Customer Reviews

Resolver (Parental Advisory)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

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.

Louise really pulled it off. If you liked the rock and roll, heavy guitar aspects of Veruca Salt, you'll love this album. Diconnected is an amazing song - powerful lyrics. I like the Nina Gordon album alright, but it is missing the edge that Louise brings to the band. Resolver is also better produced. Go see a live show too - Veruca Salt can still play a show!

This CD is a little different than the last two. The first album was a great deal softer. The second had some stuff to surprise me. And now this one....it's great, I literally fell out of my chair. You listen to it and it's almost addictive. I really liked it for it's POWER. There is so much energy and emotion behind this album. It really has a back bone.

I loved Veruca Salt then, and I love them now. As everyone knows Nina and Louise are no longer together in Veruca Salt. So you won't hear Nina on this CD. I was sad when I found this out. I was devasted that Nina left VS to sing POP, as any Alt-rock fan would be. I will not, however bash either of them since they are both really cool people.

This album has some great songs, such as "Wet Suit", "Used to know Her", "Yeah Man", "Disconnected" and "Officiall Dead". Louise does an excellent job retelling her stories of love and betrayal. We could all probably relate to them. The stories ring solidly in your ears. The new drummer does a great job, and the guitars and new sounds added on make it worth it to buy.

This is not however, a soft fluffy CD. It's "so rock". Or as I'd like to call it "Salt Rock".

Resolver was to me what The Phantom Menace was to Star Wars fans - the most eagerly awaited event in living memory..... No other band has harnessed emotion, turned it into music, and sung with such passion as Veruca Salt. So, like Star Wars fans, were we to be let down? The answer is most definitely "no"! Louise sounds as if she wrote and recorded the album in a state of mental turmoil - and the songs and lyrics are all the better for that. The split from Nina is a reocurring theme throughout the album and this theme gives us the best two songs Veruca Salt have ever made - "Only You Know" and "Used to Know Her" I wonder what Nina thought when she heard these songs for the first time? The whole album carries you along on a tidal wave of emotion and you hang on every last chord. "Eight Arms to Hold You" was written with a view to playing the songs live, well this album contains tracks that will have you jumping, crowd surfing and singing for all you are worth (and that is just in your bedroom!) If you are already a Salt fan then you should already have this album - if you are not, then order it now - you will not regret it. (And if you are Louise Post - don't even think about writing your next album until you have had a painful break-up with either a best friend or boyfriend.....)

Yes, Louise Post is back with a new Veruca Salt album sans her friend and co-founder Nina Gordon who left in '98 to pursue a solo career. One would think that the thrust of the new album would be of the loss of Gordon, but, ironically, Gordon is the least of Louise's problems. It doesn't take more than one listen to realize that Louise's focus is on the fallout from the torrid love affair she had with Nirvana/Foo Fighter Dave Grohl. With lyrics like, "...I won't buy your records because I've lost respect for you," and "...now you live in Virginia (where Grohl moved and recorded the latest Foo album)on a farm alone," one can't help but realize that Ms. Post doesn't like Dave----ALOT. She even incorporates the title of the Foo Fighter hit "Everlong" into one of her lyrics. References to Gordon are few and far between, and even when they are apparent they are not nearly as sharp-tongued as those toward Gohl.

All of this unfortuneatly detracts from the album as compared to VS's previous efforts. It's not that Gordon is glaringly missing, but the balance between the two writers seems to have been the ingredient to the success of the previous two VS albums. Instead of the quirkiness and fun-loving gurl rock anthems, we hear songs about vindication and unrequited love. Resolver seems to be a musical therapy session with the subtelty of a nuclear bomb explosion. That's not to say that the album doesn't rock because it does, but only for half of the tracks. Too many times the momentum of a song is lost in quieter, breathy voiced bridges that dissolve the intensity of the song.

On the other hand, Louise has crafted thirteen songs that are not only urgent in nature, but show complete vulnerability. After you get through a few listens you start to hear the real power of this album. It changes from a fragmented collection into a cohesive album. Even the songs that are very different from anything VS has done before become very good.

VS fans will inevitably love this album, as I do; however, those who were hoping for "Eight Arms 2" may be somewhat disappointed. One thing is for sure, Louise sure knows how to choose the title of an album. All in all, well worth the wait.

I used to be attracted to their old songs such as "Seether" but after listening to this album, I realize it's these songs that's really worth listening to, with Soft yet Hard rock songs mixed in with their angst & emotions. For lack of a better word... I think it's "prettier" this way.
Don't be fooled--this album is NOT like their old albums so do not expect it. Fans of their old music probably would want to steer away. But fans of good alternative/rock music would probably give this a listen. It's good.

