The "sophomore slump" jokes will be aplenty, no doubt. For here's a band critics love to pound like ground beef -- and whose last album featured the global smash "The Freshman." It's quite possible, however, the Verve Pipe will have the last laugh this time around. |

For one thing, the quintet's next record isn't its second, but rather its third, and it'll take major chutzpah to challenge the acumen of the group's new producer, Grammy-nominee Michael Beinhorn (Hole, Marilyn Manson).

Currently being mixed in a Miami studio by Tom Lord-Alge (Hanson, Wallflowers), the new album, which may simply be titled Verve Pipe, will hit the street on June 15 and feature twelve original songs (a future B-side, "Blow You Away," was co-written by frontman Brian Vander Ark and XTC's Andy Partridge). According to manager Doug Buttleman, the as-yet-undetermined first single will hit radio around the same time the band begins a month-long club tour on May 6. The group will play between fifteen and seventeen low-key shows in small venues before its gig at Los Angeles' House of Blues on June 11 with a full repertoire of lights and visual enhancements.

According to the obviously unbiased Buttleman, Verve Pipe is a "brilliant album. I've gone through rough mixes a number of times, and every time I hear something different." Buttleman says the new material, which includes the songs "She Has Faces," "Hero" and "The F-word," is a bit less accessible than that of the multi-platinum Villians (1996), but still "very melodic ... with strong background vocals."

BLAIR R. FISCHER(March 3, 1999)