10 Years - Division (2008)

Division sounds like the work of a band that carefully and thoroughly deconstructed its previous hit and attempted to replicate it several more times for the follow up. Division is a smooth, radio friendly record with the debut aggressive tendencies almost entirely sanded off in favor of new producer Rick Parashar's glossy layers of instruments and vocals. Even potentially powerful quiet to loud rockers like "Russian Roulette" and "11 AM (Daydreamer)" feel over manicured and far too polite, singer Jesse Hasek's vocals losing their emotive power in the overall listlessness. Even worse, hints that the bandmembers now consider themselves "artists" occasionally rear their ugly heads: the coda of "Picture Perfect (In Your Eyes)" is nearly as long as the body of the song itself, and even worse, it features a spoken word poem read by one of the album female backing vocalists. (Simply that the album has female backing vocalists in the first place is a warning sign for this brand of alternative metal call it "November Rain" syndrome, but really, a poem? Why not just call the guy from the Moody Blues? He can't be busy.) It may well have the intended effect of prolonging the band chart life temporarily, but Division sounds if anything like the exact opposite of artistic maturation.

Band: 10 Years
Abum: Division
Genre: Alternative/Heavy Metal/Post-Grunge
Country: Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Release Date: Apr 8, 2008
Label: Republic Records

"Tracklist"

01. "Actions & Motives"
02. "Just Can't Win"
03. "Beautiful"
04. "11:00 AM" (Daydreamer)
05. "Dying Youth"
06. "Russian Roulette"
07. "Focus"
08. "Drug of Choice"
09. "Picture Perfect" (In Your Eyes)
10. "All Your Lies"
11. "So Long, Good-Bye"
12. "Alabama"
13. "Proud of You"

Division ♪♫