Waaaay back in October of last year (holy crap, that long ago already?), I wrote a scathing, bitter review of Skillet’s recent album Comatose. Being that I am a cd hound, Comatose has sat shoved away at the bottom of the tower, amidst all the “crappy cds I own but haven’t gotten rid of.” Anyways, Suzy and I are still trying to unpack in our new place and trying to whittle down at least some of our crap. So I’m tossing out cds and I decide to give the disc one more listen. Pop it into the car cd player and go.
It’s still an appallingly bad disc. I can handle Skillet ripping off Linkin Park and Evanescence without batting an eyelash; I can’t handle Skillet also ripping off pop-punk outfits like Sum41 and Good Charlotte on the same album. Throw in a Nickelfault ballad and more than a few choruses that wouldn’t sound out of place on [Insert “rocking” pop queen here]’s latest album, and you’ve got all the “best” of top 40 corporate rock in one convenient collection, with terrible lyrics! I was also surprised by the sheer “slow-ness” (for lack of a better phrase) of the drums.
I started thinking about Skillet, again, recently when Ben Kasica
opened The Skillet eBay store about a week ago. This excited me. Why? Because Skillet is auctioning off old gear, stage props, even stage clothes that they don’t wear anymore. Stage clothes such as vinyl pants and vests that were worn way back for the Invincible era, at concerts such as this. (The Skillet website had maintained a huge archive of photos from the “eletronic” era up until the most recent redesign).
Now the thing about my dislike of Comatose is not only that it features everything that I feel is wrong with corporate buttrock: Huge production, songs that are technically “well-written” but lacking in passion and following formula so strictly in order to give the suits what they want to hear, which is basically more of the same. Because people buy what is comfortable. Comatose is Skillet’s biggest selling record yet, and it’s a real shame. But not unexpected. Of course it is. It’s everything a big label would want. It’s pablum and all that. Fine. I’ve made that point many times.
It’s that Skillet BECAME that after being without a shadow of a doubt my favorite band for almost a decade.
I have memories and eras and times associated with the first five Skillet albums (counting the worship disc). Skillet has genre-hopped with every new album since they started, so it’s not the dramatic change that bothers me about Comatose. S/T is essentially a grunge album. “Hey You, I Love Your Soul” is a creative, free album mixing electronica with that first sound… it’s a very unique disc, probably their most. “Invincible” is an electro-pop album, not heavy enough to be industrial, but quality. “Alien Youth” is an industrial album infected with a couple straight-up “CCM ballad” songs… but the industrial is damn good. Anyways, whatever.
I just… I really liked Skillet. I was younger, of course. But I loved that Skillet didn’t seem to give a damn what was “trendy,” they did what they want. The songs maybe weren’t quite as “perfect” as they are on Comatose, but they sure as hell had passion. Is John Cooper the most innovative musician? No. He wears his various influences on his sleeve, but was able to make it sound like “Skillet.” Is he a great lyricist? Not necessarily… and yet, yes. Skillet has written some bad lyrics. Cheesy, awkward, forced, not so good. The title track to “Alien Youth” comes to mind, or… well, that record really had probably his worst lyrics. But some of his best, too, when you look at “Eating Me Away” and “The Thirst is Taking Over.”
Invincible had some great lyrics. Angels Fall Down is hands down one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. The point isn’t that they were or were not great, but that I thought they were great, and was hugely, profoundly impacted by over five albums worth of music, every record hitting a different time in my life with different needs. I mean, it was crazy. As a musician and a discerning music fan, I can see the bad in Skillet, the cheesy lyrics or awkward rhymes or cliches. But at least… they were trying to do what they wanted. I can deal with flaws in music from people doing what they want a lot better than I can deal with the flaws that are inherent in big corporation rock. Rather a band that tries their damnedest and isn’t perfect than a band that has the formula down pat and has forgotten to inject any life into it. The formula does not = good song. You need a good song to put into the formula.
