“Hey man, best you walk away.”
Scott Stapp returns with Higher Power, his first solo release after 2019’s The Space Between the Shadows, an album that saw the Creed vocalist get some respect for his solo efforts. Though there is strangely an air of sonic difference between Stapp’s previous album and Higher Power (though I am unsure just what), fans of The Space Between the Shadows will surely enjoy the content of this new album just as much.
Stapp kicks off this album with “Higher Power“, a no-holds-barred, kickass rock n’ roll anthem which lends its name to the album. The production is immediately and exactly how you would imagine it would be on a release like this – over-the-top, compressed to within an inch of its life, and yet… it works. What I love about this track in particular is how it manages to simultaneously exist within both 2024 and 2004 all at once – the production reeks of the treatment of commercial rock modernity, but the arrangement and chord choices brings to mind vague memories of 2000s childhood. It’s an awesome way to start the album, and undoubtedly the definition of single material – it catches your ear straight away, has a catchy chorus, has motivational lyrics, and doesn’t take a moment to get out of your face. It also features zero dynamic range, so you know what that means – it’s perfect for the radio!
Much of this album brings to mind 2000s metal, for example “Deadman’s Trigger” summons the likes of Die So Fluid (who had an album in 2004 called Spawn of Dysfunction), and “Black Butterfly” is so AB III-era Alter Bridge that I feel a little scared to point it out, in case of any bitter plagiarism cases that I may inspire (just kidding, Creed are all friends again now). Speaking of “Black Butterfly” – want some vocals with your Melodyne, production staff?!
Stapp has never been one to shy away from putting his personal opinions and experiences across in his lyrics. Examples crop up as early as Creed’s 1997 debut My Own Prison, with Stapp expressing his argument against affirmative action (which, to be clear, I wholeheartedly disagree with him about) on the track “One“:
“Affirmative may be justified / Take from one give to another […] Society blind by colour / Why hold down one to raise another / Discrimination now on both sides / Seeds of hate blossom further”,
as well as, famously, his experience of becoming a father after the birth of his son Jagger in “With Arms Wide Open“. Higher Power is no exception, with Stapp exploring lyrical themes that mainly revolve around his personal struggles over the years, including with alcoholism and bipolar disorder. “If These Walls Could Talk” is one such track, with Stapp singing:
“They’ve seen me pick the bottle up, and put the bottle down / They’ve heard me crying out more times than I can count […] If these walls could talk / They’d tell the hell and the secrets, the demons I’ve fought”.
This song in particular I marked as my favourite, perhaps for the inclusion of vocalist Dorothy Martin, leader of the eponymously named band Dorothy, who I thought sounded fantastic. The track itself is a million percent in the nuclear family vein of commercial rock – you can almost see Stapp and his boy, baseball cards in hand and fishing rods by their side, sittin’ round the campfire with an acoustic guitar singing this one. “If These Walls Could Talk” is also the least compressed song on this entire album, with a pretty reasonable amount of headroom compared to everything else on the album, which is, as I say, compressed to within an inch of its life. I was unsure, but noted what sounded like the track beginning to verge on distortion due to the amount of compression towards the end of “When Love is Not Enough“.
Returning to the topic of Stapp’s lyrics, they are what I would describe as ‘bumper-stickery’. That is to say, they are rather like your average ‘life’s a bitch!’ or ‘shit happens’ bumper sticker. Short, snappy phrases that sum it all up (though occasionally mean nothing at all, really) – I suppose it’s a testament to Stapp’s long-honed lyrical abilities! But the reason I note them is they are really quite basic in terms of their actual substance, generally consisting of basic contrasting concepts like fire and water or life and death, for example: “The day I died was the day I came back to life” on the album’s lead-off track “Higher Power“, or “We are fire, we are water/We are sons, we are daughters” on “What I Deserve“. By far the worst lyrics of them all, on the album’s penultimate track “Dancing in the Rain“: “What can I say, I’m dancing in the rain!”
Given how much focus the mix puts on Stapp, you’d expect his lyrics to be a little higher calibre, especially in the choruses. It is of course important to remember that the mindset behind this sort of music has far more in common with popular music than it does with metal or rock, in that a chorus should be catchy rather than necessarily mean anything in particular. Stapp definitely pulls that off, and I would absolutely take any of Stapp’s choruses here over songs that merely repeat the title of the song and call that a chorus (I’m looking at you, Judas Priest‘s “The Serpent and the King“).
Stapp has two features from Greek guitarist Yiannis Papadopolos, who he has worked previously as a part of Stapp’s band, as well as with many other groups including George Kollias of Nile’s eponymous solo project. This suggests to me that Papadopolos is no longer a full-time member of Stapp’s group, and after some research he and George Kollias, as well as bass player Michael Evdemon, have just started a new progressive rock project called Royal Time Machine. Based purely off his contributions to Higher Power, I can only attest that this is a great loss for Stapp’s band. Papadopolos brings to the table some fantastic solos that reminded me once again (strangely) of some of Slash’s solo material, as well as the playing style of Stapp’s Creed bandmate Mark Tremonti. Featured on the tracks What I Deserve and Quicksand, the latter had elements of both guitarists, whilst it was his contributions to the former that really made me forget for a moment that I wasn’t listening to Alter Bridge’s Walk the Sky album from 2019.
However, as fantastic a guitarist as is Papadopolos, whoever Stapp recruited on lead guitar in his place is equally as fantastic, with the solo on “Dancing in the Rain” really, truly taking my breath away. With elements of Gilmour, but the fantastically different and off-kilter note choices reminiscent of parts of Pain of Salvation’s Remedy Lane, an incredible performance is put forth.
To conclude, another 10 tracks of all-American what-you-would-expect are presented by Scott Stapp in the form of Higher Power. It’s is a great, run-of-the-mill modern rock album that plays it safe, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, though it may not be to everyone’s tastes, given that it is pretty basic. With plenty of radio-friendly lyrics (I don’t think there is a single naughty word on this entire release!) and production that feels geared toward that destination, don’t be surprised when “Black Butterfly” or the title track end up on Planet Rock, or whatever your preferred commercial rock radio station may be. The Creed vocalist doesn’t deviate from the norm with his solo project, and just like the greats, you wouldn’t expect or want him to.
5/10
Higher Power releases through Napalm Records and can be pre-orded here (US/Worldwide).