I'm a big fan of Skillet, but not every album of theirs can be winners. Starting off September, Alien Youth is the fourth studio album by Skillet, and is the last album to showcase their techno, synth-based style, changing to a much harder rock style, which started with Collide. This is also the farthest Skillet album back in time that I can listen to without cringing a whole tonne, but there are songs which I really can't get behind. Now, some of the songs are really good, but they are overshadowed by the jittery-ness of the synths and electronic instruments featured in other songs.
Skillet has always been experimental, but experiments don't always end up with great results. Alien Youth is a semi-successful, semi-failed experiment; it just doesn't hit home for me. That's not to say it's entirely bad. Not by a long shot, but a few songs let it down. I get that the album is dated, and would have been pretty cool back in the day, but today, some the songs don't make the cut, to be honest. Examples are "Stronger" and "Rippin' Me Off". These showcase techniques that aren't particularly fashionable or enticing.
However, to save me from lamenting over these flaws, I can talk about the good stuff. Stuff like "Earth Invasion", which is one of the best songs on the album, and it shows you how a good techno song sounds. As well as this, the calmer songs are the actual best songs on the album. "You Are My Hope", "The Thirst Is Taking Over", "Will You Be There". All these are fantastic songs and have aged incredibly well. These I recommend listening to, but not the 2 in the previous paragraph.
At the end of the day, Alien Youth is an okay album. It's not the best Skillet has produced, but it is certainly not the worst. I tried listening to Invincible, and I just couldn't. Some songs let this album down, and that I am very disappointed about. I am going to say listen to it, but please don't be surprised if you're let down. Some great tunes; some not so much.
Favourite Tracks: "Earth Invasion", "You Are My Hope", "The Thirst Is Taking Over",
"Will You Be There"
Rating: 6 / 10
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