COLLECTIVE SOUL

Formed: 1993, Stockbridge, Georgia

Members: Ross Childress, guitar (born Stockbridge, Georgia, 8 September 1970); Shane Evans, drums (born Stock-bridge, Georgia, 26 April 1970); Dean Roland, guitar (born Stockbridge, Georgia, 10 October 1972); Ed Roland, lead vocals, guitar (born Grandview, Texas, 3 August 1963); Will Turpin, vocals, bass (born Fairbanks, Alaska, 8 February 1971).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Collective Soul (1995)

Hit songs since 1990: "Shine," "World I Know," "December"

Collective Soul earned a reputation in the mid-1990s as a hard rock band with driving guitar riffs and striking melodies. After the success of their hit song "Shine" from the album Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid (1994), Collective Soul gained widespread attention by performing at Woodstock '94 and touring with Aerosmith and Van Halen. Their second album, Collective Soul (1995), contains the hits "The World I Know" and "December"; the latter was named Album Rock Song of the Year by Billboard. Ed Roland, the principal songwriter for the band, resurrected guitar rock of the 1970s with contemporary textures. Although the band's popularity diminished after their initial splash of success, Collective Soul continued to experiment with a hard-rock aesthetic.

The group's songwriter, Ed Roland, grew up in a strict household and was discouraged from pursuing a musical career. Nevertheless, Roland moved away from his home-town of Stockbridge, Georgia, in order to study guitar at the Berklee College of Music. Plagued by financial difficulties, Roland returned to Stockbridge, where he worked at a local recording studio and formed a band that performed for many years without any major success.

In 1993 the song "Shine" was picked up by college radio stations and was soon being played on major rock stations in Atlanta. The EP Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid, originally intended as a songwriting demo, was re-released by Atlantic Records, and the hastily formed Collective Soul was soon performing at large venues such as Woodstock '94 and various arena tours. "Shine," which was eventually named Billboard 's number one Hot Album Rock Track of 1994, exemplified the band's musical approach in several ways: a reliance on guitar-driven riffs, unique changes in textures, and anthemlike melodies, as exemplified in the chorus, "Oh, heaven let your light shine down." A melodic guitar introduction mirrors the vocal line, which then leads into an aggressive distorted guitar riff coupled with the ubiquitous exclamation, "Yeah!" The double-time guitar solo and bridge reveals the influence of 1970s rock, but the song unexpectedly returns to the distorted riff, a strategy that evinces careful attention to structural details.

Collective Soul returned to the recording studio and quickly produced their eponymous second album in 1995. The song "December," with its descending bass progression and harmonic palate, exhibits a relaxed musical approach and highlights the lyrics, which range from the poetic ("Don't throw away your basic needs—ambience and vanity") to the awkward ("December promise," with the emphasis on De cember) The ballad "The World I Know" begins with an acoustic guitar and showcases tasteful string orchestration. The full chorus is withheld until the second iteration, producing a yearning quality that is poignantly reflected in the lyrics.

Collective Soul became embroiled in a lawsuit with their manager, Bill Richardson. After prolonged litigation, the band retreated to Stockbridge, rented a cabin, and began writing songs for their next album. The result of these efforts, Disciplined Breakdown (1997), was more pop-oriented, with harmonic progressions that felt awkward and forced. Collective Soul returned to their signature brand of rock in the subsequent albums, Dosage (1999) and Blender (2000).

Collective Soul forged a sound that embraced guitar-rock with melodic vocal lines. Their songs conjured images of the guitar hero in "Heavy" and evoked 1970s rock groups in "Gel" and "Next Homecoming." Aside from Disciplined Breakdown, Collective Soul largely eschewed the guitar pop embodied by the Spin Doctors or Goo Goo Dolls. In so doing, they crafted songs that expanded formal expectations while maintaining a coherent approach through their economic lyrics and riff-driven structure.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid (Atlantic, 1994); Collective Soul (Atlantic, 1995); Disciplined Breakdown (Atlantic, 1997); Dosage (Atlantic, 1999); Blender (Atlantic, 2000); 7even Year Itch: The Greatest Hits, 1994–2001 (Atlantic, 2001).

WEBSITE:

www.collectivesoul.com.

wynn yamami