Dosage

02/09/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bob Gulla

On Dosage, Collective Soul's fourth album, the Atlanta group gets a chance at last to answer its critics with the best album of its career. Where many of its past efforts were characterized by clusters of bland cliches punctuated by a couple of strong tracks, "Dosage" screams with personality. From the first few strains of the joyous, pretty pop of "Tremble For My Beloved" to the hushed potency of "Crown" (which comes in at just over 10 minutes!), Ed Roland and company show they can write, arrange, and play with FM radio's best bands, at a time when sincerity and success are often mutually exclusive. You can hear the two merge on the electrifying "Heavy," the cello-sweetened "Needs," or the loop-strengthened "Dandy Life," all moments in which the band sounds intent on building in different ways a deeply modern, Beatles-esque sound. Dosage, better than its predecessors by a crooked country mile, should for the moment silence Collective Soul's naysayers and prove the quintet's in it for much longer than their allotted 15 minutes--or at least until they become huge enough for another popular backlash.