Blood Stained Love Story (Island/ Def Jam)

Josey Scott is perhaps best known for his 2002 hit “Hero”, a duet he cut with Chad Kroeger for the Spider-Man soundtrack. But long before the Memphis singer was recording lame radio-rock theme songs, he was recording lame radio-rock albums with his band Saliva, and the post-grungy quintet’s latest album follows in that same vein. Good news for Nickelback fans. Bad news for the rest of us.

Blood Stained Love Story opens with “Ladies and Gentleman”, in which a freak-show master of ceremonies warns listeners “Your ears and your eyes will be bleeding/Please check to see if you’re still breathing”. Presumably, he means we’ll be at a loss of breath from all the explosive, heart-stopping rock we’re about to experience. But in reality, if we’re going to suffer any respiratory problems from spinning this record, it’ll more likely come from dangerously low blood pressure brought on by terminal boredom. Debuting at No. 19 on the Billboard Top 200 a couple of weeks ago, Saliva’s fifth studio album will please the same unimaginative losers who put Creed on the charts. There are the sensitive tracks like “Never Gonna Change”, a can’t-live-without-you slow-mo rocker. There’s the nobody-understands-me ballad “Going Under”. This is where Scott turns the mirror on himself with such soul-searching queries as “Why can’t I be normal like everyone else?” Here’s a question, Scott: why can’t you stop making such shitty fucking music?