Blabbermouth review

[jarmo]

On my quest to find more negative VR reviews/articles (   ), I found this one on Blabbermouth:
http://www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/showreview.aspx?reviewID=184



/jarmo

[K-Rock]

I've found that most negative reviewers/critics like both Set Me Free & Slither.  Songs that they are likely to have already heard multiple times.

This album is like a fine wine......gets better with time/each listen.  Perhaps this critic should check back after listening to the disc a few more times.

[Top-Hatted One]

I find that some of those critics wanted another 1987 record and can't deal with the fact that Scott Weiland was chosen over their lover, Sebastian Bach.

I like Baz's voice but there's no way I would've liked every song on Contraband the way I do if he had written the songs. The melodies are amazing on this record. Any cock sucking music nerd who disagrees can go fuck themselves

[Mr Cowbell ?]

"Fall To Pieces" and "Loving The Alien" ? Slash performs, not once, but twice, a variation on the signature lick from "Sweet Child O' Mine", as creatively bankrupt an idea as one can imagine.

Thats just funny. Even though I like the songs using two variations is rehashing it quite a bit.

[Johnnyblood]

Those blabbermouth fuckers are obnoxious doinks. As someone stated, when a review says that the two singles as the catchiest and most listenable tracks on the album, you know there's a good chance that it was written by a piker. I can see a review that says "this is no Appetite" or "there are no Interstate Love Songs on this album". But when they categorically dismiss the whole album it's just bad work on the reviewer's part. Poor sense of rock history and/or not listening with an open mind. This album is extremely good. Personally I think it rivals UYI as a rock record. It's nowhere to the level of Appetite. But then, you could make an album only half as good as Appetite and it could still be a classic. There needs to be some perspective, and many of the reviews I've read don't have it.

[younggunner]

Personally I think it rivals UYI as a rock record.

Are you nuts? It doesnt come close to the illusions. Ill take some of the non hits of the illusions over anything on CB. Theres not one timeless song on ContraBand. Not one of the songs will be on the radio in 10 years. Yet I still hear a shitload of UYI songs on the radio everyday.
There average to good songs. Nothing more, Noting less. Its a good album but that doesnt mean jack shit. ANd it certainly doesnt come close to the Illusions.
 There is a reason why the Illusions were great and sorry to tell you but CB isnt even in the same world.

[starchild_666]

"Fall To Pieces" and "Loving The Alien" ? Slash performs, not once, but twice, a variation on the signature lick from "Sweet Child O' Mine", as creatively bankrupt an idea as one can imagine.

Thats just funny. Even though I like the songs using two variations is rehashing it quite a bit.

yeah, but it works on both of songs... these are 2 really great songs and not a SCOM rip-off. I don't find anything bad usin a SCOM style licks, becuase they are Slash trademark not SCOM trademark  

[Skeba]

"Fall To Pieces" and "Loving The Alien" ? Slash performs, not once, but twice, a variation on the signature lick from "Sweet Child O' Mine", as creatively bankrupt an idea as one can imagine.

Thats just funny. Even though I like the songs using two variations is rehashing it quite a bit.

I can't seem to find them.. Is it that he's comparing the opening riff of SCOM to the on the chorus of LTA and the one in the beginning (and a bit later on) in FTP??

Well FTP and LTA are somewhat similar, but I really wouldn't call them a variation of SCOM, nor a variation of each other either..

A bad attempt to bash the record. I can accept the fact that some one doesn't like the record because he doesn't like the record. But this.

[TyRod Tulip]

Personally I think it rivals UYI as a rock record.

Are you nuts? It doesnt come close to the illusions. Ill take some of the non hits of the illusions over anything on CB. Theres not one timeless song on ContraBand. Not one of the songs will be on the radio in 10 years. Yet I still hear a shitload of UYI songs on the radio everyday.
There average to good songs. Nothing more, Noting less. Its a good album but that doesnt mean jack shit. ANd it certainly doesnt come close to the Illusions.
 There is a reason why the Illusions were great and sorry to tell you but CB isnt even in the same world.

Wow, I totally disagree with you. I can name 11 songs right now off of the UYI albums that wouldn't have even made it on Contraband:

Right Next Door To Hell
Live And Let Die
Perfect Crime
You ain't The First
Back OFF Bitch
Garden Of Eden
Bad Apples
Get In The Ring
Shotgun Blues
So Fine
My World

And the UYI albums don't have any timeless music either.  All of GNR's timeless music is on AFD.  And please don't tell me that NR is timeless.  That is the most over-produced and self indulgent non-GNR like song in their catalogue.  The three best songs on the UYIs albums are Estranged and Locomotove and Coma and those are not considered timeless.

