Scott Stapp must be a total jerk.

Maybe he punches children, or kicks old people, or eats kittens, or smokes indoors, or doesn't recycle, or something.

Or maybe, just maybe, all of the conservative Caucasian talking heads and columnists who dictate most of the political and social discourse in North America are right and there is a secret liberal agenda to shut down anyone who is Caucasian, conservative and open about their beliefs.

Well, there must be something, some reason why Stapp and his disc The Great Divide aren't currently enjoying the success he and his music once did.

Oh, lord no, it's not a good record -- that's not the point.

It's just as craptacularly mediocre as anything else being clubbed to death through tri-hourly play on any modern rock radio station around this country or south of the border.

The former Creed frontman's debut CD is full of the pseudo hard rock which is ripped off entirely from the playbooks of the populist grunge acts of the early to mid-'90s -- Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, etc. -- which made him a star to begin with.

But accompanied by a new crew of musicians, he sounds even a little more certain and a little more aggressive in his middle-of-the-road musical direction.

True, the disc features a plethora of snively, U2-influenced power ballads, but, for the most part, even those are heavier than whatever other watered-down, overbite rock sits atop the charts.

Sadly, the only way he's been able to find any interest is through hotel lounge fist fights and alleged acts of drunken impropriety.

You know, by being a total jerk.

Track Listing:

1. Reach Out
2. Fight Song
3. Hard Way
4. Justify
5. Let Me Go
6. Surround Me
7. Great Divide
8. Sublime
9. You Will Soar
10. Broken