★★★★★
One could call Verve Pipe's debut Villains the merging of power chords and soul-baring wordplay an earnestattempt to bridge the indie-alt/classic rock divide ? classicgrunge, if you will. Or more succinctly, Pearl Jam Lite. Perhapsthe work of the poor man's Live. Or maybe it's just a bloated,cringe-inducing bore. D
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
They say timing is everything. And in the case of the Verve Pipe, good timing is just the kind of intangible that has allowed this once-promising band to extend its career beyond 1996's hit single "The Freshman." The band's '96 debut album Villains slid just under the slamming door which would further bar any new rock music worth a damn from being released on a major label...
- www.nudeasthenews.com
2009-07-28
★★★★★
Can anybody say "one-hit wonder?" The Verve Pipe aren't a terrible band, but "one-hit wonder" could wind up being an appropriate description. After years of regional stardom around the Midwest, the band signed with RCA in 1995, and were quickly deemed "the next big thing." Villains is the band's long-awaited major-label debut, following the success of two independent albums, I've Suffered A Head Injury and Pop Smear...
- www.nudeasthenews.com
2009-07-28
★★★★★
Although bands like this still offend idealists, you can't call them pseudoalternative anymore, because they don't bother pretending. They're just rockers who crash the album chart, where the money is, from the singles chart, where they're supposedly no longer welcome--in other words, pop bands who can play their axes. There's San Francisco's gold-certified Third Eye Blind, whose little sex kinks are too catchy to get het up about...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
Remember when alternative rock was supposed to be a good thing? The Verve Pipe do. On the first single, "Hero," from their new self-titled album, the quintet concocts an old-fashioned alt-rock cocktail, combining juiced-up guitars with sweet harmonies and a lyric that strikes just the right note of bruised humility ("I'm just a jerk but a hero's what I wanna be"). This is sure to take you back to those halcyon days of 1996.
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Successful public speaking requires the speaker to tell you what's about to be said, to say it, and then to remind you what was just said. This remedial approach, when deployed appropriately, puts a brand new vacuum cleaner in every home. Done improperly? Drink early and often. It's the same with songwriting. Successful pop songwriters make three and a half minutes feel like the blink of an eye. Less skillful writers make everything feel like the process itself...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Two years after going platinum with Villains, the Verve Pipe still sound like Michigan grungelings who teethed on the Psychedelic Furs. Guided by the sure hand of producer Michael Beinhorn (Marilyn Manson, Hole), however, that's not necessarily a bad aesthetic. On songs such as the catchy anti-stardom rant "Supergig," Brian Vander Ark's hoarse, fake-British-accented vocals swell to arena proportions and go head-to-head with guitarist A.J. Dunning's fuzz-flecked power chords...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
The Verve Pipe, though, seem to be made of sterner stuff. Teaming with producer Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains of Wayne), the group has effectively reinvented/refound itself as a crack power-pop band. The differences are telling. In the place of the band's previously muddled identity, which placed them somewhere on the more melodic sound of grunge, is a new identity that embraces big hooks and harmonies...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-22
Loading...
