No one was happier about the break-up of Creed, the king of all pretentious rock bands, than the genre's proverbial prince, 3 Doors Down.

With little or no competition, 3 Doors Down won over fans Creed left behind with its 2002 multi-platinum album Away from the Sun, which included unfortunately avoidable tunes such as "When I'm Gone" and "Here Without You."

Although Sun was received poorly by critics, the album was a very focused and obvious step in a softer direction for the band, securing itself on the play lists of moms and rock-radio loving teens across America along with the likes of Train and Matchbox Twenty.

Their latest effort, Seventeen Days, displays the band droning through 12 depressing tracks once again, but something is different this time. It's still your typical depressing, boring rock, but Days seems like a B-sides compilation rather than a deliberately crafted album.

"Let Me Go," is the closest track to a hit, but it just doesn't have the staying power of a "Here Without You," and "Be Somebody," has a catchy chorus, but sounds like a rip-off of the band's 2000 hit, "Be Like That."

The album's leadoff track, "Right Where I Belong," has the band struggling between rocking for its radio fans and trying to stay soft enough for the moms, which can be said about every other track on the record. It seems as if the band was so focused on what genres it wanted the album to be included into that the song writing was completely lost in the process.

This record is really bad, even by pop-music standards. At least with 2000's The Better Life, which included hits such as "Kryptonite," "Loser" and "Duck and Run," the tracks were easily discernable and easily digestible, especially compared the band's latest sob story laden record. The attempts at emotion and depression in the lyrics are so insulting that singer Brad Arnold sounds as if he's trying to sound like someone who is trying to sound depressed.

On "The Real Life," Arnold sings "I woke up to the real life, and I realized it's not worth running from anymore," which is full of so much ambiguity that he could be referring to his realization of Pepsi tasting better than Coke as much as anything remotely heartfelt.

The only remotely interesting songs, "Never Will I Break" and "Live For Today" are structured around a couple interesting riffs, but then give in to Arnold's southern drawl and even worse lyrics.

"Here By Me," an acoustic song backed by an orchestra, serves as the album's closing track, and appropriately so, a kind of sweet, sleepy ballad to take the bitter taste of the rest of the record away. It doesn't work, but at least after awakening from the nap you were lulled into, you will remember to never listen to Seventeen Days or 3 Doors Down ever again.