"If all the world hated me/Wouldn't you be the one to love me/Wouldn't you kiss me 'til I drowned." The chorus for "If All the World Hated Me" from
Flight 16's self-titled debut sums up the British band's mission. A more direct lyric might have gone: If we pretend to be moody and damaged artist types, wouldn't you buy our record? Perhaps the post-adolescent members of
Flight 16 aren't feigning depression, but the timing is conspicuous. With similar trend-spotting pouters like
Collective Soul,
Matchbox Twenty,
Our Lady Peace, and
the Verve Pipe successfully pawning their sensitivity to a rabid audience first unearthed by Seattle's early-'90s melancholy set,
Flight 16 saw little risk in their cry-all-the-way-to-the-bank strategy. Despite their derivative foundations, most of the groups listed above share some positive characteristics, like good songwriting and a compelling lead vocalist.
Flight 16 was blessed with neither of these qualities. At his best, singer/guitarist
Dave Sears sounds like a young, off-key
Ozzy Osbourne (see "This Love"). The rest of the time,
Flight 16 applies a layered, droning treatment to their pedantic melodies. This technique seems to require more skill than
Sears possesses. On "Sleep," the verbatim rip-off of
Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole,"
Sears and his band reach their moaning nadir. Ill-conceived and poorly executed, this one and only
Flight 16 CD was dated the week of its release. Only the most passive and forgiving alt-rock fans -- listeners for whom Creed is just to darn heavy -- should bother with
Flight 16.