It was never cool to like Skillet. A friend of mine once called them “preppie industrial.” He was a self-righteous “scenester.” No indie kid would like Skillet. They occupied this weird space. This christian band doing industrial but not part of the industrial scene at all. They were a CCM band, but got flack for dressing in rave clothes from uptight fundamentalists. They weren’t doing what was trendy (I miss industrial), they wrote songs about God and faith. My wife summarizes old Skillet like this: “It’s personal, it’s passionate, like he just has to get this incredible emotion that comes from knowing God OUT, some how and some way.”
To be fair to Skillet, John Cooper has repeatedly mentioned that with Collide and Comatose, he was not writing “for the church.” That is to say, he was specifically trying to write music and lyrics that non-christians would get more out of. And that’s fair. Old Skillet is one of those christian bands that’s SO christian I can see how a non-christian would be hard-pressed to really appreciate it. I dislike when people judge music by the faith of the artist, but there is such a thing as “christian music.” It is not “any music made by a band where the members happen to be christian.” It is music that directly talks about the things of the Christian faith, often in language that only makes sense to christians. It’s sometimes cultural, sometimes deeper.
I’m tangenting but this entire thing is one giant tangent, and this is my blog and I’m mostly writing for myself so tough.
I don’t want Skillet to be the band they were five years ago. I don’t want them to be a corporate stooge rock outfit either, trying desperately to be “relevant” to an audience half their age. I don’t begrudge Skillet the opportunity to make big dollars, which they probably didn’t throughout all the years I loved them. I don’t think Skillet has stopped caring about PEOPLE first, I just don’t get anything out of it, and I think it’s crap that they’ve written such generic shit to try to “reach more people.” Whether that’s the true deal or not. And honestly, I’ve had access to some interesting writings from John Cooper and I have a great deal of respect for the man. It doesn’t make me like Comatose.
I just miss Skillet, I suppose. That’s growing up. As Plankeye wrote in their beautiful song “Goodbye,”
“I never took the time
To stop and realize
That death takes many forms
Even while alive”
Now PLEASE. I’m not being THAT dramatic. But we all have something that was so important to us when we were younger, and somehow it fades away. Looking at the Skillet auctions and bidding on the clothes (which will be mine, thankyouverymuch) takes me back. And it also reminds me to be Who You Want To Be.
You know, I haven’t been in a band for a long time. A lot of that is lack of trying. The other part is that everytime I meet a dude who I could try to play with, he wants to play some trendy shit. Even the “hard” kids or the “indie” kids. They’re all following the trends. Me, I want to slap it in Drop D and write a bunch of groovy industrial riffs like Massivivid, Circle of Dust, NIN, Manson, and yes, even Skillet. Like anybody wants to play it. But screw ‘em. That’s what *I* want and what makes *me* happy. And if you’re not playing the music that truly makes you resonate, something’s wrong.
It’s sad. I’ve listened to Skillet so much for so many years that it is difficult to really listen to the old stuff that much. But sometimes I put it on, and I resonate. I want to win the damn clothes and snicker about having the actual clothes that once so inspired my own fashion sense. And wear them. Wear them GOOD.
This could go on for a long time. It just is. Stream of consciousness ramblings from the heart and mind. That’s life sometimes. Here is a list of my favorite Skillet songs off the top of my head, without looking at the catalogue.
I Can
You’re In My Brain
Angels Fall Down
Eating Me Away
Stronger (TERRIBLE lyrics but what a wicked rave/industrial song. I tune ‘em out)
Kill Me Heal Me
Deeper
Your Love (Keeps Me Alive)
Safe With You
Promise Blender
Pour
Scarecrow
Best Kept Secret
Thirst is Taking Over
Come On To The Future
Locked In A Cage
You’re Powerful
Also, Skillet is one of those bands that names every song off the main chorus hook. It’s not wrong, but it does make for some boring song titles. I freely admit to preferring obtuse titles that are at most, obliquely referenced in the song proper. Sure everybody can figure out the name of your tune easily with the formula method, but it’s so *uncreative*… hm ho ho.
And so on, and so forth. Stay away from my clothes.