Unfortunately, I'm not going to take the time to go through each song, but am glad there is now a clearly defined post to officially rag on this terrible album because it truly deserves it.
Is it the melodies? The lyrics? The music? The relationship the band had with one another at the time? It's all of them! Nothing on this album works. Nothing.
Even those who casually listen to the album and do the, "There's some good stuff there" I feel like are truly missing the point. This is not just some random band who released another album. This isn't Three Days Grace or Nickelback. It's STP and I have a hard time stomaching their mediocrity as their work prior to this has not deserved much criticism. Saying, "There's SOME good stuff here" is not a compliment. And for those who think Peace, High Rise, or both are good albums, please explain why the band has completely ignored these efforts (so far) since Jeff has joined the group? It's very obvious that the band wants to forget those two pieces and wants to move on from them both.
Everything about the album told me that I was just expected to swallow poor music and melodies simply because it was STP. For me, even the cover seems lazy. A self-titled album with a giant peace sign? And why is the Shangri leaf on the hand? I certainly see how people could compare the lazy artwork to Butterfly, but that was an actual drawn design where Peace is just a hand gesture. I have a hand gesture I'd like to give this album myself...
The good about the album: The actual book inside is pretty awesome. Not sure if anyone has taken the time to flip through the pages, but I love the artwork inside as well as making the members look somewhat animated. There's some creativity here for sure, something about the book that I hadn't seen before for sure. Also, this was released in multiple formats, which came unexpected from the band that wants to constantly do things that never come to fruition. As much as I dislike the album, I own 3 different versions of it.
My biggest issue now and always has been the music. How is this the same band that wrote Atlanta? How? The 3 minute songs and mashed together music just creates a large mess and melodically Scott literally had nowhere to go. Every song sounds fast, ends quickly, and seems to really never get started. A mess of loud noises shows me everyone was in a different place. It sounds like 4 solo albums mixed together. I really feel like the band had about an hour to write and record a bunch of songs and this is what we got. The band didn't want to do it, Scott didn't want to do it, and I ignore Peace as an effort in their catalog as I would prefer to reminisce about the days of SLDD when the band was in a terrific place relationship-wise and wanted to create a double album. I am seeing and hearing exactly the opposite here.
Also, I don't have a problem at all with any of Scott's "weird" lyrics. I love/loved Scott's odd and unpredictable character. But, there is a difference between lazy and weird. Most of the lyrics coming from the singer on this album just do not feel the same.