Contraband Album Discussion

[Anonymous]

Bleh.

Honestly, I didn't expect much, and it still didn't live up to my expectations.  From rock and roll "veterans," I expected a little less cock, and a little more music.  The second half of the album wasn't as bad as the first, though, and I can see how some of this material would provide for a fun live show.

Bye.

[everylilwhore]

As I said on Rik's VR forum:

Personally, I think this is the best 'Rock' album that Scott has been a part of since aspects of No.4...

I think he was looking to get into heavier rock tunes back then; obviously none of us know the circumstances, but I think this is the album he has wanted to be a part of for a VERY long time...

The highs of the album:

Superhuman -- I think this is one of the best songs Weiland has ever been associated with; including all of the STP records and all side projects.
Everytime I hear his vocals mold into the guitar at the end, it makes me want to keep repeating the song over and over again.

Big Machine -- All around a solid tune.

Spectacle -- I love the fast pace of this song, yet it still makes you want to sing along in your car.

Illegal I -- Is a great song; reminds me very much of something you would hear from Janes Addiction...with a much better chorus.

Loving the Alien -- When I first heard this song, I thought it was totally out of place, since most of the surrounding songs simply beat you around to the point of total exhaustion. After numerous listens (and it annoying the crap out of me trying to figure out what 60's artist Scott sounds EXACTLY like throughout the song) I think this song is tremendous, a gem much like 'Atlanta' was on STP's No.4.

Dirty Little Thing -- This was the only song I had not heard already, and man its intense much like the rest of the record.

Low Points:

Fall to Pieces -- I personally think there are MUCH better songs on this CD to release as a second single...just a pretty blah song to me.

You Got No Right -- Basically the same as above.


Not so sure points:

Do it for the Kids -- I am not sure what I think of this song yet...intense for sure, just not sure what I think of the chorus yet...will give this one time.

All around, I think this is by far the best record Weiland has been a part of since No.4 was released, but it has much more emotion and depth to it musically and lyrically in my opinion than a lot of the stuff he has been a part of since as well.

I think the melodic writing for the songs these guys put together was virtually perfect (Do it for the Kids, I am not sure about yet).

Great CD, and a present for myself next week.

 :lol: 

[lovemachine97]

I think that this album stands up to STP's releases, but is not a classic for the times like Core and Purple, won't replace Tiny Music as a fan fave, upends NO. 4, but is not the masterpiece that SLDD was, although You Got No Right and Loving the Alien (Sometimes) could quite possibly be comparable to STP gems like Atlanta and Hello, It's Late.

[everylilwhore]

I think that this album stands up to STP's releases, but is not a classic for the times like Core and Purple, won't replace Tiny Music as a fan fave, upends NO. 4, but is not the masterpiece that SLDD was, although You Got No Right and Loving the Alien (Sometimes) could quite possibly be comparable to STP gems like Atlanta and Hello, It's Late.

Ugh. I don't know why so many people like 'You Got No Right'

My least favorite song on the record by FAR.

and SLDD was a masterpiece?

I thought it was a complete mess for the most part; come to think of it the only STP records I do listen to anymore are No.4 and Tiny music.

[Erik B.]

Gave it a spin today finally.  Wasn't all that impressed.  I'm with Matt in saying that the second half is better than the first, but overall, it's not that impressive.

[everylilwhore]

Gave it a spin today finally.  Wasn't all that impressed.  I'm with Matt in saying that the second half is better than the first, but overall, it's not that impressive.

You both are crazy.

Plain and simple.

Go back to listening to EMO.

[tommygunn]

Leaked It Has

Why are you talking like Yoda?
 :rolleyes:

[everylilwhore]

Leaked It Has

Why are you talking like Yoda?
 :rolleyes:

Because Yoda rocks you foo.

 :ph34r:

[Anonymous]

Gave it a spin today finally.  Wasn't all that impressed.  I'm with Matt in saying that the second half is better than the first, but overall, it's not that impressive.

You both are crazy.

Plain and simple.

Go back to listening to EMO.

No "emo" for me.

As for VR: My cock rock phase was from junior high through early high school.  The only thing slightly saving them from that label is Weiland's lyrics.

[everylilwhore]

As for VR: My cock rock phase was from junior high through early high school.  The only thing slightly saving them from that label is Weiland's lyrics.

How is it cock rock?

Explain that label and its justification for it to be remotely valid...

[Rocketboy]

Rolling Stone actually gives Contraband a good review, without ripping Scott a new one...hell, they even throw in a compliment or two!

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 déjèvu 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

[walkingarazor]

HURRAH!

[Anonymous]

its an awesome album...   i miss the crazy/clever chords and song writing behind scotts melodies,    but scott does such good work on this, and this does feel like an album, unlike shangri-la, which although the songwriting may have been better, it was all over the place and it felt like a mix someone would burn on their computer

[wayne gretzky]

I have to agree, im really impressed with Scotts work on the album, he shows so much variety on it more-so than ever , and the song quality isnt the greatest but still a very good rockNroll disc.

[wayne gretzky]

and he didnt diss Scott cuz Scotts an a rampage with the critics