| Product Summary | | Label: Uni/universal Records | | UPC: 00601215392029 | | Release Date: 2/8/2000 | | Buy.com Sku: 60399011 | | Item#: MC6WXW | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25079 | Format:  CD |
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(P) 1999 Universal Motown Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
(C) 2000 Universal Records Inc.
| When radio station WCPR in Biloxi, MS, started getting phone calls for a song by a band from nearby Escatawpa, the staff figured it was hearing from the group's friends and relatives. But then the number of phone calls exploded. "This went way beyond just girlfriends and family calling with requests. I have never experienced phones of this magnitude,'' WCPR operations manager Kenny Vest told the Biloxi Sun Herald. The song was "Kryptonite,'' and the group is 3 Doors Down, a four-piece rock band whose beefy sound and explosive dynamics generate a high-impact blend of modern sonics and timeless rock conventions. Produced by Paul Ebersold (Sister Hazel) and mixed by Toby Wright (Alice In Chains, Korn), The Better Life, the band's debut album offers tight, finely- constructed music that's driven by an energy that is at the same time almost out of control and supremely focused. Music has always been in the crosshairs for singer-drummer Brad Arnold, bassist Todd Harrell and guitarists Matt Roberts and Chris Henderson. Longtime friends from Escatawpa, each of the musicians felt the call early -- particularly Arnold, who as a child would "set up pots and pans when I was little, just beat on stuff, whatever I could find.'' Having older siblings -- four sisters and two brothers -- gave the fledgling, utensil-banging drummer and his friends a valuable musical grounding. Through his brothers and sisters, he developed a taste for commercial rock before graduating to heavier fare. "I kinda like everything,'' says Arnold. "Everything influences me, everything I hear.'' After one of his bands broke up about four years ago, Harrell hooked up with Arnold and Roberts. The resulting music clicked for all of them. Arnold soon found himself not only pounding the skins but doing the group's singing as well. "I always used to sing to myself when we were playing,'' he says.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | 3 Doors Down: Brad Arnold (vocals, drums); Matt Roberts, Chris Henderson (guitar); Todd Harrell (bass). | | Additional personnel: Kevin Paige (keyboards). | | Recorded at Ardent Studios, Memphis, Tennessee. | | "Kryptonite" was nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Rock Song. | | The Better Life, 3 Doors Down's debut album, positions them somewhere between radio-ready post-grunge and more aggressive alternative metal. The best songs are memorable exercises in that style, and even though the songwriting is uneven, that's often to be expected from a first record; there is at least an indication of potential here. ~ Steve Huey | | The success story of 3 Doors Down starts typically enough. An aggressive and unrelenting phone campaign to radio stations for their breakaway single "Kryptonite" snowballed into a showcase at New York's legendary CBGB's and a deal with Universal Records. The Escatawpa, Missouri quartet offers a sound that is grounded in '90s alternative rock but doesn't ignore the contributions of hard-rock music's foundations from the '60s and '70s. | | "Loser" finds 3 Doors Down using Alice In Chains-influenced minor-key vocal harmonies and acoustic-then-electric dynamics. In "Duck and Run," vocalist/lyricist Brad Arnold urges fans to remain positive despite life's trials. The delicate balance of human relations is explored in "Not Enough." In "Be Like That," Arnold sings of a daydreamer's envy, sounding like a heavier Matchbox 20. Though the band began as a power trio, with Arnold on drums and vocals, 3 Doors Down added a second guitarist and a drummer to fatten its sound for THE BETTER LIFE. |
Producer: Paul Ebersold |
Engineer: Paul Ebersold; Matt Martone |
| | Artist Overview | | With the assistance of its contemporaries Creed and Days Of The New, 3 Doors Down helped keep the grunge flag flying in the mid-1990s in the wake of the demise of genre founders like Nirvana and Soundgarden. Combining the mammoth, sludgy riffs of the aforementioned bands with a dose of pop melody and an eye on the top 40 charts, the band first gained public attention with its debut release THE BETTER LIFE. |
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| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 02/08/2000 | | Original Release Date : 2000 | | Catalog ID : 153 920 | | Label : Universal Distribution | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00601215392029 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (6/2/00, pp.78-9)
- "...Shows the boys have assiduously studied the Metallica/Pearl Jam/Creed oeuvres. At its swaggering best, LIFE crackles with energy and crowd-pleasing choruses..." - Rating: B-Q (12/00, p.136)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "...A bolt-together Stone Temple Alice in Pearl Jam's Soundgarden hybrid....this is rock for people who wear woolen muscle vests and worry about hair products..." |
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