BLAZE

Only listened to it a few times, but I think this is Lagwagon's second best album... which means it deserves 6 stars. I don't know why everyone thinks the 2 albums that preceded this one are so great by the way... I mean they are great albums but not Lagwagon's best. Without any doubt, "Hoss" is Lagwagon's best album and perhaps one of the best punk albums of all time. This one is a close second, and reminds me somewhat of the energy, sincerity and talent displayed on that album. I was extremely happy to hear them return to the level of performance that they had on "Hoss," even though the music isn't quite the same. They should put cheesy retro cowboy guys on all their albums if it means having a good one.

I wanted to give this CD more stars but was limited to only 5. I have listened to a number Lagwagon CDs and while they were all good Blaze was the best I heard. Great CD!

Great album

I had owned this CD for almost 2 years when I finally put it on. It dissapered directly into my collection with all the other lagwagon cd's without given an honest opportunity to impress me, for some idiotic reason. After all, when finally put on, i realized this is one of lagwagons finest productions. After The magnificent Hoss who probably is the tightest and most complete record they've done, "let's talk about feelings" was a step backwards. Although the songs had great potential it always felt like something was missing after it had run through. It was short (30 min) and some o the songs felt unfinished somehow. Still songs like may 16, messengers, Owen Meany and everything turns grey was superb.Blaze takes us back to that clean and powerful sound from Hoss. The guitarrs are sharper then ever and the melodies are lagwagon althrough. Burn is an exellent starter that sets the bar on a high level. It's "up and down" tempo in a way that only lagwagon manages without destroying the songs. "Lullaby" represents everything i love with this band, it's makes u happy and sad at the same. It's one of my favourite lagwagon songs. "Falling apart" is a fun song about growing old, the lyrics are great and the build up a little bit different from other lagwagon songs, not so much punk but more rock!well i could go on babbling about every song on this album, but I won't. It's a solid, fun, wellproduced, inspiring and rocking collection of songs. It's shows the true quality and talent of Lagwagon. Why not 5 stars? Some of the songs aren't five star quality, and in my opinion only a few albums in history would qualify for five full stars.

COME ON E!

Great product.

Been a Lagwagon fan for over twenty years and have enjoyed every release the band has ever released. Some albums like "Trashed", "Duh" and "Hang" are more aggressive and metal influenced while others like "Hoss", "Let's Talk About Feelings" and this here, 2003's "BLAZE" are more melodic and lean more towards pop punk. I love both different styles the band plays and they hit it out of the park with this album. "Blaze" has some of the catchiest song writing in the band's, naa scratch that, In the genre altogether. You will be singing songs like "Burn", "I Must Be Hateful", "Max Says", "Billy Club" for days after listening to them. Don't let the upbeat, catchy sounding vocal melodies fool you though, the musicianship is so tight and smooth that after multiple plays, you'll start to notice all these underlining bass lines and guitar melodies that didn't jump out upon the first listen. I will always put "Trashed" above the rest because that was my first and it reminds me of a more innocent time, growing up in the early to mid 90's but "Blaze" is my number two. A masterpiece of modern Melodic/Pop Punk.

Lagwagon has always made amazing albums and this one is their best in my opinion. Every song is amazing but especially "Max Says" and "I Must be Hateful". These guys deserved more attention than they got when they were going but hopefully someone will read these reviews and discover a great band that offered great lyrics and powerful songs throughout their whole career. R.I.P. Derrick.