Collective Soul - Dosage

Arizona Daily Wildcat

First thing's first: taking this album as a medication, as the title implies, probably wouldn't be hazardous to your health. It probably wouldn't be very helpful, either. It's about as healthy as applesauce, which is basically mashed-up apples devoid of not only their shape but their nutritional value as well. The first track is deceptive: for a moment, you actually believe you're being transported back to U2's Achtung Baby, but then you remember: this is Collective Soul we're talking about here.

Dosage is wrought with bland and formulaic radio alterna-pop, the kind made popular by bands like Collective Soul themselves. Apparently, Collective Soul thinks they are really hot stuff; the picture on the back is of them in art-boy gear, shiny and glittery, giving the camera non-smiling sultry looks. "Hi. We're Collective Soul. If you're a skinny sixteen-year-old girl, we'll sleep with you in the back of the tour bus."

Just a sampling of the song titles give away the album: "No More, No Less," "Needs," "Slow," and "Not the One."

Where has pop music gone, and when is it coming back?

- annie holub