Velvet Crush: Stereo Blues : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On their seventh album, Velvet Crush bring back the rock that they eschewed on their last release, Soft Sounds. Stereo Blues opens with drummer Ric Menck's calling card -- quarter notes tapped out on a high-hat. As the band's pilot and prophet, Menck's perfectly tuned drums are more than just backbone; his solid thud and splashy cymbals are often as prominent as frontman Paul Chastain's vocals. With pared-down production and guitars that come in chunky power chords and sweeping gusts, Stereo Blues is closer in spirit to Velvet Crush's raw debut, In the Presence of Greatness, than their more polished major-label release, Teenage Symphonies to God. But the group still takes cues from the Seventies guitar-driven pop of Badfinger and Big Star: colossal choruses, slinky melodies and sweet harmonies packed into three minutes or less, with an occasional string-bending freakout ("The Connection"). And the pedal steel on "Great to Be Fine" and "B-Side Blues" serves as a small reminder of Menck's relentless love of country rock.