Customer Reviews

Love

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

The Juliana Theory continues to please (and deviate from their old emo and christian relations) with Love, their first release on a major label. And, unfortunately for the hardcore emo fans, it's not what you really want to hear.

Luckily, I hate that emo ..., and TJT goes into making harder, more intense, but still wonderful, songs. "Bring It Low", the CD's opener, is a great song to play at deafening volumes, with the screaming guitars and other such wonderful things, making it (by far) my favourite track on the CD.

But hey, (almost) all the tracks are wonderful anyways, with the exception of the overly cheesy closer track "Everything", and "As It Stands" is also a weak point, compared to the rest of the CD. It's also nice to finally see a re-recording of Into The Dark, a song that had so much potential but was underproduced, making it sound like absolute .... on their last full-length release.

In all, Love is worth your money, taking you through a diverse journey through hard rock, experimental rock, soft ballads, and back again. And the bonus content (especially the song "The Black Page"), is also a great addition.

The Juliana Theory has been making great records for a few years now, and I would recommend picking up any or all of their CD's. With their latest studio release, "Love", the guys bring a more polished, and mature sound to the table. While their last two albums were great, they focused a lot on more bouncy lighter songs. Don't get me wrong, songs on their previous albums such as "To The Tune Of 5000 Screaming Children" and "Is Patience Still Waiting" bring a harder sound and are by no means bouncy. Nonetheless, "Love" features songs such as "Trance", "Bring It Low", and "Congratulations" that really show the harder and heavier side of The Juliana Theory. If you are like me and you enjoy a softer, more laid-back feel along with the more aggressive songs, you will enjoy "Shell Of A Man", "White Days", and "The Hardest Things". Overall, the best tracks on this album are "Shell Of A Man", "White Days", and "Trance". These songs show both the diversity of this band as well as some of their roots found on earlier releases. Any fan of The Juliana Theory should enjoy this CD. If you are just discovering this band, you should start with this album and work your way back.

If you have never heard this been before, go grab this cd because you will hear a refreshing rock band with emo influences. Definitely a nice treat to those who don't listen to much beyond the radio.

TJT shows that they can rock with the opening track, Bring It Low, and one of my favorites off of Love, DTM (still not quite sure what that stands for.) If your a fan of the more mellow stuff, turn your attention to tracks like Shell Of A Man and Jewel To Sparkle.

My favorite track off the album is The Hardest Things. Definitely the most emotion on the album, which puts a smile to my face.

Either you like the new version of Into The Dark or you don't. The previous version was more poppy, while the one you hear on Love is redone to fit nicely with the overall vibe of the album. I normally try to dislike things for being pop-sounding, but dag-on-it, that original version was just too catchy of a tune. I don't ever seem to find myself humming the new one.

Overall this is a good album. If you've never heard this band before, pick it up. They've got a pretty unique sound and a gift to writing good songs. If you have heard them before, you might want to pass this up. If you are a fan of songs like You Always Say Goodnight,Goodnight, Constellation, and Moments...In A Fraction, then sorry, you won't find any songs that leave you with that type of satisfaction.

The Juliana Theory is the ultimate chameleon band. They seem to re-invent their sound on every album. This is their first major label CD, and in response they've released a major label album complete with slick production and big guitars. This is definatly not "Emotion Is Dead Part II", and there aren't many upbeat, happy, pop-py songs like "Top Of The World" and the like. Rather, the heavy songs are heavier and angrier (see: "Congratulations"), and the ballads are beautiful and tender (see: "White Days"), and overall their sound shows how far along they've come as a band. As much as I hate to say it, this is The Juliana Theory's mainstream album...but that doesn't have to be a bad thing! A lot of these songs would really work on mainstream radio, and after this album the only reason these guys shouldn't become a household name in modern rock is if Epic blows their whole promotional budget on replacement buttock implants for Jennifer Lopez. It's so hard to pick out standout tracks because this entire album is great from beginning to end, but for the familiarity factor I love the remake of "Into The Dark". While there isn't a lot of new ground broken here, the excellent songwriting and Brett Detar's great vocals and harmonies put this CD head and shoulders above your typical modern rock disc.

i have been a fan of TJT since the start, and i am sad to see them go. that said, this cd is still one the best cds i have ever heard. im sooooo sick of these powder puff kids, who say this sounds nuthin like the old TJT. thank god for that, they got better. one person said they would rather listin to good charlotte.....GOOD CHARLOTTE!!!! ARE U KIDDING ME!! that dude is dating Hilary Duff enough said. Love is so deep on so many ways, i don`t have time to write them all. play track 13 "as it stands" and you will see what im talking about.

this album is worth getting just for the song "Jewel to sparkle"
not that its the only good song, about half the ablum is good, but its the best song on the album

I think this is one of their best CDs yet. The band changes so much with each record that you can never get bored. It's a little heavier than the previous records, but still has some softer, slower songs. Brett put so much emotion into his singing. I would definitely recommend this to everyone, fans and newcomers alike. And take it from someone who knows, The Juliana Theory is NOT a Christian band!

I have been a fan of TJT for a while...I am in love with the old school tracks such as..."You always say goodnight" "Into the Dark" and a song that not many TJT fans know about, "Moments" This album "Love" is almost as good as the older stuff. Very close..."White days" and "As it stands" are my two favorate songs on the CD. And I'm sure alot of people agree with me about those 2 songs... Very catchy..But honestly if your looking for music that will seriously change your vision of life and music.. Get this album, and maybe some of theur older stuff.. 5 STARS!!

Love is a good album. It just suffers from the chameleon syndrome that some people are praising. All throughout their indie career (Tooth & Nail, One Day Savior) they worked slavishly, developing their sound as a beautiful/hard band, having tracks such as the piano-and-sleighbell based "Variations on a Theme" right next to the guitar screams of "If I Told You This Was Killing Me, Would You Stop?" The piano and soft, beautiful melodicism that they contrasted their heavy sound with was amazing. It's what made me listen to TJT instead of some other band.

Now, on Love, they have virtually deserted their melodic, major, upbeat songs for a completely dark, rocking landscape. It's a good album, but it will take some serious amount of plays to get former TJT fans to enjoy this. The most enjoyable track here (no surprise) is the remake of the TJT classic "Into The Dark." Also good is the single "Do You Believe Me?", because it retains some of the artfulness that TJT lost from Music From Another Room to Love. Buy Emotion Is Dead instead. It will blow you away much better.

Most of this album's harshest critics are the long-time fans, and I wanted to offer a dissenting opinion as a fan of the earlier albums. "Emotion is Dead" is one of my favorite albums of all time so I was pumped about getting "Love" and trying it out. It seems to my ears that The Juliana Theory hasn't really lost anything from "Emotion..." True it sounds totally different, but the strong suits from the first album (raw emotion of the vocals, fun lyrics and musical stylings, mixture of a variety of musical styles) were all still present in the new album, only with better production, better riffs and minus the kind of (sorry, but I had to say it) cheesy techno attempts present in "Emotion is Dead". "Love" has quite possibly been the most pleasant surprise album of the year for me. Let's talk songs - standouts include, "Bring It Low", "Repeating, Repeating" (reminiscint of "To the Tune of 1000 Screaming Children", other fans will disagree with me here), "The Hardest Things" (gets real funky), and "Into the Dark" (remake of the best song off of Emotion is Dead - I personally think it's better than the original, again others will disagree), and of course all the other songs that were popular with the other enthusiastic reviewers. So yes, it is possible to be a fan of old Juliana Theory and still love, "Love". I suggest you try to listen to it with open ears because it's NOT "Emotion is Dead"... and that's OK.