I think everyone here is aware of how good some songs on Healthy in Paranoid Times are, how some of the album tracks started better than they ended up, and how some great tracks never saw the light of day. We've discussed, and will probably discuss for years to come, how that album didn't meet the great potential it had. However, I don't think we have discussed the potential that Gravity had too much.
What are the problems with this album? Overproduction. Dumbed down drums and bass. Dumbed down lyrics. Some cheesy songs. Didn't meet the band's vision.
Bob Rock gets a lot of hate around these parts. He did bring about a few good songs from both Gravity and HIPT, but overall I can see why he gets hate. Based on interviews we've seen from around that time, we found that he is the one who told Jeremy to go a simpler route with his drums and to stop playing so complex. Raine stated that when writing lyrics, Bob didn't quite get what he was trying to say and would have him rewrite songs numerous times to take a simpler, straightforward approach. The band spoke positively about these changes at the time of the album's release, but fans were left disappointed by these changes. Those were both aspects of the band's music that fans loved: the rhythm section and Maida's poetic, cryptic lyrics.
The band didn't exactly achieve their goal with this album. If I remember correctly, their goal was to capture their live sound on record, which I believe they have said for every album since. The album doesn't have much of a live feel at all... Tons of guitar overdubs aren't exactly the path to go to achieve this vision. The album, along with Happiness, are probably their most "in-studio" sounding albums, although it isn't a problem on Happiness as the songs, writing, vocals, and musicianship are spot on.
What are the positives that give it so much potential?
Listening to certain songs gives me the feeling that this album had more potential than was reached. Gravity had the potential to be the band's most rocking album since Naveed (It arguably is, but the quality of these two albums are quite different). The album starts off with ominous piano which quickly goes into the rocking All For You, a song about Maida's father. Even for people who hate this album, this is one song that's usually pointed out as a highlight. Gravity also gave birth to the fan favorite Not Enough, which is considered another highlight. A song that does not get enough love around here is Sell My Soul. I love the sound the song has in the verses.. the guitar, bass, and the filtered sound that the drums have. The backing vocals also make the chorus. Sorry isn't a bad song, but isn't quite fully there... A Story About a Girl is a pretty good song as well. It gets cheesy around the part of "All my faith and all my heart, all those simple things you are," but it isn't a bad song overall. I waited to mention Bring Back the Sun last as I feel its easily the best song on Gravity. It wasn't plagued with overdubs and overproduction. The simplicity of the production is a key factor of why it shines. That bassline is one of the most memorable things about the album. I'm usually not much of an orchestra guy as I think a lot of times it makes ballads sound corny, but the way it's used in BBTS flat out works. It's one of Turner's last on-record moments with the band, and it's a magical one.
When you listen to other songs from around this time as well, it shows what the album could have been. Our Time Is Fading is such an OLP-sounding, hard rocking song (and yes, I do realize it was recorded after Gravity, but it was written when Mike was in the band and is from this time period). It sounds like amped up Spiritual Machines song. Then when you look at Whatever (recorded a year before), while OLP didn't write the main riff, they turned the track into something great. Also, Whatever was a DEMO. They weren't even finished working on the track when the WWE (then WWF) decided they wanted it right then and didn't give the band the opportunity to finish it. There was also six Turner tracks recorded, three of which made the album (All For You, Bring Back the Sun, A Story About a Girl [although he also played on Innocent]). We have found two of these songs' titles within the past year or so on the BMI website, those being Angelina's Song and Stop Screaming. One has to wonder how these sound... It was also on the Gravity tour that the band began playing Not Afraid and Talk Is Cheap. These were written after the tours began, but once again, I'm showing that some good, hard rocking songs could have came out of this time period.
Maida's voice is also spot on on Gravity. While he toned down on the falsetto, he has passion in his voice that is much harder to find on HIPT and Burn Burn, and doesn't sound lazy, bored, sleepy, or not in key as he does at points of both these album. Whether he's pissed off in All For You and Do You Like It or desperate in Sell My Soul and Bring Back the Sun, the emotion is there.
I personally don't hate the album like some. I can however say that it isn't really that good of an album... I would classify it as a guilty pleasure. Yes, I do sometimes put on songs like Do You Like It and Made of Steel and sing along, but in no way are these great songs. The album does have great songs such as All For You and Bring Brack the Sun, but the good songs aren't as back-to-back as they were on past albums. A good portion of this album is skippable and lacks substance. If the rhythm sections was more up to par, or just helped the vibe of the songs more, and Raine had more of his way with lyrics, this album would have been much better. If it had been like the album's bright spots, or like some of the tracks from this time period, it would be held in higher regard by fans. You can blame it on whatever you want: the departure of Mike... Lanni wanting the band to work with different producers so they wouldn't have regrets and "what if's," leading to work with Bob Rock (although the band's original plan was to record a live album on the SM tour, and have a few Bob Rock produced tracks as an EP with it, but when Rock had time to record with them, they decided on a full album)... Either way, the album could have been better than it ended up.
This isn't a Gravity hate thread. We've just discussed the potential that HIPT had, so why not discuss the potential Gravity had? Sure, HIPT has more solid evidence for how the album could have turned out, but Gravity also has certain aspects that if utilized better and a few more songs had been written, the reception to this album could have been entirely different.