Ah yes, the cash grab re-release. It’s a staple of the modern music business considering the decline of record sales. What record company wouldn’t want fans to buy an album twice ”“ or, in this case, two? Eleven Seven, Buckcherry’s label, is a subsidiary of Warner Music Group so it’s no surprise that it combined the band’s last two records, 15 and Black Butterfly, together with a DVD of extras in order to get an extra few units moved.To examine the (d)evolution of Buckcherry from its cock-rock beginnings to what the band has become today is to realize just how big of a waste of time both of these records are by comparison. It’s simply a goddamn shame considering the band that wrote ‘Lit Up’ and ‘Check Your Head’ ”“ one of the finest coke anthems ever and one of the finest hard rock ballads of the ‘90s, respectively ”“ is the same band that wrote ‘So Far’ and ‘Out of Line.’ The key difference between the two pairs of songs is merely the fact that the former is honest, free-wheeling rawk while the latter is forced record-company schlock. Which is why a line like “Can you feel it, can you feel it tonight?/ Are you high, Lord, tell me are ya fucking high?” works while “I didn’t do it for money, I did it all for free/ I did it all to fill the fucking hole inside of me” is absurdly trite. Honest, maybe, but wholly unoriginal.And, really, that’s why Buckcherry’s borderline-miracle comeback has been so disgraceful: the band is so much better than either of these records. The fun, wild ride that was Buckcherry a decade ago has been replaced by a corporate rollercoaster ride that’s only fun because you’ve been convinced it is by having an endless parade of singles crammed down your throat. The band went from being a Tarantino to being a Bay. It’s pathetic. ‘Crazy Bitch’ is, of course, the epitome of this. Now here’s a song that’s one of those “this seemed like a great idea when we were drinking last night” songs. The original copy of the lyrics is probably a cocktail napkin. But just because “Hey, you’re a crazy bitch but you fuck so good I’m top of it” seemed like a workable song idea doesn’t mean it’s a good one, or even a passable one. It’s just dumb ”“ like, forehead-slappingly dumb. Then there’s ‘Sorry,’ a song so clichéd that the opening guitar line actually issues an apology to the listener just by being played. Or how about the lyrics: “Cause everything inside, it never comes out right/ And when I see you cry, it makes me wanna die.” That couplet reads as if the band exhausted its vocabulary trying to find every single word that rhymes with “inside.” The lyrics of the song (like, “Every single day I think about how we came all this way/ The sleepless nights and the tears you cried/ It’s never too late to make it right”) are hackneyed to the point that you can sing along the first time you hear it. Yeah, the melody is pretty but it’s utterly wasted on banal lyrics like these.The other half of this package, Black Butterfly, fairs no better. Much like its predecessor, Butterfly’s first single, ‘Too Drunk”¦,’ is about fucking. This time, instead of discussing it through the prism of intercourse with a girl deemed insane, it’s about whiskey dick. There’s honesty in songwriting and then there’s using a crutch for either lazy songwriting or a lack thereof. In this case, it’s most likely both. The main problem with Butterfly is that there’s no progression or evolution here. The vast majority of songs from this collection could easily be traded for material from 15 and vice-versa. You’d never know the difference. This purported fresh collection of songs along with Buckcherry’s previous outing create ninety minutes of sleaze that make no attempt at being anything more. While the transparency is admirable, it’s nonetheless a pointless endeavor to trumpet this collection of songs as a ‘new’ record. Forget the fact that it’s an out-and-out lie. On the plus side, Butterfly does have two songs that differ from the “I’m sorry” ballads, rockers about sex and/or drugs, and general “life sucks and/or is hard” tracks. ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘A Child Called “It”’ both come from a book discussing child abuse that Josh Todd read between albums. The former is an uplifting track about self-redemption, the lyrics especially working to break up the monotony: “You can’t erase what’s deep inside of me/ I know I’m not a sight to see but baby I’m alive/ I cherish the love and I cherish the life that’s inside of me/ I know I’m not a sight to see but baby I'm alive.” Yes, the lines, as with pretty much everything else here, are pedestrian but it’s different. With 25 tracks (including the bonus cuts), that means a helluva lot. The latter is more of a first-person account of the abused moving past what his mother’s done to him: “Mother, I really hate the way you treat me like no other/ And I refuse to be your victim/ You won’t see me cry/ ‘Cause I left behind a child called ‘it’”.Much like 15, Butterfly’s slower songs are the ones that (almost) save it from being one giant, white noise mess. This is because they’re the only tracks where the melody or song-structure changes. So, really they don’t so much save the respective albums but they don’t help destroy them, either. The ballads are, paradoxically, the only songs here where the band doesn’t just plod through the motions. Butterfly’s ‘Rose’ or 15’s ‘Everything’ actually see the band awaken from its coma and make a legitimate attempt to play. Perhaps it’s because the band cannot just rely on a half-assed riff to carry a particular song. It’s why ‘Too Drunk”¦’ works despite its imbecilic lyrical content: over a snaky guitar lick Todd slinks around the music, allowing him to exhibit some genuine personality even as the words he’s singing don’t. The same goes for Buckcherry’s attempts at country which also appear on both records. Butterfly’s ‘All of Me’ is the better of the two. Its lyrics aren’t cringe-worthy like the rest of this collection: “Please take all of me, yeah/ ‘Cause you are all I see/ My blue-eyed ocean breeze.” That’s shockingly kinda poetic. 15’s ‘Carousel’ is more forced than its companion but, like ‘All,’ it demonstrates that Buckcherry can step outside of its corporate box and still make it work. And, again, the lyrics are a plus despite the fact that it’s one of those I-miss-you songs: “Maybe I should take the blame/ I guess a music man is no shelter from the rain.”Lastly, there are the two bonus cuts, one per album. 15 has ‘Back in the Day,’ a mid-tempo number that isn’t any kind of real bonus. It’s just another stiff sing-along rocker. Black Butterfly, however does feature a bonus track worth hearing. It’s a cover of ‘Highway Star’ and is an astonishingly decent version. It’s a by-the-numbers cover, but the soloing shows for the first time since Buckcherry that these guys have some real talent. Please don’t let its use in NASCAR commercials ruin the fun for you, either.Look, here’s the thing. I’m not asking for Buckcherry to be the Buckcherry of the Clinton administration. They did that already. I’m not asking for its next record to be some left-field electronica album, either. I’m simply asking the band to give a shit and stop phoning in both its performance and songwriting. This band is capable of making arena rock without it being lifeless, corporate rubbish. And I can’t be the only one who knows it.Buckcherry on Myspace