The Used's rise to prominence may have been aided somewhat by vocalist Bert McCracken's ill-fated relationship with Kelly Osbourne at the time when Ozzy and his kinfolk were the reality TV show du jour, but these days that's an irrelevance.
Take It Away is the incendiary opening assault from The Used's fire-cracker of a second album, In Love And Death, and starts with a tape of a preacher stating that, "Life's biggest questions have always been: 'Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?'". Well, this track knows exactly what its trajectory is and breaks into fractured guitars, an urgent rhythm and McCracken combining his famed, visceral screams with more trad, punky singing, before unleashing a killer chorus.
The lyrics, meanwhile, accurately portray the vulnerability that you'd expect from a chap who's overcoming addiction and who lost his girlfriend and unborn baby to a methadone overdose during the recording of the album ("I'm a worm with no more chances and I've lost all doubt in a chemical romance"). Still, with the melodic bluster of Funeral For A Friend coupled to the hyperactive rock sensibilities of My Chemical Romance, The Used make misery sound like a party worth gatecrashing.
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