Collective Soul: Dosage : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Rock once teemed with bands like Georgia's Collective Soul, knowledgeable schemers who slept in the studio, ensuring that guitars fit next to bass lines and rhythm accents exactly right. But then things got messier than ELO or REO Speedwagon ever might have dreamed, and fastidious bands often ended up sounding forced. Collective Soul, led by singer-guitarist Ed Roland, are an exception to that rule: Since they conquered mid-Nineties radio with "Shine," they've sustained their R&B- and pop-inflected rock with a rare naturalness. On Dosage, their fourth album, the band's looseness and skills combine for very nicely done overdubbed tunefulness. Songs range from fleet and hard ("Heavy") to terrifically mellow ("Dandy Life") to haunting ("Run"), and when Collective Soul uncork a little vintage Queen ("Compliment") or Bowie-Eno ("Slow"), they do it like the pros they are. Dosage works because it isn't grounded in any heavy-duty retro concept; for Collective Soul, getting the string part to sit beautifully next to the guitar solo on a track is rock & roll. (RS 806)

JAMES HUNTER