David Usher — Wake Up And Say Goodbye

Wake Up And Say Goodbye

MapleMusic/Universal

Jared Morano (CHARTattack)

09/15/2008 3:51pm

I stayed in touch with David Usher's musical career after Moist evaporated mainly out of respect for his former group, but also because Morning Orbit's strong singles hinted the vocalist would achieve greater things under his own name. After Morning Orbit came Hallucinations, an atmospheric record with no real singles and few inspired moments. But it still sounded very natural, as if it was the type of music Usher felt most comfortable making. Unfortunately, atmospherics don't translate easily into hit singles, so Usher's past four albums have been an awkward exercise in failing to combine the two. Wake Up And Say Goodbye is the worst of the bunch. It's designed to re-establish Usher as a rock artist with screamed, arena-loud choruses and kindergarten-simple, rock-by-numbers songs, structured to point the most direct path to the hook. But underneath the U2 guitar lines and "contemporary" drums lie tired melodies and artificial lyrics. Usher needs to start giving his dwindling audience more credit. No one's going to be impressed with this shit.