Music Review - Ukmusicsearch - Reviews

Creed are absolutely huge in America right now, with arms wide open is a former number one and also their first serious attempt at cracking the notoriously rock shy British market. Sporting four versions of the same song, plus the video of the single on the CD ROM, there must be a lot of faith somewhere that this is an extremely strong track. On first hearing with arms wide open, you could be forgiven for thinking that it's Pearl Jam, or Stone Temple Pilots, or Tonic, or Better Than Ezra, or….. the list goes on. You can almost imagine the band sitting around a table, looking at blueprints of how to write a typical grunge rock power ballad, first start with a nice acoustic lone guitar and emotive vocals, move into slightly louder guitars with drums for the first chorus, repeat, kick in with the distortion, guitar solo and repeat to fade. The question is whether you think all music should be totally original and new and exciting, or if it doesn't matter as long as there's a good song and it means something to you. One thing Creed could never be accused of, on evidence of this single, is originality, with arms wide open is a copy, of a copy, of a copy, of a copy, but it doesn't distract from the fact that it's a really good song. Their singer has that just mouth washed with gravel in the morning quality to it, and it's all well produced and well played. So nothing new or original, but so what, it's a good tune and until hearing the album, human clay, judgement should be reserved as to whether Creed are just fifth generation grunge copyists or have something new to offer.