been interpreted as being about a suicidal woman. That tracks. It’s a very light sounding song but it captures how it feels to try to help someone who represents a challenge. It’s kind. It sounds great. God the guitar work is perfect. Childress will be missed in the last entry. Honestly the album should’ve ended here and gone out on the same note it started on.

Reunion: The weakest song on the album is the last track. The thing is, this is a superb song. I like it more than most of Blender and all but one song on Youth. It’s lovely. A bit slow but not sad. There’s not one truly dark song on the album even if some tread into ugly waters. It has a sweetness I like. It’s just more of an epilogue than a closing note.

So, this project starts on an unambiguously high note. I’m not shocked by that. I blast this album constantly. I didn’t think I’d revise that opinion. These songs hold up. The craft is so high. I think it’s unambiguously the band’s strongest disc.

Why? I think there’s the tightest core here. This feels like a mission statement on love. There are a couple of outliers but most of the disc is in some way about feeling love. And I think that really holds up. This is an expression of genuine kindness and hope.

That said, I can’t miss that there are sour notes. December and Smashing Young Man are definitely signs of a darkness that will eventually eat the band alive. I mean Ed Roland has pretty boldly rejected Ross Childress’ work here while I have not. (Oh just wait on this…) You can sense that maybe, just maybe that love isn’t there.

Next time: Disciplined Breakdown.

And so it comes to this. One last time before 2000 ends. And it’s the end of the project in this exact “cover every major movie/comic/tv show” form. I’ll get into what it’ll become at the end.

And if it must end, it ends right. The last major release of 2000, though it got a staggered release. I went with my mom and brother to see it in January. We all thought it was brilliant. It started a love of Steven Soderbergh in me that continues to this day. It won Best Director for Soderbergh, Best Adapted Screenplay for Stephen Gaghan, and Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro.

Traffic is a movie that I still think works great. Maybe it’s a 9/10 rather than 10 due to a plot thread that has aged exceedingly poorly. But it holds up mostly. And the stories that hold up hold up hard.

The best is set in Mexico and deals with a drug enforcement agent played by Del Toro who realizes his job is to wipe out a rival cartel on behalf of the agency. It’s a meditation on corruption that’s moving because it looks at how a good man survives in such a world. No question Del Toro deserved to win his Oscar.

Then there’s a shockingly unnominated Catherine Zeta-Jones as a pregnant woman (and she was actually pregnant) who learns her husband is a drug kingpin when he gets arrested. She turns corrupt and cruel to save him. Her plot intertwines with Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman as DEA agents investigating the case and they’re great too. They’re both comic relief and also tragically moving. You believe their friendship. This was the third movie they’d made together. This plot is melodramatic and campy but it’s buoyed by amazing actors. It’s also honest. Everyone is corrupt.

Finally there’s Drug Czar Michael Douglas (who actually fathered the child Zeta-Jones carried and they’re still by all accounts happily together aside from a brief separation) whose daughter is a drug addict. This plot is so well crafted but also it’s wounded by being a bit Go Ask Alice. The resolution with the daughter found prostituting herself for drugs is weirdly moral panic for a movie with better ideas.

The thing that drives this movie is honesty: How do you win the war on drugs? You don’t. People will always seek to intoxicate because existence is pain. We outright gave up on marijuana. There’s dispensaries in the nicest parts of my hometown. This movie is realistic and I love that about it. The film’s argument is criminalization only benefits criminals. It’s a bitter, cynical film.

Stephen Gaghan, working from a British miniseries, deservedly won an Oscar for his script. It is a bit over the top. But it’s OTT in the same way Anora was. Life is heightened. It’s not a sin to see that in a film. The characters all sing. The plotting wisely only intersects as much as it would. It’s more the cartels uniting the plot. There’s no Magnolia moment where characters interact because they need to for that charge. Douglas and Zeta-Jones never share a frame and they wouldn’t. That said, this is a one hit wonder moment for Gaghan. Never liked anything else I’ve seen by him.

The same is untrue of Soderbergh who won an Oscar rightly here and became one of my favorite artists to this day. He helped shape the script. This was his debut as DP on a major level after Schizopolis and it feels like he was determined to make Peter Andrews a name DP. He did so by color grading the three plots and using different camera techniques to shoot. It is him showing off hard. Is this his best film? I don’t have it in his top 5. But it’s also more a grade of how great Soderbergh is. As I’ve written this project, I’ve watched and loved both his 2025 movies. The man is great.

This was when Soderbergh earned the rest of his career. Because he showed how big he could go. On a relatively slim 48 million budget, the film earned 208 million. Studios were willing to risk him forever because sure, you might get an underperformer. But you might get this or Magic Mike or Contagion. Black Bag underperforming isn’t on the film.

