"Lips of an Angel" was the breakthrough single for Hinder, charting on twelve different charts, half of them outside the U.S. and am I the only one who finds that fact somewhat depressing? This song charted on the Pop, Mainstream Rock, Adult Top 40 and Hot 100 charts, that is gross. This song peaked as high as number 3 on the Hot 100, where The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" Peaked at number 6, and The Killers' "When You Were Young" peaked at number 14. Was there any appeal to this song? Sort answer, yes but I don't understand it, the long answer? Well, let's take this from the beginning.
Being honest the opening instrumentals, although not really having the chance to build on themselves or introduce the song in any real way, are not terrible, they are nice and slow to showcase the mood of the song, but they are nothing too special, the same cannot be said for the opening vocal performance. Austin Josh may be my pick for the worst vocalist in music, and considering that I previously looked at Nickelback and Simple Plan, that says quite a lot. Imagine if Eddie Vedder had the voice but not the power, so he still sounded gruff but only because he drank about fifty sandpaper and club soda smoothies. That is about as well as I can describe Austin Josh.
Unfortunately, neither the vocals nor the instrumentals really improve throughout the song, sure there is a little boost of power and energy behind the bridge and chorus, but that doesn't make it better, to give you some perspective, I'd much rather listen to Nickelback than this, that's how bad it began, that I would rather play Nickelback. At least the guitar solo isn't too bad, I mean it's no Billy Gibbons or Alex Lifeson but it is tolerable, minus it's rather abrupt ending. Really, you cut the only decent part of your song to go back to more awful vocal work and lyrical content?
And let's talk about the lyrics, actually first let's talk about the subject. The song is about getting a call from a former girlfriend and wanting to get back together with her while in another relationship with another woman, okay, being honest this is not a terrible subject to write a song about, this kind of thing does happen and there are plenty of conflicting emotions that go along with it, but Austin makes it clear that he'd rather be with his former girlfriend instead. There is no lyrics about moving on, how we must look forward instead of backward and how there may have been a perfect reason to break up and move on. So yeah, this song essentially the "I'd rather go back to my ex" song that nobody demanded except for people who go through a new boyfriend/girlfriend weekly.
While I'm on the subject, the actual verses are short, being four lines at minimum and five lines at maximum, leaving so much room for bridge and chorus. You know how in my last review I talked about how the time length made the lyrical content of the song worse? Well, that song was three minutes, this song is four minutes. Seriously? Four minutes and you couldn't even add in another verse, you just wrote this big bridge and chorus and decided to have that be the biggest part of the song? I'm going to say it...
"Wonderwall" is a song with better writing than this, oh yeah it isn't a well written song, but you know what, it is a masterpiece compared to "Lips of an Angel", which should really be called "Lips of a Succubus" but that would make the song too interesting, and we can't have that.
While not the worst Mainstream Rock song I've ever heard, it's still a bad song, with a frontman sounds like he is working through constipation, meh instrumentals, a decent guitar solo that is cut off and lyrics that don't delve into anything interesting, it's just the classic "I never truly stopped thinking about you while I was with her".
Well, thank goodness that it wasn't an insult to my intelligence like the next abomination is going to be. I'm the Entity of Darkness and I'll see you then.
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