Don't come to Papa

lovehatetragedy
Papa Roach
Dreamworks Records Papa Roach vocalist Jacoby Shaddix was known as Coby Dick for the band's 2000 major-label debut, Infest. Perhaps he changed his name for the follow-up, lovehatetragedy, because he knew this one is hardly a "whale" of an album. Or perhaps he didn't want his old name and the word "sucks" used in the same sentence by some disgruntled punster. Regardless, lovehatetragedy alternates between boring and bad throughout its 13 tracks. A veteran of both the Ozzfest and Warped tours, Papa Roach has kept one foot in both the metal and punk camps throughout its existence. But while a band like Motorhead can do the same because both camps enjoy the purist nature of Lemmy Kilmister and the boys' aesthetics, Papa Roach's sound resembles a marketing ploy gone generic. Adding to the generic nature of the album is producer Brendan O'Brien, the most overrated of the big name major-label producers. O'Brien has worked with everyone from Bob Dylan to Jackyl to Rage Against the Machine, but he is not versatile. Instead, his common approach brings an air of malaise, doing nothing more than making sure his charge can make it on the radio. Papa Roach's "She Loves Me Not" succeeds in getting on the radio, especially on stations like X103 where one band sounds indistinguishable from the next. While the sonics are average, the lyrics are banal. There are a lot of "life's not fair" and "finding the truth inside myself." On "Born With Nothing, Die With Everything," Shaddix sings, "Trust yourself/Trust no one else," as if he wants to be first on board if they bring back Lilith Fair and start including guys. Papa Roach was sort of endearing when I saw them at the 2000 Warped Tour. The band tore through its set while wearing all black in the 90-degree sun. The pudgy Shaddix tried an unsuccessful front flip onstage and the band melded embarrassingly direct lyrics with angular tunes in "Last Resort" and "Broken Home." But when Shaddix landed on his butt after his front flip, it should have been considered foreshadowing.