-TyRod-

[Izzy]

Personally I think it rivals UYI as a rock record.

Are you nuts? It doesnt come close to the illusions. Ill take some of the non hits of the illusions over anything on CB. Theres not one timeless song on ContraBand. Not one of the songs will be on the radio in 10 years. Yet I still hear a shitload of UYI songs on the radio everyday.
There average to good songs. Nothing more, Noting less. Its a good album but that doesnt mean jack shit. ANd it certainly doesnt come close to the Illusions.
 There is a reason why the Illusions were great and sorry to tell you but CB isnt even in the same world.

Wow, I totally disagree with you. I can name 11 songs right now off of the UYI albums that wouldn't have even made it on Contraband:

Right Next Door To Hell
Live And Let Die
Perfect Crime
You ain't The First
Back OFF Bitch
Garden Of Eden
Bad Apples
Get In The Ring
Shotgun Blues
So Fine
My World

And the UYI albums don't have any timeless music either.  All of GNR's timeless music is on AFD.  And please don't tell me that NR is timeless.  That is the most over-produced and self indulgent non-GNR like song in their catalogue.  The three best songs on the UYIs albums are Estranged and Locomotove and Coma and those are not considered timeless.

-TyRod-

Wow - another thread that degenerated into VR v GNR In the review they said Slash was 'bankrupt' for ideas - by the looks of so many threads and posts of late so are most posters here....

And PLEASE no more posts where opinions are posted as fact

All of GNR's timeless music is on AFD

The three best songs on the UYIs albums are Estranged and Locomotove and Coma

etc.

I like thousands of bands across all genres - but each time i get a new album i don't endlessly debate whether track 1 would get onto AFD.....

Just because VR has Duff N' Slash doesn't mean the band is a variant of GNR - Izzy's 117 degrees and River feature Duff and Izzy (yes the same number of original members of GNR as VR has) but people haven't found the need to compare those albums with GNR - so why do people insist on this with VR?

I know the world of GNR is dead and there isn't much to talk about - but i think this GNR/VR thing has run its course.

[younggunner]

And the UYI albums don't have any timeless music either.  All of GNR's timeless music is on AFD.  And please don't tell me that NR is timeless.  That is the most over-produced and self indulgent non-GNR like song in their catalogue.  The three best songs on the UYIs albums are Estranged and Locomotove and Coma and those are not considered timeless.

I still hear Dont CRy,Civil war,NR,YCBM,Yesterday, and the 2 covers on the radio everyday. Someone must be liking them.
And the scary thing is that there are better songs than some of those songs on each album that arent radio friendly and never get played.

Just because you think NR is over produced means jack shit.

As a whole album CB doesnt come close to either of the ILlusions....CB is a good album but just because itsgood and is a lot better than most music out there doesnt mean it gets put next to some great albums. And why are we comparing GNR to VR i thought they were 2 different bands.

[Johnnyblood]

And why are we comparing GNR to VR i thought they were 2 different bands.

Because you singled out a tiny reference I made to UYI (and it was a personal opionion I have after listeing to both ablums thousands of times over the last 13 years, so as an opinion it is at least as valid as yours, young man... stop assuming you and your opinions are the center of the universe) and you willfully made this into a thread about GNR v VR. Sometimes the answers to our questions look back at us from the mirror.

[younggunner]

its not a tiny reference when your comparing a good album to a great album/band.

[TyRod Tulip]

And why are we comparing GNR to VR i thought they were 2 different bands.

You started the debate here younggunner (<--- pot calling the kettle black).  You compared CB to UYI in your first post.  I just stated my opinion.  And IMO, CB is at least as good as either UYI album.  You don't agree.  There you have it, two different opinions.  I will say that if you think those 11 songs I listed of UYI could have made it onto CB then your nuts .. but to each his own.  I haven't listened to any of those 11 songs since 1993 because, IMO, they suck ass pretty much.

Izzy, I'm sorry if my opinion was stated as fact .. usually I put the "IMO" in there, but I didn't this time.  And if you don't like the VR vs. GNR debate, then my advise is don't read it.   I personally think it makes perfect sense to debate and to discuss the differences/similarities between the two bands (and obviouslty alot of people here think the same thing).

