AMG Review of Artwork

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Focus on the artwork, as the Used are telling you via the title of their fourth album. It's an ugly beast of a picture of a man shoving a syringe labeled "ART" into an arm bearing "WORK" scrawled in blood on it. What it all means is unclear -- is art being injected into work, is art the drug -- but what is evident is that the Used still take all this emotional bloodletting very, very seriously indeed. Four albums in, they're also taking the business of being in a band very seriously too, demonstrating a greater command of dynamics and a certain measure of professional panache, something adolescent, an adenoidal rush of their early screamo. This, of course, isn't quite the same thing as a considerable uptick in songcraft, but hooks never mattered to the Used anyway, so having a higher grade of execution helps underscore the Used's point. [This Limited Edition includes a bonus DVD.]