This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
I will say this for Live leader Ed Kowalczyk — he sticks to his guns.
Musical styles change, trends come and go, but old Ed just keeps churning out album after album of painfully earnest, spiritually rich post-grunge alt-rock. Birds Of Pray, his quartet’s sixth studio offering, follows a by-now familiar template, combining heavy-rocking grandeur, anthemic ambitions and artsy passion with eye-rollingly serious lyrics like, “I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven / I look at my daughter and I believe” — and let’s not even mention the songs about 9/11 and the Iraq war. Granted, it’s obvious Ed cares deeply about his family, his world, his music, his dreams. But as long as he stays stuck in the valley of the shadow of Pearl Jam, it’s hard to care very deeply about him.
