Here Today... Gone To Hell!

From
GUNS N ROSES // THE SILENCE IS ILLUSION
NEWSLETTER Issue 282

FINALLY: THE CONTRABAND REVIEW!
VELVET REVOLVERs debut album Contraband will be released on Monday and Tuesday. I got it this morning. First off, I got the red one. And there is a little confusion with the versions of this album. One has 12 tracks. Another one features the song Dirty Little Thing as bonus (this one I got), another one has the Sex Pistols cover Bodies as bonus. Maybe just a trick to sell more albums. However, the CD comes in a sleeve with the known cover (the Tomb Raider wannabe) and a black/white picture of the band on the back. I hoped for a cool inlay cover under the sleeve, but it just has the TR girl again, in black. Under the CD is a cheesy pic of a hand holding a gun that is pointing at you. When you open the booklet you will see that the album is dedicated to Randy Castillo (remember that this band, formerly known as The Project, started up with a tribute concert for former Motley Cr?e drummer Castillo, who passed away in 2002). Set Me Free has not been reproduced with Josh Abraham, It is still the same version that was included on the Hulk Soundtrack. The booklet is b/w and contains the lyrics in the middle as well as strangely layoutet pictures of Scott, Slash, Duff, Dave & Matt. The liner notes & thank yous are interesting as well (Vicki Hamilton (some of you may remember her) and Izzy Stradlin are mentioned, all the bandmembers have little notes to their wifes and families), but read for yourself. Now for the music!

It starts of with Sucker Train Blues, which is a solid rock song. Nothing really special about this. It is fast, it is fun, but it is nothing special. Do It For The Kids: The same. A song I thought I heard a thousand times before. Nothing new, nothing special. Big Machine starts with a dark bass and dark lyrics, then turns into what the first two songs basically are, too. And here I first realize that these songs very much sound the same. Not very diverse, no catchy choruses or soli or riffs. Just a cheesy repetation: Its a big machine. We are all slaves to a big machine. Illegal I Song: Kicks in hard ans fast but does not throw me off the chair. Same concept and sound as the others, just added a little shouting by Scott that is far from being spectacular. Spectacle: Damn, it does not get better. A riff that sounds like The Offspring. I am getting tired. Slashs solo is fine, but that is all. Nothing to say about this song. Fall To Pieces: The first ballad. And the first song that is at least interesting. Scott is stronger here but still not impressing. Fall To Pieces is a classic power ballad with some great guitars. But the problem remains: I have the feeling as if I heard all these songs before. At least here is one song that stands out a little bit. But ignore the lyrics. The big minus on all this are Scotts lyrics range from boring to stupid. At last, Slash compared this song with the power of November Rain. That is a joke. November Rain is monumental. FTP is ok, a solid songs and the first one that is at least a bit diverse from the others. Headspace: Hard. Very hard. Sounds good. But, damn, I know this riff, just cannot remember where from. Seconds later the songs turns around a bit and sounds just like the first five. Superhuman: Starts off with a kinda poor variation of the Sweet Child O Mine intro. A song about Scotts drug problems (and not the only one). Kinda boring. Set Me Free: Poor lyrics, but a good song. The best song until now. Sounds a bit different from the others, but what am I talking? You sure all know this one from the Hulk Soundtrack last year. You Got No Right: An acoustic ballad that turns to a power ballad later. Something different again. And a good song. I just wish someone other than Scott would sing. Catchy parts in here, this song could be a hit. Would be a good decision to release this one as single. Also Slashs solo kicks ass here. The first impressing solo on the whole record. Slither: The first single. A bit different from the other harder songs. When I first heard Slither I thought it was the most boring song I heard in years. But compared to the rest of the album (except Set Me Free and You Got No Right), this song is really good. Nuff said? Dirty Little Thing: Another one of those I just described. Solid, rocking, but kinda boring. Loving The Alien: The album ends with the third ballad. In my opinion the best song after You Got No Right. Mellow and dreamy, but there is something about this I like, even though it sounds a bit like a pop song, not like something by a bunch of rockers. Again a good solo by Slash.

And that it is. Remember this is just my personal opinion. All in all a boring album with just one or two outstanding and great songs. Some said this album sounds modern. That is right, but it is not good. Some expected an album that sounds like GUNS N ROSES, having Slash, Duff and Matt in it (well, Matt never wrote a song for GNR, but however). But it does not. Most of the time it sounded like a new Stone Temple Pilots album. Only three times Slash is really Slash, but even there he did not create anything that comes close to what he created with GNR. Some said this album would contain some good ideas. It does not. Every song (also the outstanding ones) I thought I heard a thousand times before. Again: Absolutely nothing new, nothing special, nothing that kicks one outta the chair, that makes me want to jump around and rock off. Too many songs sound the same, and to me, sound just boring. Not a bit of what I expected from these musicians. And also I am one of those who does not respect Scott as a musician. He was a bad choice in my opinion. I remember when this band was still The Project and Brad Cox leaked the song Pleasin he recorded with them. I listened to Pleasin again today. And it sounds better than anything on this album. For the self created hype that came through in all the interviews: Slash and Duff said that this band is dangerous, maybe as dangerous as GNR were when they released Appetite For Destruction. A critic said that they sound as dangerous as forty years old millionaires can sound. The critic was right. It does not sound dangerous, it sounds uninspired. Contraband was recorded within two weeks. You can hear that. I got the impression as if the guys were in a hurry to complete this album. It does not sound as if it was well worked out. I listened to it a few times now since I thought that maybe it has to grow on me, like GNRs Oh My God (1999) had to grow on me after I disliked it in the first place. But I was wrong again. I like You Got No Right, I still like Set Me Free and maybe Slither or Fall To Pieces. But for the rest: Forget it.

