For all those getting tired of all the pessimistic and dramatic emo bands of the past few years comes the return of 90’s band Our Lady Peace with their new album Healthy in Paranoid Times. Although they have been around since the mid 90’s, the band’s optimism has hardly faded, making them a nice change to the current alternative rock bands.
Our Lady Peace began at the University of Toronto when singer Raine Maida met British guitarist Mike Turner and decided to form their post-grunge band. They later recruited bassist Chris Eacrett and jazz drummer Jeremy Taggart, who were playing around the area. Signed to the label Relativity, Our Lady Peace released their first album Naveed, which sparked the modern rock hit “Starseed” in 1994.
They toured with fellow Canadian artist Alanis Morissette later that summer and earned their own reputable fan base. After replacing Eacrett with bassist Duncan Coutts, OLP released their second album Clumsy in 1997 and two years later they followed it up with Happiness Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch. The new millennium brought another OLP release, 2001’s Spiritual Machines, and a sold out promotional tour that spring.
Shortly thereafter, guitarist Mike Turner left the band because of creative differences and Steve Mazur was brought in to replace him. He and the rest of Our Lady Peace restructured the band’s heavy rock sound for the simplistic Gravity, which appeared in June 2002.
What makes Our Lady Peace such a unique band is not their post-grunge sound or their comforting lyrics, but the combination of both together. Their music has slowly settled down from the hard, fresh out of grunge sound that they had started off with back in the mid 90’s to a softer, but still powerful sound.
But for most of their music, there was always a sad tone that actually emphasized the contradicting message of their lyrics. This is because their lyrics are nothing short of condoling, especially those facing difficult times. Whether it be losing someone, making mistakes, or just not being happy, Our Lady Peace has always showed their listeners that things will be okay no matter how hard times get. And that is what makes Our Lady Peace such an amazing band; they understand how hard life can be but always find some sort of brighter side to things.
However, Healthy in Paranoid Times just does not carry along the same effect as its predecessors. OLP has been strongly influenced by the troubles that America is facing in the 21st century as suggested in the album title.
OLP comes off as very apologetic throughout most of the album, as if they were part of the cause of the problems that face our society, as can be seen in the tracks “Love and Trust” and “Will The Future Blame Us.”
Our Lady Peace’s sound itself has also changed in a way that takes away from the original theme of the band. Because of the rising influence of guitarist Steve Mazur, the band’s sound has become more upbeat, making the band border on a pop-punk sound.
Overall, Our Lady Peace does not have the same effect that they used to. However, some recommended tracks off of Healthy In Paranoid Times are “Angels/ Losing/Sleep” and their current single “Where Are You”. If you are looking to get into OLP, it is recommended you try listening to some of their older albums like Clumsy and Happiness Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch.
