Taproot - 'Our Long Road Home' Review

On Our Long Road Home, Taproot don’t sound like the same band that came to prominence at the end of the 1990s – and that’s a good thing. Where once they were a middling rap-rock outfit, Taproot have ditched genre gimmicks for a more straightforward style that suits them. Our Long Road Home may not make much of a dent on the rock charts, but it’s a consistently tuneful collection.

Our Long Road Home represents Taproot’s first album since their record deal with Atlantic ended after 2005’s poorly-received Blue-Sky Research. The loss of major label backing can be a real blow to a band’s self-esteem, but Taproot, led by frontman Stephen Richards, rebound strongly. In fact, Our Long Road Home might be the group’s best record precisely because they no longer seem to be feverishly trying to stay relevant. Rather than mimicking the trendy sound of Staind or Nickelback, Taproot have shifted to industrial-tinged rock reminiscent of Filter, hardly the most popular band in the world. But the sleek crunch of Our Long Road Home works well in conjunction with lyrics that address failure (both romantic and personal), producing a record with a real edge to it.

The sonic styles on display in Our Long Road Home recall several ‘90s bands, but the similarities don’t feel slavishly derivative. Beyond the aforementioned comparison to Filter, mid-‘90s Stone Temple Pilots also pop up in the mix on the romantic ballad “Run To,” while “Karmaway” has a bit of the stripped-down drama of Nine Inch Nails’ quieter tracks. Those parallels don’t always work in Taproot’s favor – “Take It” sounds like subpar Rage Against the Machine – but for a band that has never had the strongest of identities, at least the stylistic borrowing on Our Long Road Home complements the music’s grizzled urgency.

Perhaps it’s a symptom of reading too much into a group’s lyrics, but when a band’s future is in question, often the songs will delve deeply into issues of self-determination and struggle that feel candidly autobiographical. With that in mind, Our Long Road Home’s subject matter repeatedly deals with daily disappointments, whether it’s on the album-closing blowout “Footprints,” about a man unable to go home, or on “It’s Natural,” a cold, hard look at aging that builds from the snarling guitars of Richards and Mike DeWolf. Taken as a whole, the songs on Our Long Road Home seem to be about the search for something lasting in a world that’s horribly unpredictable. Whether or not Taproot are addressing the fickleness of the music industry or more personal matters is anyone’s guess, but regardless this is compelling stuff.

Taproot still aren’t a terribly original band, and much of Our Long Road Home will remind listeners of other groups. But with only one track clocking in at over four minutes, the album is a taut string of compact rock songs that flow easily from one to the next. The album’s terse, explosive sound and the plentiful guitar-driven choruses are big pluses as well. As its title suggests, Our Long Road Home captures a band that once was lost but is now finding its way at last.

Best 'Our Long Road Home' Tracks:

“You’re Not Home Tonight”
“Run To”
“Footprints”
“It’s Natural”

Release date – September 16, 2008