Collective Soul just released the second single from their upcoming album on iTunes this week. The album, Rabbit, is due out August 25th (the date has been pushed back), and the single is called ‘Welcome all Again’. I gave it a listen the day of release and was very ‘meh’ about it, so today while driving, I put it on repeat and listened to it cranked up, four times in a row. Here’s what I think.
Technically, this song sounds more like the Collective Soul we all knew and loved back in the day – this is Vintage Collective Soul sound – but the song misses the mark for me on a personal level. The song basically tells the story of the band meeting at singer Ed Roland’s lake house to record their new album. It talks about ‘meeting your friends’ after a long absence, about waking up in the morning to start the day’s work with amazing scenery on your doorstep, about getting your morning java and about putting in a good day’s work… about midnight swims in the moonlight and drinking beer at day’s end. All the various things the band has done (and captured on Twitpics and video for the fans to watch as well!) during the recording of Rabbit. It should be a good song – and live it might be – killer guitar riffs and heavy rock drumming all building excitement at the beginning of the song and continuing throughout.
But, unlike their first single release, Staring Down, this one is not easily singable by audiences I think. The chorus isnt as catchy and really doesnt have a ‘hook’. Also.. there is something lacking in this song. I’m not sure what exactly; it doesnt seem to have any emotion to it. It’s as if the writer observed and wrote about events rather than participating in them – I don’t get any sense of excitement or happiness from this song, as I”ve come to expect (and do) from most Collective Soul songs. The infectious nature of wanting to share that joy and energy just isn’t there on this song.
On a positive note, Welcome all Again is one of the most ‘gelled’ (no pun intended) songs from Collective Soul in a long time. I’m a firm believer that when a band plays together, jams together, lives together in the same space at the same time – it comes across on the music they record. Much like the flop of Star Wars Phantom Menace being due in part to the actors acting to a blue screen and not to each other – I’m old skool and believe a band that records each instrument weeks or months apart and emails them in to be mixed, misses capturing the ‘chemistry’ that only comes when they’re all together and brainstorming.
This song lacks something (in my opinion only -my friends all love it), but the first single, Staring Down, (I think) has that chemistry – and we’re only on the first two singles from the new album. I have faith that there will be something on this album for old Collective Soul rock fans, and new Collective Soul pop fans, and everyone in between.




I’ve also typed out the words (to the best of my ability on a so-so sounding laptop and earbuds). Words in Italics I’m unsure of. If this song is any indication of what the rest of Collective Soul’s new album is going to sound like – I’m going to be hooked by it and will be listening to it for years to come.
