No Slump Here

Anytime a band has a successful debut album, the follow up is always a challenge. The sophomore slump, as it is often called, has been known to rear its ugly head time and time again, derailing the momentum of many up and coming artists. For a super group, the second album is especially important, serving as evidence that the band isn’t just a novelty act. Velvet Revolver has done just that with Libertad, the band’s follow-up to their 2004 debut, Contraband.Upon the release of their first album, Velvet Revolver were met with as much diffidence as appreciation. After all, super groups have tended to detonate as often as succeed, but with Libertad, lead singer Scott Weiland and Co. demonstrate that the band has some real potential staying power. With Libertad, VR have surpassed the super group stigma, and now sound like an individual entity and not just a melting pot of Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots.

The album kicks into high gear immediately with “Let it Roll,” a rocker that sounds like Pearl Jam’s “Spin the Black Circle” meets Guns N’ Roses “Right Next Door to Hell”. The mid-tempo “She Mine” slithers along, its psychedelic peak irresistible. “Get Out the Door” is a pop-savvy rocker that moves the disc along nicely. “She Builds Quick Machines,” the album’s first single, is probably the most Stone Temple Pilots’ mimicking song on the disc, and while it’s a tad generic, the hook is still there. The infectious “Pills, Demons and etc” is a short-but-sweet rocker, and the pure ear-candy “Mary Mary” has a great groove, sounding somewhat reminiscent of STP’s “Big Bang Baby.”

Overall, Libertad is a celebratory, buoyant album, and isn’t as forceful as Contraband. The new album still rocks, but it’s more groove oriented than their previous record, with stronger hooks, melodies and has more satisfying textures. The only real downside to Libertad is that when VR slows things down, it does get boring. “The Last Fight” is hardly anything to speak of, and just comes off as a generic ballad aimed at radio stardom. Saving a pair of these disinfected tunes, the new album is all about hand-grenade chords, drag-racing riffs, and circus-tent choruses, with Weiland crooning like the old STP frontman we knew and loved, and Slash ripping out riffs like it’s 1987 all over again.

With Libertad, we see more than just a STP/GNR mesh; we see something deeper, something more satisfying; we see a band that has formed its own identity, even while the individual band members remember where they came from. Velvet Revolver passes the “sophomore slump” test to make what has proven to be one of the finest rock albums of the year.