Soil

There is something about the Soil story that is all wrong; what's a metal act doing getting a deal with Clive Davis's J Records? Does it make sense that this band shares a label with Busta Rhymes, Angie Stone and O-Town? Well, as they say, a label does not make the band (oh wait, how did we get O-Town again?). Nevertheless, Soil has managed to make a decent record. Ryan McCombs sings with authority, forcing the listener to pay attention to the lyrics, unfortunately those lyrics are lacking in content on certain tracks (such as "Need to Feel," "Show me how it outta be/take a little piece of me and hang it from the right tree"). However, there are little features of the band's music that are intriguing, like the Middle Eastern flavour of the guitars on "My Own" and U2-ish intro on "Inside." It is these features that have kept the disc in my system. Add a little Clive dust to this baby and it just might stick.