This movie exudes confidence. Soderbergh not only served as DP but camera operator and took up editing on Ocean’s Eleven. He’s as fully a director as it gets and it’s clear he knows what he’s doing with this film. His big cast is all sublime. He’d reunite with Cheadle on the Ocean’s trilogy, CZJ on Ocean’s Twelve (which I’m also in the camp of thinking is a great movie after a good movie), Benicio Del Toro on Che, and Viola Davis (who has a small role here) in Solaris. That his actors often come back says a lot.

This movie is thus kind of a strange film. It’s definitely a star vehicle on screen but it’s a star vehicle for the director more than anyone in it. And it works because Soderbergh is that guy. He is a star director and the movie is him showing off. More than anything else it shows that while he loves experimenting, he loves this kind of massive film because you realize he’s experimenting more.

There’s this mistaken idea selling out leads you to make commercial junk. The guy who made this is clearly the voice behind Schizopolis and Kafka. He just has more toys. The three modes are as bold as any artist has been on a mainstream film. He’s not trying for a movie of the week.

It’s easy to see the bad version of Traffic. Moralistic and mopey. It’s not this. This is a bold, fierce film. Is it perfect? No. Best film of the year? Eh with Wonder Boys and Unbreakable. But it’s a classic. A truly great film. I love that I’m ending 2000 here.

And with this as the last column, I thank you for your support. It was a fun project. So what will it be? Honestly, I still don’t know. I’m going to cover “Play” by Moby. I know I want to get to a few comics. I want to do one long piece on the comedies of 2001. A piece on animation. Definitely cover Steven Spielberg’s AI. But I don’t feel the need to cover everything like I did in 2000. It may be weekly. It may be biweekly. It may be monthly. I don’t know. But we’ll see.

In December 2000, there was a hit comedy that bears study. What Women Want isn’t getting a full entry but let me fold some of my thoughts on it into here. I think it’s a boringly fine star vehicle. Mel Gibson, when he lacked the baggage, is a great comic lead as a man who develops the ability to read the minds of women. He uses it to his advantage then realizes how to be a better man. He loses the gift but he’s learned a lesson. It is a perfectly good film. It uses the supernatural hook perfect. He gets it. He loses it. He’s had a reason for his journey.

There is absolutely no way The Family Man ever could’ve worked in a way that satisfies anyone walking out. And I’m studying it explicitly to point out how a premise like this is doomed at the very logline. I’m also going to be honest: I love it.

That’s the thing. This movie has so much wrong with it. It’s a fatally flawed premise. But movies are experiences and I really love this one. It’s well made. It’s well executed. That it can’t work on paper ignores that it does work. And that’s a funny thing. I just trashed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which on paper is a perfect film but I was bored by it. Why give this a pass? Do I love Nicolas Cage that much? :pause: Maybe. Let’s explore it though.

The premise is a great hook. An executive (Cage) wakes up in an alternate life where he stayed with his college sweetheart (Tea Leoni) instead of taking an internship. In his real life he’s wealthy. In this life he’s working class. This was all set up by an implied angel (Don Cheadle) who is giving him a taste of what’s missing in his life. Inevitably he tries to get back to his real life but realizes he values his family life more. Of course this is destined to end.

There is no way to make this story have a happy ending that fully works. His family life is a fiction. His real life is miserable. There is no way to write this ending and actually give the viewer everything they need to feel okay. I’ve actually read a fix fic for this movie that cheats and he stays in the fantasy and it’s so unsatisfying.

The ending this movie chooses is the right one. He goes back to his real life. He reconnects with his sweetheart who is just as bad as he is. It ends on them getting coffee together. It’s an honest ending. It’s not a “happy” ending. But it’s a much more correct ending than a happy one.

Here’s the thing: I called this premise flawed. It’s not. This is meant to end on a bittersweet note. This is actually a very good example of the Frank Capra style of film. It’s just that it saves the darkness for the end not the beginning. It’s effective on that note. The point isn’t for the character to act. He’s meant to live with regret. It’s for us to learn not to wish our lives away.

This movie is genuinely effective then. It has a solid script and it’s well executed by regrettably Brett Ratner. Ratner actually directs this rather well. He’s a monster and I hate praising him. But he’s an excellent actor director. I actually think he feels more at home here than in action. Honestly this and Red Dragon are his best films. But Rush Hour 2 was a hit so I get it. Follow what sells.

I alluded to the idea Cage was a key reason I love the film. He’s very key. This is Cage during a run that’s among the best any actor has ever had. It’s a light film for him but it’s a reminder than Cage possesses uncanny likability as an actor. We associate him with heavier work yet he’s still the guy in Moonstruck and Valley Girl. He’s exactly the guy you want for this because he’s so empathetic. Not his best work between 2000-2005. Hell it’s neck and neck with Windtalkers and Gone in 60 Seconds for his weakest. But it’s still good.

