A round of applause for Daughtry, please.

After hanging on in there for six long years, it feels like they’ve finally cracked the code on Break The Spell.

This superb third album serves up plenty of the big hooks and memorable choruses which we’ve come to expect from them, delivering highlight-after-highlight throughout it’s tight 43-minute runtime.

It carries a sense of self-confidence which wasn’t quite there on previous releases, one which has been forged by experience and putting in the hard yards on tour. The end result is a Daughtry who know exactly what they do best, and such is the overall quality of the material here we’re not remiss to suggest that in years to come this may be remembered as their definitive piece of work.

One of the crucial factors behind Break The Spell’s success is Daughtry’s decision to swap out the post-grunge styling of their earlier work in favour of a more straight-ahead rock sound.

It’s a move which suits them down to the fucking ground, because it finally puts them in a position which allows frontman Chris Daughtry to go “all in” on his undoubted talent for writing radio-friendly rock tunes – and boy does he deliver!

You need look no further than lead single Renegade for an example.

With towering guitar hooks and a chorus which screams “We’ve just spent six months on tour with Bon Jovi!”, it does a stellar job of showcasing all of the sublte changes which have been made to the band’s sound since last album Leave This Town. In a move which shouldn’t really work but does, their trademark heavyness is more effective than ever before now that it sits beneath a palpably audible layer of studio polish which we expect should land them considerably more radio airplay.

Quite frankly, it feels like this is the type of music they were always meant to make.

“I wanted to switch things up a little on this album. It sounds nothing like the two which came before it, lyrically more upbeat and positive. Although it’s perhaps a removal from what we’re best-known for I think we managed to pull it off. I’m incredibly proud of it.”

– Chris Daughtry

Other highlights include the bone-crunching Outta My Head, on which axeman Brian Craddock drops a hugely addictive guitar hook which we reckon you’ll struggle to get outta your head for the next few weeks.

Elsewhere, the electric Louder Than Ever doubles down even further on the riffage (word?), catching the band in superb form with 3-minutes of pristine “driving-with-the-top-down” hard rock, the likes of which hasn’t been heard since nu-metal saturated the musical landscape over a decade ago.

See also; Never Die and the fantastic Maybe They’re Already Gone.

Melody has always been the central point of Chris Daughtry’s songwriting.

It helped him to craft classics like Home and September, and it continues to be used to full effect on Break The Spell.

Slower numbers like Crazy, Rescue Me, Losing My Mind and We’re Not Gonna Fall might represent the type of material which fans of other rock bands would skip over to get to the heavier stuff, but here they feel like essential listening, each one bringing instantly hummable choruses and meaningful, memorable lyrics.

One of Daughtry’s strongest assets is their ability to deliver emotionally charged songs that truly resonate.

This reaches an apex on the heartbreaking Gone Too Soon, which deals the loss of an unborn child. With numbers like this Daughtry have dropped themselves into deeper waters than they have ever previously swam, and putting it alongside the hopeful Lullaby, which was written during the early stages of his wife’s pregnancy, makes for a truly gut-wrenching listen. From a lyrical standpoint this is perhaps the most challenging topic which a songwriter can attempt because you simply must get it right, and they do.

“Who would you be?
What would you look like
when you looked at me for the very first time?”

GONE TOO SOON

Break The Spell leans heavily on all of Daughtry’s strengths and it works incredibly well.

From the chart-ready rock of Louder Than Ever and Renegade, to the heartfelt lyrics of Rescue Me and Crazy, to the brooding guitars of Who’s They and Maybe They’re Already Gone, there are more highlights on this one disc than a lot of their contemporaries will enjoy in their whole career.

Daughtry seem to be firing on all cylinders, and there’s no denying they’ve never sounded better.

Break The Spell is audible evidence of this, becoming the finest release to date.

In summary:

Daughtry’s decision to add an extra layer of sheen and polish to their sound really pays off on this third LP. It is packed with the instantly hummable melodies and soaring vocals which we’ve come to expect from them, and the extra layer of gloss helps them sound better than ever before. This is the album which long-term fans always believed they were capable of making, and there’s a fair chance it’ll be remembered as their definitive piece of work in years to come.

Break The Spell receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★