I mean look at it this way.  I think that stupid "either or" game ran its course 14 months ago, but you don't see me crying about that thread.  

-TyRod-

[WagMyDog]

Fuck!

Enough with the comparisons.

First off ... the original comment warranted a reply. So don't say it was all YG's fault. It was just as much JB's fault. And TT you just took it a step further. (This doesn't mean you're absolved YG.)  

Secondly ... Let's stick to the topic at hand ... shall we?

Thank you.


Since we are now ON topic ... I don't agree with the reviewer's comparison of FTP/LTA and SCOM. I think he was clutching for straws and picked up on this. Sounds like he might've read it on a message board ...

I never thought SCOM when I first heard those songs ... I never expected what I heard. So I'm thinking .. (like someone said) maybe he wanted to hear SCOM ... MrB or PC or something AFDish ... and that's exactly what he heard.

[Izzy]

Izzy, I'm sorry if my opinion was stated as fact .. usually I put the "IMO" in there, but I didn't this time.  And if you don't like the VR vs. GNR debate, then my advise is don't read it.  

Don't read it? When i click on a thread titled 'Blabbermouth review' am i to expect u will have beaten me to it and started comparing VR to GNR? I wouldn't read it if i knew what was slurking there - Seems there is barely a thread on the board where u can escape from endless VR arguments

[Mr Cowbell ?]

LTA and FTP have that slash sound and style to them. You can LOOSELY relate them to SCOM. But like posted before they fit well in their songs. I miss new rock songs with solos and riffs. So good for them. I think the interview in a whole is a fan of OLD GnR and to keep comparing CB to guns n roses throughout the review shows he has no real talent. He should look at the album as a whole and not as something it isnt. A New GnR cd.

Also if STB and FTP is released on the radio I definently could see hearing them on the radio in the future.

[chas]

Personally I think it rivals UYI as a rock record.

Are you nuts? It doesnt come close to the illusions. Ill take some of the non hits of the illusions over anything on CB. Theres not one timeless song on ContraBand. Not one of the songs will be on the radio in 10 years. Yet I still hear a shitload of UYI songs on the radio everyday.
There average to good songs. Nothing more, Noting less. Its a good album but that doesnt mean jack shit. ANd it certainly doesnt come close to the Illusions.
 There is a reason why the Illusions were great and sorry to tell you but CB isnt even in the same world.

Wow, I totally disagree with you. I can name 11 songs right now off of the UYI albums that wouldn't have even made it on Contraband:

Right Next Door To Hell
Live And Let Die
Perfect Crime
You ain't The First
Back OFF Bitch
Garden Of Eden
Bad Apples
Get In The Ring
Shotgun Blues
So Fine
My World

And the UYI albums don't have any timeless music either.  All of GNR's timeless music is on AFD.  And please don't tell me that NR is timeless.  That is the most over-produced and self indulgent non-GNR like song in their catalogue.  The three best songs on the UYIs albums are Estranged and Locomotove and Coma and those are not considered timeless.

-TyRod-

I have to disagree with you big time. NR is a timeless song, you might think the song is overproduced ( in what way exactly may i ask?), but most people love the song and consider it a classic. You will find the song at the top of most charts and lists, and i am yet to find someone outside the 'GnR circle' that criticises the song, whatever their age or music preferance.

[killingvector]

LTA and FTP have that slash sound and style to them. You can LOOSELY relate them to SCOM. But like posted before they fit well in their songs. I miss new rock songs with solos and riffs. So good for them. I think the interview in a whole is a fan of OLD GnR and to keep comparing CB to guns n roses throughout the review shows he has no real talent. He should look at the album as a whole and not as something it isnt. A New GnR cd.

Also if STB and FTP is released on the radio I definently could see hearing them on the radio in the future.

LOL. The first time i heard those songs, I said to  myself, sounds like Sweet
Child. Considering how Slash hated playing that song, i find it humorous that he resorted to digging that riff out to bail this record out; funny but it didn't work.

[Johnnyblood]

its not a tiny reference when your comparing a good album to a great album/band.

Time to come out of your cave and greet the real world younggunner. You and relatively few others think UYI is a "great" album. Most of the music world views it/them as good or very good, and that is roughly how I see Contraband at this point. Hence my comparison of the two. In my original post I try to emphasize objectivity in reviewing Contraband. That means a balance of personal opinion and impartial analysis. Stop assuming that your PERSONAL OPINION about UYI should be regarded as an immutable fact that the rest of us should come to like an oasis in the desert.