THE ALBUM OF THE DAY IS… VELVET REVOLVER, CONTRABAND
Axl and I are going to see Velvet Revolver tomorrow on the NYC stop of their 11-date small theater tour, so today on my walk to work I decided to listen to Contraband on my iPod. Contraband delivers exactly what you’d want from any group featuring these members — the sleazy rock and roll swagger of an updated sounding Appetite-era Guns N’ Roses beneath Scott Weiland’s glammed-out, expansive vocals. “Sucker Train Blues” is as good an album opener as any with its hard driving riff; every time I hear the first notes of Duff McKagan’s bass intro, I’m brought right back to the first time I saw this band on their first ever tour, before the album was out, at the State Theater in Detroit. “Spectacle” is another of my favorites with another vintage Slash riff that moves you right along the whole way. The album runs the gamut from all-out rockers to slower numbers that recall songs from Scott Weiland’s days in STP (think: the haunting “Atlanta” from No. 4), and really this is where Weiland’s voice is at its best; songs like “You Got No Right” and “Loving the Alien” are as beautiful as anything he’s ever voiced. The standout tracks, of course, are the album’s three stellar singles: the aptly named hard rocker “Slither,” the title of which perfectly describes Weiland on stage; the classic ballad “Fall to Pieces;” and “Dirty Little Things,” which along with deep cut “Superhuman” is one of the heaviest tracks Slash and Co. have ever been a part of. This is such a good album, and it always irks me when people dismiss it because it was written by a “supergroup” as if musicians haven’t been forming supergroups since the Yardbirds and Cream. If you’re a fan of early GN’R, L.A. Guns, or really anything with sleazy, rock and roll balls — this album is for you.
-VN
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