Rolling Stone Review Of Contraband

[Booker Floyd]

Thanks to Rik for posting this at the VR forum...
 


Velvet Revolver

Contraband



BMG Entertainment

Before you start cracking wise about out-of-work refugees from multiplatinum bands or rock stars with drug problems and arrest records -- as if we haven't seen a few of them in the last half-century -- consider this: Singer Scott Weiland, late of Stone Temple Pilots, and the ex-Guns n' Roses trio of guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum have, with second guitarist Dave Kushner, gotten more done in one year as Velvet Revolver than Axl Rose has achieved with his version of G n' R in the past decade. If nothing else, banging your head to Contraband's snarling update of Eighties Sunset Strip rock classicism is a lot better than laying around waiting for the mythical Chinese Democracy.

Contraband is, in fact, tighter and hotter in construction and attack than we had any right to expect from a band that started out auditioning vocalists while being filmed for a VH1 reality show. Weiland and the emeritus Gunners are not shy about flashing pedigree: "Sucker Train Blues" opens the album with zooming-underwater bass, pneumatic gallop and flying chunks of superfuzz guitar -- Appetite for Destruction in miniature -- while Weiland pulls out his police-bullhorn-style bark from STP's "Sex Type Thing." But the chorus harmonies are closer to dirty Def Leppard, and Weiland's searing, monotonic chant - more evil monk than howling wolf - takes you right to the center of his very public hell: "Brain and body melting while there's roaches multiplying/It's the alien infection, it's the coming of Christ." For a guy routinely lampooned as a walking rehab failure, Weiland nails the sweet selfish oblivion and dumb-ass self-destruction of addiction with explosive clarity and no jive excuses.

The d?j?vu keeps on comin' throughout the next twelve tracks: Slash's high, strangled fills in "Do It for the Kids" and his reprise of the soprano-hiccup lick from "Sweet Child o' Mine" in "Fall to Pieces"; the tumbling growl of McKagan's bass and Sorum's hammering pulse in "Big Machine"; the full-on Stone Temple Roses of "Slither." But whereas Axl Rose now runs a G n' R that plays the old numbers like a repertory orchestra - and not enough of Democracy to prove that the album even exists -- Velvet Revolver energize their combined histories with original snort (the skewed skittering riff in "Set Me Free") and punchy vocal choruses. Weiland, in particular, shows that he is far more than the sum of his court appearances and star-crossed years with STP. His grainy yowl -- which, at the height of Seattle rock, earned Weiland a lot of lazy, cruel comparisons to Eddie Vedder -- is actually a precision instrument that cuts through Slash and Kushner's dense crossfire with a steely melodic purpose that, when Weiland piles up the harmonies in the choruses, sounds like sour, seething Queen.

Personally, I don't have a lot of patience for power ballads -- they are invariably more sap than nectar -- and Contraband stumbles when the tempo slows and Weiland switches from buggin' out to soft beggin'. And, yes, if I had my way, we'd be getting a real G n' R follow-up to the Use Your Illusion twins, and STP would now be making good on the interrupted promise of their recent best-of, Thank You. But we have Contraband instead, and it is a rare, fine thing: the sound of the perfect A&R sales pitch turning into a real band. Now we find out if these guys can stay together, and go somewhere new.



DAVID FRICKE
(Posted Jun 24, 2004)
 

[duga]

Well, I guess that makes them sell 500000 more copies  

[D]

wow 4 out of 5 stars!!!!!!!! awesome

im still mixed on this

listening to anything on a computer fucking sucks anyway

i remember i did that with bon jovi's This Left Feels Right and i set at the computer in horror listening to it!

but when i bought the cd and played it proper in my car and at home on the stereo it kicked fuckin ass

thats the same way with the music i create

computer monitors just dont do music the justice it deserves

so im sure once i buy contraband and play it nice and good in my car and home a few times it will stay in my cd player for a very very long time!

[rubie vale]

Cheers Booker,
I think the review is very fair. I have just listened to the album and I really like it. I bet it will be like 'Purple' was when i first got it, I liked it but grew to love it. This is a modern rock album and the sharp realisation I have had is that listening to GNR for years has made me forget just how long ago those albums came out. I realise now that Slash and Duff couldn't go back to that exact Mike Clink sound, they'd be laughed out of the arena.
I have been in something of a time warp with Slash etc forgetting that these men have been alive, playing, learning and listening to what has passed by the last ten years.
I think some die hard GNR fans will get an equal shock when CD comes out, I think Axl will have moved on considerably also and his sound will be quite different too. These guys just don't want to do an AC/DC on it and ride around on AFDs coat-tails until they are too old to play.  Good luck to them I say. I think Booker you'll love this album in a few weeks since you seem to share an equal admiration of GNR and STP like I do.
peace,
Rubie.

[Booker Floyd]

I think the review is very fair.

Its written well and the song descriptions sound good, but theres a little too much Axl commentary.  

I realise now that Slash and Duff couldn't go back to that exact Mike Clink sound, they'd be laughed out of the arena.

Personally, I wouldnt mind Mike Clinks production.  But based on "Slither," I have no complaints about Josh Abraham.  His sound is very clean and detailed, with little actual "production".  So I think theyve attained the sound they were seeking - an extremely sharp recreation of their live sound.  Again, I only base that on "Slither".