The rest of the cast is great. Tea Leoni deserved better and I’m not sure why she didn’t get it. She’s great here. Don Cheadle could do his role in his sleep, and next week I’ll cover him in a challenge, but he’s solid. Shout out to Makenzie Vega as the daughter. She’s really funny here as the only person who figures out the truth. She’s worked steadily up until 2022 with Sin City her best known credit.

This is a showcase for DP Dante Spinotti. Sadly like most DPs his current credits aren’t as good as his past, but he shot Heat. Wonder Boys was his this year and like that film, this is a very warm look at a cold time. It’s a very pretty movie and that counts for a lot.

This isn’t the best movie I could focus on today. I passed up Cast Away, a fine movie I have nothing to say about, to cover this. In a way, that’s reflective of what happened in this film. My brother and I saw that over this and I saw this on video. No regrets as that’s a big screen film. But I’m glad to stop to praise a movie I love.

Next week the year ends in Traffic.

It is genuinely amazing Disney didn’t scrap what became The Emperor’s New Groove. As is well known, the film was meant to be a serious movie. Basically everything but the barest bones were reduced to create a new film that was high goofy. The result was very much cobbled together but has endured as one of their most beloved films of the last 25 years. All of that is known.

And it’s really not interesting to me. Look up The Sweatbox, the documentary on the scrapped version. It’s kind of banned but it’s out there. It’s easy to find. It’s a well liked look at how a movie doesn’t work and gets fixed. It’s also, and this is important for this column, seen as a loot at how Disney fell apart in the 90s and 2000s and settled for third.

That Disney was behind in the decade isn’t really a question. Their 2000s consists of well liked financial failures like Atlantis and Treasure Planet, bombs like Home on the Range, barely performing works like Brother Bear and Chicken Little, and the very occasional film people liked like Lilo and Stitch.

I’ve already covered the state of animation in 2000 in the case of Titan AE. In short, animation was too bloated and trying to be for adults. But I moved too fast past three animated movies I think did deserve at least some discussion. So real quick: Dinosaur could’ve been very cool but it’s unwilling to actually be an animated movie about dinosaurs and is another FOW comedy about a dinosaur who thinks he’s a mammal. The Road to El Dorado is brilliant but it’s a bit too sophisticated for honestly most audiences with a Man Who Would Be King premise. Chicken Run I covered but it’s great silly fun that being claymation also feels outside the paradigm.

The fundamental truth is I think audiences were exhausted from animation that tried to be ambitious. That’s why Chicken Run was a hit. That’s why I think Kingdom of the Sun, the original concept of The Emperor’s New Groove, would’ve tanked hard. Audiences were just worn out from the Oscar chase and ready for movies to be silly again.

Now I’m at a point in this narrative where there’s a movie looming 6 months from now that will definitively decide this. Maybe a bit too much. But Shrek feels like the elephant in the room in when talking about The Emperor’s New Groove. It’ll be a blockbuster dealing with the same tone. TENG will just settle fordoing relatively poorly at the box office, the lowest of any Disney movies since the 1980s to that point, followed by cult status. That said, I think it’s hard not to see it as a success.

Like, this movie fascinates me because it’s had legs others haven’t. What Women Want made way more money but I feel like I could ignore it and nobody would care. Miss Congeniality had the same fate. The answer of course is my readership was largely kids when these movies came out and I was a guy with little interest in those films. But this feels like one I can’t ignore and I’m fascinated by that.

Explaining why this movie has had such legs is easy. It’s a very entertaining film. It’s short, a mere 78 minutes. It’s a cartoon really. The movie has a very loose animation style that’s much more slapstick than a lot of movies of its age. It’s well made but it’s blissfully unserious. It’s a movie to throw on when you’re stressed.

The film’s best element is easily Eartha Kitt as the villain. She’s given room to run and she does everything so well. Funny enough, I know more than a few men who found her very seductive even though she’s not drawn that way. That’s all on Kitt being unable to turn it off. Also she’s just fun. It’s hard not to enjoy her. I think David Spade and John Goodman are strong but in type while Patrick Warburton is maxed out in type. Still, they’re all good.

The funny thing is I think a lot of the films that follow seem like they’re getting the mood this movie got correct but they really don’t. Shrek being as big as it was removed the almost improv feel this movie has. Because it was a disaster to create, this movie feels like track was laid in front of the train and probably was. Later films want to be this fun but instead they’re too big and too well crafted to feel loose.

I look too at where we are and where we’ll be when this hits video. There was a craving for something lighter in 2000. There definitely was in May 2001. I really need to stress how downbeat 2001 is about to get even before THAT happened. This did well on video I think because there was a national souring of the mood. Shrek hitting big makes sense.

That’s why I almost see The Emperor’s New Groove as the first 2001 movie. It feels like it belongs to a different moment than this one. Or maybe it’s that December 2000 was already on its way to that as a whole. Whatever the case, it’s great explicitly because it doesn’t want to be.