Well, this is a weird one. {$Collective Soul} parted ways with their longtime record label, {@Atlantic}, following the release of the 2001 hits collection {^7even Year Itch}, and it took them three years to deliver a new album, which meant there was a gap of four years separating their last proper studio album, 2000's {^Blender}, and its 2004 follow-up, {^Youth}. Freed from the pressures of a big record label and the constraints of {\post-grunge} modern {\rock} radio, the band seized the opportunity to reinvent itself. While they still retain some of their essential DNA, especially when they delve into {\ballads} like {&"How Do You Love,"} they restyle themselves in fuzzy, shiny {\glam} threads, sounding like a weird cross between {$David Bowie} and {$INXS} (and on {&"Feels Like (It Feels Alright),"} {$Roland} recalls nothing less than {$Peter Murphy} in his vocals). Since {$Collective Soul} are natives of the American South, they favor big riffs ready for big arenas to slinky {$T. Rex} grooves, and since they once had big hits on the radio, they still favor big, glossy productions, but {^Youth} still comes across as a stylized, somewhat modernized spin on heavy {\glam rock}. It sounds a little bit like a streamlined, stateside {$Spacehog}, which means that it doesn't necessarily sound hip, or like something that the "youth" of the album's title would dig, and it's not necessarily something that fans of their big {\ballads} like {&"December"} and {&"The World I Know"} would like, either. But that doesn't mean it's a bad record. Far from it, actually. While the {\ballads} are still a little too saccharine, there aren't many of them, and the rest of the record is fizzy, outsized, hooky, trashy fun. Anybody who considered {$Stone Temple Pilots} a guilty pleasure, or thought that {&"Gel"} was far and away {$Collective Soul}'s best song, should check this out -- it doesn't sound much like anything that the band has done before, or like anything that's on modern {\rock} radio, but it's easily one of band's best records. It's a {$Collective Soul} album for people who don't like {$Collective Soul}. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide