The used's debut album is amazing. Each track sounds different. This band made it out of UTAH!!! They are the only ones that have done that. Almost all of their records are platinum.

To make this review shorter:

Step 1: Buy it

Step 2: Listen to it

Step 3: Love it

The cd arrived in less than 1 week. It played perfectly, and the jewel case and booklet were in excellent condition.

I was lucky enough to be working at Reprise Records when this record came into the door. I did promotion and marketing for 20 years there, and in came The Used CD. I listened to it, an it just hurt my ears. I didn't like it. I was a Sting and Peter Gabriel fan. But there was SOMETHING about The Used that made me go back and listen. Why was this guy screaming like that? "Taste of Ink," was the first single, and the first song I really liked. The promotional video for Box of Sharp Objects just made you love the guys. And I started liking more and more songs on the CD. Finally it was my FAVORITE cd. Maybe Memories, song 1, which I could not swallow at first now was blowing me away. This one band changed my taste in music totally. So I went to see them on their first Warped Tour run in Atlanta, and I have to say it was a life changing experience. The band came out on this tiny side stage, and Bert BLEW into it. He started smashing the mike into the floor, and when it came back broken when he swung it back to himself, he shot a bird to the sky. Like "Thanks God for allowing my Mike to break!" It was and AMAZING show. The raw power had me in a state of shock. I remember looking at the radio guy I was with there and the look on my face was certainly, "Do you BELIEVE what is happening???" So, if you don't have this masterpiece, get it! bj

Man, just how much hype did The Used have going circa 2005/2006. Anarchic yet knowing enough to say all the right things to the metal mags, channeling the debauchery of 80's hard rock while putting in the extra aggression levels required for their audiences generation and with a name evocative of punk. All the while further perfecting their buzz by being, basically, a bit of a screamo band.

The vocals of Bert McCracken actually remind me of Justin Hawkins of Darkness fame in use if not in execution and by that I mean that while they have radically different voices both have a sort of gimmick 'second option' with their voices. Hawkins with his silly falsetto 'castrati' schtick while McCracken has a gargled scream but both cause problems by over utilising their signature sound. Please Bert, you don't have to scream at me in every song! And this constant descent into screamo gets wearisome whereas it should be a welcome addition to particularly angsty or brutal songs.

That gripe aside we can now move onto the music itself. Which isn't really much to write home to Amazon about. Opener maybe Memories is hard to fault as an explosion of angst with some studio tricks thrown in and really would probably strip paint at 100 yards. And that's a compliment. When the dust settles it give you hope that the rest of the album will bring further crescendos of bile.

But alas it doesn't. A whole bunch of semi-emo teeny whining that's very much about everything and nothing at the same time. Vague enough to be catch-all without delving into specifics. Presumably to ensure all the 14 year olds who bought this would be able to mould the lyrics to suit their own perception of their situations. Still, perhaps it's churlish of me to labour the point as a sort of everymans lyrical bent is actually a handy talent for a band to have. And it's easy to see how this fairly simple screaming angst centred on feelings of loss and alienation struck a chord with it's target audience.

A forgiving three stars given how the band beats you over the head with a one dimensional emotional attack on almost the same topic for the whole album (and musically it's a few nifty touches by bassist Jeph Howard that are just about the only memorable moves). The Used - as of this early album at least their report card reads "must do better"

What do you get when you put a singer who sounds like scratching on a chalk-board, distasteful lyrics, and painful screaming? You get this band. The singer's voice is so overly bad, that it sounds good. The music, is the gem here. The Used is so versitiley unique, that even with the general, 'bitching and moaning,' lyrics, it sounds so, so, so good. Their songs mix a perflect blend of sound, which is methodically molded into something bigger, and rough-cut, ugly singing. What kind of music this is? In a way, it's what most 'emo' (or music classified as emo), is. However, The Used have taken the entire idea of the 'screamo' type of music to a new level.

I got this CD a few years ago, after listening to it at my friends house. I was turned onto the way it sounded. It was simple, but beautifully brilliant. The instrumental side of it could be put on a completely different CD, and sold for the same amount of money (maybe more). The instrumental side of the video is simply amazing. The Used did something great though. They added a singer whose voice isn't necisarily 'American Idol' material. There's no real vigor in it, it's just rough, ugly, and smeared on. But it balances almost perfectly with the music, which, at it's core, does the same thing.

Say Days Ago is my favorite song on the CD. It's one of those songs you can sing along with and not get in trouble for. It's simpler than the rest of the songs, which does good for the entire mood of things. Blue and Yellow is also a really, really excelent song. It's an extremely complex song, and feels more like a symphony than a small band.

If you're a person who likes a multitude of sounds, songs, and melodies in your music, get this CD. It takes you on a roller-coaster ride, it seems.

The Taste of Ink, Say Days Ago, Poetic Tragedy, Blue and Yellow, and Noise and Kisses are awesome songs. Check them all out, because each one is a secret gem inside of itself.