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36 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
not a spoiled little rich girl wanting a golden any longer, May 19, 2000
By A Customer
Veruca Salt is a band which has always willingly displayed their roots, and I'm not referring to leader Louise Post's hair. Previous song & album titles have been lifted from the likes of AC/DC (AMERICAN THIGHS), the Bee Gees (`New York Mining Disaster') & the Beatles (EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU). There's been a cover of 'My Sharona' and a song named for Bowie, plus `Glass Onion'-ish `Paul is dead' treatments of Louise in `Volcano Girls' & `Seether'. VS's new album, RESOLVER (a take off of REVOLVER) continues the tradition of Beatles influenced titles, and has references to the Cult's ELECTRIC, Jim Morrison, and (fully credited) snatches of lyrics by the Who and Cheap Trick. The album opener, `The Same Person' has a very Liz Phair feel; the VS debut album had some production work done from Phair's production camp. A while back, VS co-founder Louise Post was involved with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana), but Louise's fellow band leader, Nina Gordon, ALSO got involved with Grohl. Louise's discovery of this dual betrayal broke up Veruca Salt and ended a friendship with Nina dating back to when the two were 6 year old girls. It broke up Post's & Grohl's romance, too. Maybe you think that's irrelevant (or not true), but it is news that's difficult to ignore when you listen to RESOLVER. Post sings, "I'm not officially dead, I still have a heart" then "you're officially dead, you DON'T have a heart" and ends with "we're officially dead, we don't have a heart" in `Officially Dead'. Speaking of HER band in `Born Entertainer', Post tells us "This couldn't get any better, she didn't get it, so ---k her..." She confesses "...I used to know her, now it just doesn't matter......I used to love him, now I don't even miss him..." in `Used to Know Her.' `Only You Know' is the most telling song, though, with lyrics such as "...don't hate me......don't blame me for sinking the ship, you're a hopeless hypocrite........don't blame me because you got caught, you've given me up, you've taken everything I got....those lies came straight from your lips, I never dreamed you would be a sell out..." Both Post and Gordon were always pretty personal in their lyrics before, so why should Post stop that now? Besides, her feelings lend themselves to really good tunes. In addition to sharing her anger, Louise has put her musical experience to good use by adding to VS's repertoire. `The Same Person' features just Post and a piano.`Imperfectly' and `Disconnected' are both nice ballads, with the latter being an especially pretty song. `All Dressed Up' starts slow but the guitars turn growly halfway through, and the song alternates from soft to hard throughout. Post's songs don't all run to anger and broken trust, either. She learns her intended beau is gay in `Pretty Boys', which explains why he doesn't want her in THAT way; she has cold feet but asks the guy to marry her anyway in `Imperfectly', acknowledging that she's imperfect, but that she loves him. She happily exclaims "So rock" on 'Born Entertainer'. Between tracks 6 & 7, she instructs that "As my grandmother always says, one heart feels another." Her whispery come-ons at the beginning of `Yeah Man' are irresistible, and then the song gives way to the thrashing and bashing VS is known for. {The new drummer, Jimmy Madla, is really good.} Besides the absence of Nina Gordon, original bassist Stephen Lachawicz (Lack) and drummer Jim Shapiro are gone too, so some might say RESOLVER should be a Louise Post album, not a Veruca Salt album. But if you didn't know Gordon, Lack & Shapiro were gone, you'd say, "Hey, that sounds like new Veruca Salt!" on your first listen. Post has resolved to get on with her life and she's resolved that Veruca Salt as a band will carry on. The tunes `Officially Dead', `Born Entertainer', and `Used to Know Her' rock harder than `Seether', `Shimmer Like a Girl', `Straight' and `Volcano Girls' RESOLVER is VS's most diverse work and displays the band has a future. If you're a Veruca Salt fan, you'll like RESOLVER - I think it's their best work yet.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Resolver is an oddball, but well worth your money, July 15, 2000