I think Booker you'll love this album in a few weeks since you seem to share an equal admiration of GNR and STP like I do.
peace,
Rubie.

Yeah, Im fairly confident that Ill like this album.  I also anticipate most of the songs to be growers, as "Set Me Free" and "Slither" were.  I liked both immediately, but they just got better with each listen.

I would also recommend playing these songs very loud - preferrably while driving.  

[jarmo]

1/4 of the review was about how Axl hasn't released anything.....  

Personally, I don't have a lot of patience for power ballads -- they are invariably more sap than nectar -- and Contraband stumbles when the tempo slows and Weiland switches from buggin' out to soft beggin'.

Isn't that the opposite of what many fans have been saying?


This is starting to remind me of when NIN released "The Fragile", good reviews all the way. Let's see if it sells, NIN didn't.


/jarmo

[matt88]

Thats a very good review. And he was spot on by saying:

" And, yes, if I had my way, we'd be getting a real G n' R follow-up to the Use Your Illusion twins, and STP would now be making good on the interrupted promise of their recent best-of, Thank You. But we have Contraband instead, and it is a rare, fine thing"


I thought Rolling Stone would have said it was a complete dissapointment, that it wasn't what the music world wants right now or needs, knowing to their obsession of whatevers popular...Rap, Hip Hop etcetc.

But all in all great news

[duga]

Jarmo: How do you think Expressen and Aftonbladet will rate the record? I guess that Martin Carlsson at Expressen gives it 4/5 and that Aftonbladet gives it 3/5  

[jarmo]

Jarmo: How do you think Expressen and Aftonbladet will rate the record? I guess that Martin Carlsson at Expressen gives it 4/5 and that Aftonbladet gives it 3/5  

"Slither" got 3/5 in AB, so I'm expecting it to get 4....



/jarmo

[Mikkamakka]

1/4 of the review was about how Axl hasn't released anything.....  

Personally, I don't have a lot of patience for power ballads -- they are invariably more sap than nectar -- and Contraband stumbles when the tempo slows and Weiland switches from buggin' out to soft beggin'.

Isn't that the opposite of what many fans have been saying?


This is starting to remind me of when NIN released "The Fragile", good reviews all the way. Let's see if it sells, NIN didn't.


/jarmo

Jarmo, you are always negative on VR. If the review had been a bad one, would it cause more sellings? I don't think so. A good RS review means sales 5 million+? Surely doesn't. But a good RS review is a great start.

If Axl releases CD and RS gives it 4 or 5 stars, will you say this could be a bad sign, cause NIN's Fragile got good critics back then?

[jarmo]

WTF is negative about that?

The critics seem to like it, now let's see if the record buyers agree. So that's being negative?


FYI I didn't expect GN'R "Greatest Hits" to be #1 anywhere, I was wrong in my predictions.

I'm a pessimist, learn to deal with it instead of saying I post negative things all the time.



/jarmo

[Vegar]

Jarmo: How do you think Expressen and Aftonbladet will rate the record? I guess that Martin Carlsson at Expressen gives it 4/5 and that Aftonbladet gives it 3/5  

"Slither" got 3/5 in AB, so I'm expecting it to get 4....


Jarmo, can you set up a link to that??
(cause I didn't find a review in AB)
Thanks..


/jarmo

[duga]

Jarmo: How do you think Expressen and Aftonbladet will rate the record? I guess that Martin Carlsson at Expressen gives it 4/5 and that Aftonbladet gives it 3/5  

"Slither" got 3/5 in AB, so I'm expecting it to get 4....


Jarmo, can you set up a link to that??
(cause I didn't find a review in AB)
Thanks..


/jarmo

Oh really, I missed that review because it's not on their website.  

[jarmo]

Jarmo, can you set up a link to that??
(cause I didn't find a review in AB)
Thanks..

/jarmo

[coondogg]

He did carry on about Axl and GNR a little too much. While it's to be expected, it gets old hearing it over and over again. It sounds like every other review, other than like Jarmo said, he thinks the slow songs are the worst parts.

[madagas]

Well, David Fricke is my favorite rock critic-he knows his shit and is fair. Go back and read his UYI 1 review-pretty much on the money. I was really hoping he would do this album and really hope he does Chinese, if it ever comes out. I will buy the cd based on his opinion alone.

[madagas]

Fricke likes Axl and is a frustrated fan like all of us-he is a great rock writer and historian.

[D]

Jarmo, can you set up a link to that??
(cause I didn't find a review in AB)
Thanks..

/jarmo

am i the only one that can read bout 8 words of that?

chili peppers "by the way" got 4 stars and only sold a million in the US and it is a 50 time better CD than Contraband of course "by the way" is the greatest album ive heard since the illusions so take that into account i guess

[Freya]

If nothing else, banging your head to Contraband's snarling update of Eighties Sunset Strip rock classicism

I don't get his reasoning here, it doesn't sound anything like the strip.  Updated or not.  

[badgirl]

It's interesting to read one group that thinks that ballads are the weakness of the album while others (critics and fans) say they are the stengths..

I am going to have to read all the lyrics before i conclude that Scott is a lackluster lyricist, but this was the first pro-Scott review i have read.