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BACK INTO YOUR SYSTEM
I hate to say it, because I really liked their first album, Every Six Seconds, but SALIVA could be fucked...and not in the really good "Let's all get laid" kind of fucked... I mean the "How the hell do we follow up a multi-platinum debut album in this unforgiving bitch that is the record business?" kind of fucked.
Immediately, I take issue with the first cut of Back Into Your System. We hear a mock phone call from a child to his father, played by singer, Josey Scott. The kid says "I want to be a rock star just like you when I grow up"... Ummm, yeah. Josey, you're not a "rock star" yet. You're a guy in a band who's got ONE record under his belt. You could get away with that bit after another few albums, but not on album #2.
Back Into Your System pulls SALIVA away from the angry-white-guy-rap-rock that was emblazoned all over their debut disc on Island records in favor of a more straight-ahead rock vibe. That's not a BAD thing necessarily, but the songs have got to be there. The songs on Back into Your System fall a little short of chart-topping.
The first cut on the disc is crunchy, riff-heavy, and aggressive, but Josey Scott has opted to sing through the whole piece rather than rap it...it probably would have made a better first single than third track "Always". I think I know why the label chose to release that one though; because Josey Scott had some serious success with his duet with Chad Kroeger of NICKELBACK with the song "Hero" on the SPIDER-MAN soundtrack. Unfortunately, Scott didn't write that one; Kroeger did.
I don't really hear any smashes on Back Into Your System. The songs are riffy, but they're typical. The lyrics are loaded up with rock cliches which in 2002 sound really fucking boring. Having a rock singer tell me "Raise Up" is unconvincing. What, are we staging a coup? Dude, you're preaching to pissed-off suburban teenagers who still live with mom and dad. Not even the NIKKI SIXX-penned "Rest In Pieces" is going to save these guys from what looks to be the dreaded sophomore slump.
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