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.

Wow. I cannot believe I am saying this. Veruca Salt's album Resolver is one of the worst albums I have bought this year, when in actuality I thought it would be one of the best.

I bought Resolver ignorant of the fact that Louise is the ONLY original member remaining from the last album. After my first listen to it I couldn't help but think "Since when did Nina and Louise's voice get so incredibly weak?" Paper thin to be exact. It sounds like they had sat down and smoked 5 pack of cigarettes a day for a year. My second thought was "Where did all the hooks and melodies go? Hell, where did all the solos go?" Screaming about swimming attire during a chorus does nothing for me. Then I realized the horrible truth; Nina had left the band. I am not stating this is the reason the album is so poor, but why the hell would you keep a band name if you A.) Sound nothing like the original band. B.) Are the only member left out of a 4 member band. C.) Were never THAT stellar to begin with. Like come on, you can only kick a horse so many times before your leg gets tired.

Lets talk lyrics. I hate to say this because Louise wrote some of my favorite songs of all time but, they are borderline laughable. "Play your hand, oh how I love my Marlboro Man." Well I guess that does explain why her voice is worse then Courtney Love's. There is also a lot of hostility is the lyrics, which I truly do not mind, but the execution is what is lacking. She may as well use names because Louise's once cryptic writing is now, "I used to know her, we used to sing but she just doesn't matter anymore" Hmmmm? Maybe that is about Nina, I'm not quite sure. Mean songs are only poignant when written in a manner that the individual the lyrics are directed at knows it is about themselves, and the person listening to the song has a hunch, but doesn't immediately flat-out know.

Lastly what I miss the most is the humor the band once had. They are taking themselves far too seriously. I know Louise has had a lame couple of years, but jeez, let up for a track or two. All in all I find myself levitating back to American Thighs and Eight Arms To Hold You which are a far superior albums in every sense. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I think just maybe it would have been better if Veruca Salt, two days ago my favorite band, stayed broken up. I have yet to hear Nina's album but from what I heard around and from most VS fans, it is different and much better.

After listening to RESOLVER, I realized that I really didn't know the difference between Louise and Nina. Resolver sets the record STRAIGHT. I knew that there had to be a reason behind my obsession with tough-as-nails tunes like "Straight", "Don't Make Me Prove It", "One Last Time" and "Victrola" from days of VS past. That reason is one Ms.Louise Post, whose now-unmistakeable presence literally pours out gallons of raw, tortured, and furious emotion throughout this entire musical adventure. She uses her many voices to convey very honest displays of love, hatred, and a new-found fragility which shrinks and explodes over the course of the disc's 13 tracks. The opener "The Same Person" starts the show with an almost Nina Presson (of the Cardigans) vocal style of which I have never heard from Ms. Post, surrounded by sweet strings and piano, which seem to tempt the first-time listener into believing that she has changed her musical personality into a soft-spoken innocent child... until "Born Entertainer" rips through the illusion with a rock solid PUNCH! The intro's powerful sliding guitar/bass line manages to break fresh, new ground, then trademark VS eighth-note riffs and layered back-up vocals appear which provide a cathartic release of familiar electricity. "Best You Can get" keeps the party going with extremely cute opening lyrics, more layered vocal harmonies, and a tricky bass line. "Wet Suit" begins a formula trend of calm, quiet verses and loud, shouted choruses which recur later in "Used to Know Her" and "Hellraiser". "Yeah Man", one of the strongest songs on the disc, shows the pop side of VS, and Louise exposes a vulnerability in tunes like "Disconnected", "All Dressed Up", and "Imperfectly" never heard before. "Pretty Boys" is soft and pleasant from begining to end which features more vocal harmonies which add more flavor to the disc. I wouldn't insist that this is the best Veruca Salt album, but it most certainly is the most focused and honest to date. A certain element is lost without Nina, but her departure has allowed Louise the freedom to develop creatively and to transform into many different shapes and colors. Nina does display an effective use of her vocal talents on her solo effort (Tonight and the rest of my Life), but I feel that the genre she has chosen is far too pure for the rock chick that she really is, appears to be somewhat phony, and difficult to listen to after the excellence of "Badway". It is just too slow to hold my attention and I just can't seem to make it all the way through the whole disc. Resolver has much more to offer and hopefully will be followed by more Veruca Salt recordings (and tours) in the future. This band is GREAT live.