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Taproot - Plead the Fifth

Music is autobiographical. You've seen High Fidelity, right. I know you have, I'm just giving you a pointer so that your brain knows where to go on this one. I could pick up any record or CD in my collection and tell you when I got it, why, and how. Then I could probably tell you a story about the album and it's impact, or lack thereof, on me after I owned it.

Sometimes it isn't just a record that had an impact. Or rather a certain record had such a strong impact that it effected the way I viewed and listened to that band for the rest of their career. Seeing that music is autobiographical I'll start with where I was when this whole thing began. I was standing in the Karma records in Anderson, IN probably in June of 2000. At that point I think I'd decided to buy every album that was released by RoadRunner Records, and various selections from bands that were playing that summer's Ozzfest. Which, funnily enough, is how I ended up Owning the First Nickelback, and Crazytown albums… Which I'm almost certain are still in my collection because I never sell anything, it just gets stolen or lost.

A gem from this era that I still put on when I'm kind of gloomy and in a particularly emotional state of self-destructiveness is Gift by Taproot. Yeah, okay, I was one of those so-called nü-metal kids. That's the era I grew up in, and I don't apologize for it. Some of it is good, some of it is shit, and some of it is perceived as shit but is actually kind of fucking brilliant. Taproot fall into the last category; at least for me they do. That record was musically very heavy, and lyrically very looking up from the gutter. Which is to say heartbreakingly positive. Gift always gets more ticks on my playlist when I'm going through a breakup, or when I'm going through stupid shit with a girl that I'm not with but think I should be.

What happened with that first Taproot album colored my perception of the band for the rest of their career. I always knew that they had a new album coming out and I expected it to suck. This band is like half a step from being the next Pussrock extravaganza. The lyrics are super-personal and emotional, but the music itself is still pretty heavy, Hard-Rock bordering on Metal. Then I'll hear that they wrote songs with Billy Corgan, and I'll think that it can go either way, you know. Like it could be like someone playing the skin-flute, or it could be a hyper-melodic prog-metal gang-bang. So I'm not usually quick to jump on the bandwagon and grab the latest Taproot release. Then, I'll download it and listen to what I've been missing.

I can't lie. Okay, I can, and almost always do, lie, but in this particular instance I am choosing to tell the truth, because it does not serve any greater purpose for me to lie. Past Gift none of these record are classic or in any way timeless. But the great thing is that all of the albums are very solid. They have never really changed their formula, and I'm still sure that all of the guys in the band are about half of a hormone treatment away from being chicks, but fuck they can rock.

Although I own all of the records I have never sat down and really taken notice of the lyrics on any but the first two. It could be blindingly insightful or it could just be mind-numbingly vapid. Truth be told it's probably somewhere in-between. The latest album Plead the Fifth doesn't break the mold. It is really more of the same, but I can still feel the passion. At least more than ten years on they still have the fire in their bellies.

5.9/10