Song Of The Week: 7/24/11

Song: "I Caught Fire"

Artist: The Used

Album: "In Love And Death"

Year: 2004



After reading the lyrics to "I Caught Fire" it kind of reminded me of that old 80's song, "I'll Stop The World And Melt With You". It's definitely that type of love song where it doesn't matter what's going on in the outside world or what scars you both have while being away from each other. The minute they are both together, all of that goes away and they are just lost in each other. Time stops, wounds heal and everything revolves around them and their love for each other. The Used have been quite the busy band since forming back in 2001. In a ten year span, the band has released four studio albums, a live/rarities compilation, a live cd/dvd, a b-sides ep as well as other exclusive releases through iTunes. In between all of those music releases, The Used have been relentless tourers. The only thing that slowed them down on the road was lead singer Bert McCracken having to have surgery on his vocal chords. Their style could be considered many things, screamo, post-hardcore or pop-punk. McCracken has been known to scream so violently live that it causes him to vomit on occasion. That's possibly what led to him having some problems with his vocal chords. I'd say they're peers with bands such as My Chemical Romance and Silverstein. Success for The Used didn't quite go all the way over the top as it did for MCR, however. They still headline tours and what not, but they have not been praised throughout the industry for having released their definitive album as of yet. Myself, I'm quite partial to their 2002 self-titled debut album. Their's a raw feel to that album and an intensity that I don't feel the band has matched yet on their subsequent releases. With their follow-ups, it seemed that they gravitated more towards the poppier side of writing. The songs started lacking the bite of tracks such as "A Box Full Of Sharp Objects" or "Maybe Memories". Currently, The Used are hard at work on finishing up what will be their fifth studio album. The record is slated for release sometime in the fall of 2011.