A man concludes that searching for pleasure is a dead-end trip and recognizes the need to “arm our souls” (“Innocent”). Beyond that, not much “positive,” but a lot of songs express frustration or disillusionment in morally neutral terms. Most notably, the band mourns failed relationships (“Scar,” “Hemorrhage in My Hands,” “Last Time,” “Knives,” “Bad Day,” “Easy”) and tries to fill “Empty Spaces.”
Scorned by a woman, the singer reacts with a vengeful, “I know you’re tripping while I kick you to the curb like you kicked me” (“Down”). A line on “Innocent” seems to put faith in reincarnation (“Angels lend me your might/Forfeit all my lives to get just one right”).
Urgent vocals and grinding guitars put the “high octane” in Fuel. But knocks and pings of dysfunction plague Something Like Human. To the band’s credit, disillusionment doesn’t manifest itself in profane rants or ugly calls for anti-social behavior. Fuel is no Rage Against the Machine or Marilyn Manson. Even so, hope lies somewhere just beyond the torment of the moment. Idling between “positive” and “objectionable,” the disc simply runs out of gas.
