Band: Shinedown

Album: Planet Zero

Genre: Rock

Release Date: July 1, 2022

Standout Tracks: “Dysfunctional You,” “Dead Don’t Die,” “America Burning,” “A Symptom of Being Human,” “Sure Is Fun,” and “What You Wanted”

I know it’s been more than two weeks since Planet Zero dropped, but I was instructed to give this album my full attention before forming an opinion and, unfortunately, my first 3-4 plays of it were in my car while driving. I don’t consider that a deep dive, since I was trying to focus on the road at the same time. Lol.

I have since run through the album in its entirety several times, and the only thing I can say is… I love it. I love everything about it. There’s not a single track I find it necessary to skip, and there are several – even more than listed above – that I absolutely must hear every day.

It’s Shinedown. I don’t know how else to explain it. Planet Zero encompasses all the elements that make this band great. It’s raw and emotional. They hit the listener straight out of the gate with “No Sleep Tonight” and the title track, a no-holds-barred commentary on cancel culture. Then they strike the emotions with the encouraging “Dysfunctional You.” After that, we’re back to the unfiltered anger and frustration in “Dead Don’t Die” and “America Burning” before again offering a sense of solace with “A Symptom of Being Human” and “Hope.”

The second half of the record seems to stem from that – hope. While “Clueless and Dramatic” continues the theme of our current WTF society, it simultaneously serves up a solution. “Turn it off!” vocalist Brent Smith insists in the closing refrain. “Save yourself from the clueless and dramatic!”

We next enter the might-as-well-enjoy-it phase with “Sure Is Fun,” a personal favorite of mine. This is followed by the heartfelt, meaningful “Daylight,” because what would a Shinedown album be without at least one tear-jerking balladesque song? (Be ready for that track live; I’ve seen it and it’s magical.)

The record concludes with that sense of hope still intact, if fatalistic, and an acknowledgement that this is our reality and despite the state of things, none of us can look away. But there is also a rationale, a kind of plea to those in power – and all of us, in general. “Is this what you wanted?” the band asks, to which the answer should be a very plaintive no.

There are a lot of complexities on this album, a confusion and angst that reflects what many of us are feeling these days. However, I think that, at the core, the band maintains the one thing they have always preached: we are all human, we all have flaws and shortcomings, we are all victims of the human condition, so just be good and be kind. Turn it off and focus on being a human. We don’t need the media – social, mainstream, whatever – telling us how to do that. It’s simply in our nature.