I always know I'm in trouble if I like a cd right off the bat. It means I'll get bored with it quickly, since it's usually safe and familiar. I didn't like Resolver ...initially.I was apprehensive about buying it in the first place. When I heard about it's coming, I decided to listen to Veruca Salt's first two releases to help with my decision. Nina Gordon had quit the group, and upon listening to her half of each cd, I quickly realized that she was my favorite of the two writers in the band. Louise Post's work was angrier. She rocked pretty hard, and tended not to produce the more vulnerable pieces in the duo's catalogue. I worried that without that balance, I'd be left with lots of thunder, but a lack of substance.Post managed to find another singer to harmonize with her, so it still sounds like the Salts, but she is pretty much the sole creative force on this release. She's also fairly obsessive in it's subject matter. In the first track, set mostly to piano, she basically repeats that she's not "The Same Person" anymore. In track two, she proclaims that Gordon, "didn't get it so f___ her", metal guitar blasting in the background. By track eight, "Only you know", a pattern becomes clear. "Don't thank me, for what you've got. I've given you love, I've given you too much thought. Don't blame me, for sinking the ship. You're a hopeless liar and a hypocrite." With, "Used to know her", you recognize that the theme of the album is kissing off Nina Gordon.She isn't alone. Ex-boyfriend and Foo-Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has "Pretty Boys" devoted to him, while another song states, "I used to f___ him. I used to simplify him. Something in his walk was like Jim Morrison. I used to touch him. I used to justify him. Lying to my face with my permission." On "Disconnected", "It's kind of scary when your lover leaves you for a movie star...And I'm still in the dark. But you have trained me, to watch my back and drop my standards. And you have shamed me, since the first time you were with her. And you can't make me love your band or buy your records. 'Cause you have tainted my respect for your adventures".Listening in on this cd is a voyeuristic delight at times, but it goes beyond that. Veruca Salt has always tended toward employing lots of metaphor and surrealism in their songs, sometimes to the point where their message isn't delivered. Here, the meaning is clear, as is the depth and sincerity of emotion that inspired these songs. Other songs are more general, like "All Dressed Up"'s bemoaning an attempt to please someone you love, to no avail. "Yeah Man" is a straighforward "thanks for doing me so well" kinda song, and "Imperfectly" is a great 80's love song with a 90's dysfuntional bend. This cd has really grown on me, and it's honesty and intensity have held my interest at least as long as the Salt's previous efforts. If you're a fan, you need to pick this one up. If not, at least give it a listen. As for me, my mouth is watering and my ears perked to hear Gordon's side of the story, hopefully later this year on her first solo release.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seething more than ever before..., July 3, 2000
I almost didn't buy this CD. Veruca Salt without Nina Gordon? I had my doubts. But the gamble paid off. The split between Louise Post and Nina Gordon wasn't a friendly one. (Gordon was secretly seeing Post's boyfriend, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters.) Post wrapped her mind and her brain and her pen around her pain and feelings of betrayal and crafted Veruca Salt's most emotionally blistering body of work to date. Listening to "Resolver" is, at times, a bit like reading Sylvia Plath's more intense poetry: like staring into the sun. The album shimmers with emotion, and it ain't pretty...but at times it's damned beautiful, as in "Disconnected." What begins as a sparse, exhausted lament over her failed relationship with Grohl ("It's January when I jump the fence of your back yard/Finished the fairy tale that you were drunk enough to start.") erupts into a gorgeous percussoion-laden declaration of strength ("You can have the past because I love the future.") Other high points include "Born Entertainer," "Imperfectly" and "Only You Know." Is this the same Veruca Salt that belted out "Seether" and "Volcano Girls?" Of course not...but you'll barely notice it. But this Veruca Salt still rocks grandly, still gets quiet and sings introspectively at times, and still knows how to pull their listeners into their songs, daring us not to feel something. And there's more to feel here than in the two previous albums combined. Louise has never seethed so powerfully.
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by Veruca Salt 
