Veruca Salt Album: “Veruca Salt IV”

I have been a Veruca Salt fan for a long time. I drove from Kentucky, to Chicago, to Champaign, IL and back to see them on tour in 2005. I loved Resolver, and the EP that they sold on their 2005 tour. I was greatly anticipating the new album.

When I purchased the cd, I was beyond disappointed. I thought the band sounded amateur, not like it was fronted by a seasoned music veteran. I would never guess that the woman singing on this album was the same woman singing on Resolver or the earlier albums. The only new song that I really enjoy is 'Circular Trend'.

I was glad to see that Blissful Queen was put on the album since I loved the demo, but I was confused why they put two songs from the just released EP on there. I thought that to be a waste of track space, any diehard VS fan knows that they have a large selection of demos and unreleased tracks that could've gone on the album instead. Also, since the EP and the album sound so different, they stick out like a sore thumb.

However, if they did a show within a hundred miles of me, I would drop everything to see them in a heartbeat. Louise and Stephen still put on an incredible live show.

I started listening to So Weird after I downloaded it from the VS website and I instantly liked it. I just bought the album and it is good but not as great as some of the previous VS work. The guitar work is awesome. I think that overall this is pretty good album. If you like it make sure to go to the VS website and get yourself a copy of "Lords of Sound and Lesser Things". I bought a copy a few months ago ad I have been listening to it almost constantly (especially Blood on My Hands).

I must admit I was a little disappointed with this album compared to the other albums they have released. It seems a little erractic and not as heartfelt...It's definately still Veruca Salt and worth adding to your collection, but don't expect too much from it.

I've loved Veruca Salt ever since American Thighs came out in 1994. I always thought of their music being likened to a female Smashing Pumpkins type grunge rock and the perfect subject of the angry feminine prior to Alannys Morrisette. After waiting so long after their last album, Veruca Salt continues to add to their great sound. I have to agree with the repeat listenings as I was not impressed with the first spin, but I've always had that problem with Veruca Salt. It took me forever to get to really enjoy Resolver, which I had til now, considered the best VS.

The raw, grungy emotion is there in songs like "Damage done" and "So Weird". Veruca Salt always seems to have a lighter song in the mix to throw you off the crashing wave of sound to a deep, dreamy and lyrically lifting groove and IV was no exception. "Sick as your secrets" has a wonderfully rhythmic guitar play and soft to hard female vocals from Louise Post as does "Salt Flat Epic". Its a very clean and well produced album and it was worth the wait.

However, I wold not recommend this for the first time Veruca Salt listener. My suggestion would be to start with American Thighs to get the first real bite into a truly extraordinary band. Veruca Salt IV delivers more each time I listen to it.

I really wish Louise Post (the only remaining original member of Veruca Salt) didn't keep "Veruca Salt" moniker. You're probably thinking, "Yeah, yeah, it's been a decade since the original line-up change, get over it", and I am. It's just that it's difficult to listen to "new" Veruca Salt when you take into consideration how different this band used to sound in the 90's, when they were at the absolute peak of their popularity. Comparing Veruca Salt's album "IV" to their first two albums when Nina Gordon was in the band sharing lead vocals, it's genuinely disappointing. However, if this was an album from a band called, let's say, "Louise Post Project" or something like that, IV is a passable album for the metal-lite crowd.

While, it's undoubtedly true that Veruca Salt has only gotten heavier and much more aggressive for every album they've released, the quality of their melodies, as well as Louise's vocals have become almost unrecognizable. On the first post-break-up Veruca Salt album "Resolver", Louise had an annoying and perplexing habit of either under-singing in the form of a breathless coo or gutturally screaming; there was no in between. That being said, Resolver wasn't a bad album at all, it just suffered from vocal misdirection and inaccessibility due to its vitriolic, depressed vibe that sometimes dipped into the "pathetic" zone. Though, Resolver did find Louise and co-producer/co-writer Brain Leisegang experimented with the Veruca Salt sound semi-successfully but regrettably the results sounded a tad dated in 2000, the year it was released.

IV, released 6 years after Resolver, isn't as interesting an album. Resolver had a "take it or leave it" quality to it due to the peculiar lyric content and vocals but musically was fairly solid. Yes, the lyrics are still quite lumbering and awkward on IV ("Perfect Love", "So Weird"), but they lack the bizarre immediacy that they had on Resolver. Musically, the majority of IV sounds like a band trying to relive 90's grunge or 80's metal but also like a band that's definitely not trying to build on either sound. "Damage Done" and "Centipede" riffs are so insanely out-of-date, that I almost wonder if it's on purpose; if these moments are suppose to be completely tongue-in-cheek? The strongest cuts on IV are the one's in which Louise actually sings like she used to pre-line-up change ("Comes And Goes") and the rock songs that aren't desperately attempting to be girl-metal in the key of Kittie ("Innocent" and "Closer" are eye-rollingly, cover-your-ears-bad faux-metal posturing).

Unfortunately, Louise still occasionally has the tendency to experiment with her voice in way that makes her sound pained, and less powerful. The chorus of the overall clumsy "Circular Trend" has to be the most forced whine-singing I've heard since listening to an Alanis' Unplugged album. Thankfully, the Resolver-esque cooing is kept to an absolute minimum ("Blissful Queen" is the only real coo offender) and Louise sounds more assertive and self-assured on IV than on Resolver ("So Weird", "Save You" are very, very catchy). However, Louise's voice has taken a noticeable hit since the first two VS albums "American Thighs" and "Eight Arms To Hold You", but if you're a fan of Resolver, you won't notice. For a long time fan to hear "Wake Up Dead", Louise's wobbly vocals and missed high notes is a little shocking.

IV ends with a song clearly directed at co-founder Nina Gordon, who left for a quiet - arguably unsuccessful - solo career, called "Salt Flat Epic". Easily the worst song on the album - and probably that Louise has ever released - this unfocused, nearly 8 minute tuneless rant is so dismal and vocally enervated that you can't even believe someone would commit this to record. It ends with Louise saying over and over "And I practice the art of forgetting" presumably about the Veruca Salt break-up experience. Sorry Louise, keeping the name "Veruca Salt" is gonna make hard for you or fans to forget how different a band Veruca Salt has become.

Best: "So Weird", "Comes And Goes", "Save You", "Sick As Your Secrets"

Worst: "Salt Flat Epic", "Circular Trend", "Closer", "Innocent", "Blissful Queen"