Rating: 6/10.
Enjoyable if slightly plodding pastiche-rock
For any fledgeling student of rock history, listening to Veruca Salt's latest album is an exercise in spot-the-reference.
It's a test of knowledge, and you have to fend off sneaky suspicions and self-doubt around every corner. I mean, is it too far-fetched
to say that the "you'll be the tigris I'm euphrates" line in "Don't Make Me Prove It" is a reference to the Pixies' "River Euphrates"?
Probably, but damn, doesn't the chorus sound an awful lot like something the Pixies would come up with? Or even the Breeders,
Pixies' former bassist Kim Deal's group? And then who's to say that any line or guitar part in ANY song isn't a send up or tribute of
something done by anybody from Badfinger to Husker Du to Joni Mitchell. It could drive you crazy... if you gave a damn...
I'm not making this up though... the title of their first album, AMERICAN THIGHS, was a line taken from AC/DC's "You Shook
Me All Night Long." The title of this album, EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD ME, is a apparently a reference to a Beatles film. The first
single "Volcano Girls" doesn't only tip its hat to the group's earlier song "Seether" in these lines: "I told you about the seether
before/you know the one that'e neither or nor/well here's another clue if you please/the seether's Louise." This is from the Beatles'
"Glass Onion" from the White Album: "I told you about the walrus and me - man/ you know that we're as close as can be - man/
Well here's another clue for you all/ The walrus was Paul."
Wait, that's not all! There's that "With David Bowie" song, and the harmonies and melodies of "The Morning Sad" is pure Bangles,
and on the bridge Nina Gordon sounds EXACTLY like Susanna Hoffs (and Belinda Carlisle on the bridge of "Loneliness is Worse").
From the musical jokes to the lyrical references, Veruca Salt seem to have taken a bit from here and a bit from there, but not
managed to emerge from the mix with a coherent or character-defining style. Bob Rock, the guy who produced Metallica and
Motley Crue, produces this album, and the guitars are definitely more uniformly muscular here. While this works for the more
driving numbers like "Stoneface," "Volcano Girls" and "Venus Man trap," I think they're absolutely out of place for the slower,
more obviously pop numbers.
This is hardly a sophmore classic, but I like it still, though that may be mostly
because I like Veruca Salt. Nina Gordon and Louise Post are two of the frailest, prettiest-looking waifs but they play their guitars
LOUD, with more hard rock verve... or let's state it plainly, more balls than any number of their male contemporaries. And those
quirky harmonies are still there too. Their best is surely ahead of them.
Gerald Tan 1997
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Visitor's Comments:
FROM: courtn6317 (courtney)
DATE: Sun, 14 Feb 1999
SUBJECT: wrong
COMMENTS: "you'll be the tigris, i am euphrates" comes from the song "awesome." NOT "don't
make me prove it" hmmmmmmmm. great review