Deconstructing I Miss The Misery by Halestorm

I have a confession. For a while, I didn’t have too many female artists in my iPod. Yea I had Janis Joplin, Heart and ok yea maybe I had the Pussycat Dolls album too. But I didn’t have a wide musical orbit, and that sort of meant that I was following iTunes playlist recommendations, the classic rock radio station, or whatever CDs were lying around the house. In general that meant that my listening was restricted to a traditional pantheon of male rock singers. Unfortunately, rock has been a boys club for a long time, and that raises the age-dumb question:

“Well if it ain’t a dude blowing hot gas into a mic is it rock and roll?” The correct answer to this question is “What?”. But this thought process/music consumption culture is a positive feedback loop right? The more of just dudes you listen to, the more likely you are to associate dudes with rock music, and the more likely you are to prefer dudes.

Of course there’s always been the aforementioned artists, and just skimming through Spotify’s best rock vocal performance playlist, you can throw Jefferson Airplane, Tina Turner, Lita Ford and a number of others on there too. But that’s not the point.

The point is that, for me, Halestorm and specifically Lzzy Hale (not a typo), was one of the first female artists that I wanted to add to my vocal palette. Yes Janis Joplin is cool, and Heart are amazing, but so is Journey and I never really wanted that sound in my throat (Obviously, I’d be honored to have half the chops of those singers). But Lzzy Hale was like a peanut butter banana chocolate milkshake. As in, I want that.

I Miss The Misery was shown to me on a weird night where I had a half party at my parents house. I say half party because there were only like three people, but my parents weren’t home and we were drinking so that counts right? One guy was contemplating a career in underwater welding. And the other guy showed me (the third guy), a live version of I Miss The Misery. And just with the opening vocals I was floored.

She’s like a better version of Brian Johnson. More grit, more personality, and way more control. I mean it’s all in there, in the first couple seconds.

Every time she hits the chorus she turns it up one more notch, and EVERY TIME, I think there can’t be another notch, but there always is. And that last wail around 3:00. Like, what? What? I’m sorry, is that a perfectly tuned, vibrato laden, banshee in the studio?

Unfortunately, the album, and I’m so sorry to say this, but, the album was produced by Howard Benson. YES that Howard Benson. Producer for great bands (to make fun of) like Hoobastank, POD, and Flyleaf. Do you like those bands? What about Daughtry, Seether, or Skillet? SKILLET!!! This album is totally wrecked by this guy. It’s the most generic 2000s sounds, made in the 2010s! I have no idea what the band is thinking while they continue to pursue this “modern” rock sound. WE LIVE IN A POST MODERN WORLD! GET IT TOGETHER!

While Halestorm’s most recent record is not produced the H. Ben, it still paddles in the dull sounds of hyper compressed everything, and I remain pretty unenthused about anything that isn’t Lzzy Hale. Maybe there’s a live bootleg that I’d like.

Edit: Just started listening to the drummer more and he’s pretty good too.