Youth

Collective Soul | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: El Music Group
• ASIN: B0003QJRK0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (228 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,212 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome Back!, November 16, 2004

By 

Pyezahn (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Youth (Audio CD)

Thanks to digital locker, I've been listening to this CD for over a month now. It's truly a great CD from begining to end. In my opinion, it's a lot more pop-oriented, commercial, and listener-friendly than their typically 'heavy' rock material. They still have the same distinct sound that us fans have grown to love, it just doesn't have the same hard edge found on previous recordings. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that...bottom line is, it's still great music to listen to. Highly recommended...you wont' be disappointed.

There are a few gems on this CD, yet I still don't think there's anything 'ground-breaking' here, which is why I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I think this is truly a great CD, a nice way to get back into the groove, but they're only scratching the surface right now. This band is extremely talented and continually growing and improving with each new venture. I assure you that the next CD will REALLY blow us away.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A step back...but at least it's a step., December 3, 2004

By 

John P. Thompson (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Youth (Audio CD)

Collective Soul is back and well..they sound the same for the most part. The music is a little more experimental from their 90's stuff, showing that they haven't moved too far away from 2000's release, Blender. However, the Lyrics to Youth are a lot more uplifting than their last album.

As a fan of the downer lyrics off Blender: 10 Years Later, After All, Over Tokyo, Turn Around, and so on...it really is a change of pace to be hearing songs such as Under Heaven's Skies, Better Now, Satellite and so on.

The closest that Youth ever reaches to Blender's comfortable wallowness is on Him. The bouncy intro, it's questioning lyrics, and hypnotic outro just scream BLENDER! Thank you!

The worst song of the album is easily It Feels Like(It Feels Alright). A rocker gone bad, Ed's voice just sounds horrible during the chorus. However not as bad as the voice that joins in singing "It's alright" near the end. This song does NOT make me feel alright. Another reviewer said Counting The Days was a better rocker than this song and well yes, that's true, but I definitely think There's A Way has them both beat.

The best song hands down on the album is Under Heaven's Skies. The band said during a recent concert I attended that they wanted a rocker to be the first single...boy did they ever screw up. Counting The Days is a decent song, however this song would have owned the airwaves. Simply beautiful. Who could not buy this CD after they heard this song? Bad commerical mistake.

In review, there are a lot of great uplifting songs on this album to keep anyone who is in an optimistic mood happy. Collective Soul may have taken a step in a different direction than what I had hoped for but at least it is a step. Hopefully we won't have to wait 4 years for their next one.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing sound from an amazing band, February 14, 2006

By 

Scott Jaklin (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Youth (Audio CD)

Youth is quite an album indeed. Certainly one of their best in my opinion, yet I would say that I also found Blender to be superb. In fact this is one of those rare bands that seem to put
out pretty much all good stuff...the track Feels Like- What I Like
is no exception. For one thing if a person expects speed metal
then by all means buy records from speed metal bands but it seems
that some reviews have dogged the latest Collective Soul cds being glossy. I'd answer to that this way...they seem to incorporate a few new things to the sound on every cd they put out, it's called experimentation. In the end the main portion of sound is about the guitar. The fact that they have incorporated other sounds as well shows me they are adept at utilizing what is available today to engineer something different from just purely guitar in standalone raw forms - there are plenty of bands that do this and that's all many do. I like the hard edge many of their songs have as well as slower more reflective tracks. Ed seems to write both very well. In fact this band has been my favorite since '95.
To see exactly how much the sound has changed maybe checking out
Ed E Roland's self titled Lp is a good idea. The original
"Over Tokyo" is on there, and actually is a great song, among others. I bought a copy of Youth in November of '04 when it came out and I still listen to it regularly, I can't say that about many other cds I've gotten.