Audio CD review:
Staind - Price to Play

Staind - Price to Play

Band: Staind Title: Price to Play Rating: Release Date: 2004-01-13 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Price to Play [Album Version] 2: Let It Out [Non-Album Track] 3: Can't Believe [Live Version Unplugged]

An Excellent Song With Even Better B-Sides Usually, these releases are host to various remixes, live tracks, or just promote other songs from the artist that already appear on other CD's. As someone who collects import singles for bands that I love, I have come to the realization that the best imports are the ones that introduce completely unheard material. Staind's "Price To Play" is easily the best import I've come across for the band, as it not only features a performance culled from their MTV Unplugged sessions, "Can't Believe," but also a brand new song that you can't find anywhere else, "Let It Out. " Obviously, the title track we've all heard before. "Price To Play" (from 2003's "14 Shades Of Grey") is played much in the same vein as most of Staind's older material, and is a great song in it's own right. But the two tracks backing it up are so much better. "Let It Out" is a very beautiful, moody song with very mature and potent lyrics from frontman Aaron Lewis that would have definitely fit right in on the aformentioned album, one has to wonder why it was even ommitted. It's actually turned out to be one of my favorites. The performance of "Can't Believe," which is (obviously) completely acoustic, is an interesting one. It completely transforms the much heavier and layered original version into something completely new, accomplishing what all Unplugged performances should do. Overall, all three tracks are superb, and if you are a fan of all three of Staind's major label releases ("Tormented" is almost in a different realm), you should definitely track this single down. Stunning New Material The CD itself is great value for money even if you have the album as it also has the fantastic video plus the non-album track Let it Out. The first single from Staind to be taken off the new album '14 Shades of Grey' is 'Price to Play' a track which will never have the kind of mainstream appeal enjoyed by tracks like It's Been a While and Outside but is a fantastic rock anthem nonetheless and is a real reminder to the fans who have been with Staind since the beginning that they can still do the heavy stuff brilliantly too. Let it Out is utterly superb and its mind-boggling as to why it isn't on the album as its one of their finest tracks period and probably has more mainstream appeal than the a-side Price to Play. A nice inclusion aswell is the MTV Unplugged version of Can't Believe which was probably the track most transformed tahnks to it being rendered acoustic. All in all a must have for all true Staind fans. Worth its weight in gold. You can see a complete list of all Staind discography, or go back to the Staind tabs