The last part, making it short. They titeled this album Contraband. Contra what? Contra todays music landscape? So maybe they are one of the better bands, but they are not outstanding, not a little bit. When it comes to modern commercial rock music, there are hundreds of bands that are worse. But also there are some that are far better. Audioslave. 3 Doors Down. And some more. Contra GUNS N ROSES? Of course. But Velvet Revolver have no chance. The few songs off Chinese Democracy that were already played live by GNR are way better than everything on Contraband. Madagascar, The Blues, Rhiad, etc. have the magic, they have the power and the ideas, they have the attitude that made GNR big. They have Axl. Ever single song of these totally outplays Contraband. I am not glad that I have to wait years and years for Chinese Democracy. But I am glad that Axl has the last word. I am sure he will not disappoint us. And in one of the last issues I asked if Contraband was just another Snakepit album. Well, it is. And I personally prefer Aint Life Grand (2000) over it. This is my opinion. Just do me one favor: Do not buy this album blindly. Listen to it before you buy it. Maybe you will like it. But maybe you will dislike it just as me.

The End!


/lastroots

Hmmm. He didn't like it very much...

In the article, he writes that Set me free hasn't been reproduced since the Hulk...
It makes me a bit confused, ive heard from alot of people that it has(The lyrics,guitars...)  ???

To save everybody some time... : ok:

Perfectly reviewed. Couldn't agree more.

@#$%Muther

Its definitely been remixed...

At the very least, theres minor guitar additions and added vocals at the end.

I still haven't heard the whole album yet, but I'll argue a couple of points here.

1) The version of Set Me Free on Contraband IS a different version than on the Hulk soundtrack. Hell, I could tell that from the 64k stream from the VH1 site, and IMO it sounds even better than the Hulk version. It has much more heavy drums and bass in the mix (and an extra Scott vocal towards the end of the song) and it really kicks you in the face!

2) That Pleasin song that Brad Cox sang over VR's music is absolutely CRAP. The music was ok, but the vocals were the worst I have heard in recent years, if not at all. And the songs I have heard from Contraband are no way near that bad.

Although I didn't like Scotts singing in it at first, I now think Sucker Train Blues is great, as is Headspace and You Got No Right is just phenomenal. And Slither and Set Me Free are both great too.

Like I've said before, I'll make my own judgement on the album on monday.

So dismiss his whole opinion because he like Gnr better?

Im not saying he isnt a little biased towards gnr but its not a fukin crime. PEople like GNR and those songs because its fukin good. Not because they just love axl or whatver. Because the songs are fukin good.

If he gave VR a good review and kept that same paragrapgh would you be making the same stupid comment?

Man I cant wait till CD kicks everyone right in the fukin face.

Nahhhhh.... I would dismiss his whole opinion because he likes PLEASIN' better.  ::)

" And also I am one of those who does not respect Scott as a musicin"

That is a pretty ignorant and lame thing to say. Yes Contraband sounds rushed, and some of the lyrics probably could have been redone. But to not respect what Scotts done as a musician is kind of  narrow-minded. Sadly i agree with his review, besides the one comment. Scott should go back to solo records if he doesnt like working with STP.

I agree with lastroots the majority of the album sucks, and I'm a huge STP fan!  They are one of the best bands of the 90's.  I'm not going to buy this album (i just downloaded it in 10 minutes lol).  Nothing spetacular, nothing close to any song by GNR and only a two or three could stand next to a STP song.  Seriously take a listen to the cd before you buy it you will be very disaspointed if you pay 15 bucks for it.  Save your self the money or go buy any of these cds instead:  Audioslave, 3 doors down, The Darkness, Jet.  

GNR for fucking ever.

So you have listened to the album like one time?  ::) Come back when you've listened through the album at least five times...

I love Pleasin! Its better than the rockers off Contraband, even if the vocals and lyrics suck(Better than Scotts though I think. Scott is too repetitive). The instrumentals in it rule. I think that is one of the songs that they wrote with Izzy and sounded too GNR.

Some people have touched on it by saying that Scott is the weeklink of the band and what I think is, the band and Scott dont mesh. The band is this heavy, raw hardrocker while Scott is overproduced(way too many multiple vocal track harmonies) and sounds like he should be in Def Leppard.

Do you usually do that when you think an album sucks? "hey i hate this piece of shit but wait, maybe if i listen to it 10 times a day i'll convince myself that this is actually good"

I didn't listen to GNR over and over again , "cause i wanted to like it"
But maybe you have to do that with VR? (oops now i compared)

I actually listened all the songs 2 or 3 times wanting to like them but I couldn't.  I'm listening to it right now, its growing on me a little but still pretty boring.  Well crap I guess this summer is over for music nothing good is coming out tell fall (Audioslave's 2nd album) and hopefully CD.

GNR for fucking ever.