This last weekend, the sad news was shared that 3 Doors Down frontman Brad Arnold succumbed to the cancer he battled the last year. While his band who broke out big in the early 2000’s was never a critics’ band, the outpouring of love from fans and his fellow bands says more about him and how the band’s music has resonated than any critical response.
I personally bought the band’s debut album, The Better Life, upon release, and while “Kryptonite” was the major hit from the album (and has been the band’s most enduring song), my personal favorite from the album was always “Duck and Run”. The track has an undeniably propulsive opening, with the interplay between striking guitars and churning rhythm section. Arnold’s vocals on the song breathe grit, as he rails against how the world breaks people down due to poverty (“To this world I am unimportant. Just because I have nothing to give”) and against the economic disparity in the world (“So you call this your free country. Tell me why it costs so much to live?”).
But as was so often the case with the band, the band finds courage and hope through the adversity (“This world can turn me down. But I won’t turn away. And I won’t duck and run. ‘Cause I’m not built that way”). The song builds in intensity during the chorus, climaxing with a perfect modern rock chorus that is simply “Banger Worthy”.
So let’s honor Arnold and this banger he helped give to the world by listening to it in our Bangers of the Week Playlist.
The Indy Review 