Before reviewing Blue October’s newest album, Any Man in America, I had only listened to three of their songs. The first being the Vh1 hit, “Hate Me,” which I thought was one of the most optimistically depressing song that I’ve ever heard. Then it was “Into the Ocean,” which is an atmospherically beautiful ballad, that should have gotten a lot more attention than it did. Then, there was “Dirt Room,” and that was when I just lost interest in the band as a whole. But after a resurgence into the rock mainstream with their single “The Chills,” I decided to give the band one more shot. And after a couple of listenings, I have to ask…THIS is Blue October?

Any Man In America starts out how I thought it would; slow, melodic, and darkly beautiful. The real opening track “The Feel Again (Stay)” is a gentle ballad that tugs at your heart strings for a little bit. And then I heard “The Money Tree.” If there were any two songs that were polar opposites to each other, it would be these two. Mixed with hip-hop kicks and synthy undertones, lead singer Justin Furstenfeld sings “We both know who we are/And I’m not changing a thing/I’ve never changed before.” That’s pretty ironic, as Justin raps in “The Flight (Lincoln to Minneapolis).”

No, that is not a typo. Blue October has a rap track on this album. This alone made me take out the album from my computer and make sure that there wasn’t some mix-up. The track starts with a voice mail, with a woman telling Justin that he might not be a good father for his daughter, then it breaks out into a downer of a Limp Bizkit-esque nü-metal garbage.

Though those tracks stood out like incredibly sore thumbs, some tracks on the album make up for the musical flops. The lead single, “The Chills” is poised to be a radio stand-out on the alternative stations. “The Getting Over It Part” is another effects heavy ballad, but Justin’s lyrics and the bands musicianship more than makes up for it. “The Follow Through” is a touching orchestral rock ballad that is a great closer for the album (and whoever guests on this song does a great job as well). “For The Love” is a great pop-rock song (something that I can see eventually being played on Vh1) that goes through what a rock star does all of his music for, including his parents, his sanity, and his daughter.

As a side note: I bought the album, and was a little bit touched by all of the photos of Justin Furstenfeld and his daughter that are in the pages of the fold-out album.

Any Man in America is something that I truly wasn’t expecting. With it’s rather questionable musical directions, Blue October took me by surprise, though not necessarily in the right way. It does have a lot of redeeming tracks on the album, but the missteps stood out more than it’s best track. I personally would’ve taken out the tracks that sounded like pure pop trash, but then again, that is what’s selling right now.

Final Grade: C+

Go Download: “The Follow Through”