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DON’T TREAD ON ME
BY MIKAEL WOOD
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After fading from the mainstream since the mid ’90s, when "Down" and "All Mixed Up" prefigured the rise of new metal with a savvy mixture of crunching guitars and half-sung/half-rapped vocals, 311 experienced an uptick in popularity last year with a cooled-out cover of the Cure’s "Love Song," from the 50 First Dates soundtrack. The Omaha-bred band don’t tackle any other ’80s chestnuts on their eighth studio album. But they do seem to have taken a lesson from "Love Song": the best stuff here — "Getting Through to Her" and "Waiting," both with melodies worthy of Sugar Ray, who’ve always seemed like 311’s sister band — resonates with the same mellow vibes as the Cure cover. When they crank up the guitars in "Solar Flare" and "It’s Getting OK Now," on the other hand, the riffs sound tired and the aggression seems half-hearted. It’s as if 311 were trying to prove to their peers that their peaceful pop-reggae disposition doesn’t mean they’ve gone soft.
