Papa Roach - Who Do You Trust?

Papa Roach
Who Do You Trust?
2019
Spotify

Having played Football in the early 2000s I've likely heard Papa Roach a lot more than most. If they weren't blasting through the speakers in the locker rooms, than people were for sure going to ad it to their highlight reel to send to colleges. I mean "Last Resort" was on so many of these damn videos it was hilarious. At the same time I was deep in my headphones rocking out to Bloc Party and Daft Punk. Their music masquerades as hard rock, but is far more aligned with the alt rock scene that sprung to life in the late 90s. They make it apparent how much they miss those days with "Renegade Music" which sounds like the absolute worst version of a Rage Against the Machine you've ever heard, followed quickly by "Not the Only One" which you would swear sounds like early Incubus. So much of this album feels like a walk down memory lane, but with one of the worst tour guides imaginable. They aren't completely stuck in the past on the album with "Elevate" sounding like a some kind of Twenty-One Pilots and Imagine Dragons. By this point in the review it feels like I've already said "they sound like" way to much but each new track is new opportunity to jock someone's style. I shutter to even say this but they don't even manage to maintain their Papa Roach-ness at any point of this album. I mean Papa Roach was aggressive, a release of pent up suburban tension, but this sounds like 40 years olds working on a cover band.

I kept waiting for something to remind me of that vibe Papa Roach originally cultivated, but it just feels absent from this record. Maybe my memory is the problem, maybe Papa Roach weren't actually that hard, I was just young. However going back and listening to their older stuff there was a definite edge that has been rounded out completely. The song "Problems" where guess what, our singer goes into all the problems he's got. They try to create these grandiose empowering songs but the lyrics are the most basic pass you could take at mental health. It's almost like Papa Roach are just entering their emo or pop punk stage, and good god is it a bad look. The only thing I can think of is Papa Roach saw the pretty wild success of Twenty-One Pilots and said:  "Hey I think we can do that". Well I hate to break it to you, they are wrong, and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like Twenty-One Pilots at all. Really an album stuck in the past trying to emulate the future, the answer to Who Do You Trust? sure as shit ain't Papa Roach.

2.8 out of 10