This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. The Enhanced portion includes a music video for "Simple Creed."
Live: Ed Kowalczyk (vocals, guitar); Chad Taylor (guitar); Patrick Dahlheimer (bass); Chad Gracey (drums).
Additional personnel: Tricky (vocals); Adam Kowalczyk (guitar, background vocals); Eric Gorfain (violin); John Krovoza (cello); Michael Railo (keyboards, background vocals); Shawn Williams (bass); Adam Duritz, Natasha Schneider (background vocals); Alain Johannes.
Producers: Live, Alain Johannes, Michael Railo, Glen Ballard.
Principally recorded at 11 AD Studios, Hollywood, California.
Australian edition features one bonus track and an enhanced video.
Following up the didactic pretensions of THE DISTANCE TO HERE, Live steps back a bit on V and instead infuses a bit more experimentation into their normally straightforward post-grunge sturm-and-drang thanks to production help from Eleven's Alain Johannes. These changes jump out right from the one-two punch of "Intro" and "Simple Creed" with its backwards-masked guitar and sinister-sounding vocals from guest Tricky. The rap-rock of "Deep Enough" captures a Limp Bizkit-like rhythmic flow without resorting to lyrical inanities.
Ed Kowalczyk's interest in non-Western culture continues to provide musical cues whether it's the sitar and tabla woven into the churning groove of "The Ride" or the Middle Eastern rhythms looped into the hard-hitting "Deep Enough." Interestingly enough, Kowalczyk addresses his band's socially conscious image with "People Like You," a thudding rocker with Qawwali-flavored harmonies that mentions a dream featuring his band alongside Bono, Bruce Springsteen, and Michael Stipe. Best of all is the gorgeous, piano-driven "Overcome," an anthem of optimism needed in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy that occurred the week before V's release.
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (10/11/01, p.92) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A hard-grinding hip-hop-tinged album.... peddling the enlightened life with tongue in cheek...wisely [leaving] the jagged edges in their music..."
