EIGHT ARMS TO HO(LP)

Veruca Salt: Nina Gordon, Louise Post (vocals, guitar); Steve Lack (guitar, bass); Jim Shapiro (guitar, drums, background vocals). Recorded at Wicked Wahine, Haiku, Maui, Hawaii between July and September 1996. Metallica's aptly-named producer Bob Rock is behind the board for Veruca Salt's highly-anticipated follow-up to the gold debut AMERICAN THIGHS, and the difference shows. The twin-guitar attack is thicker and heavier, the drum sound harder and more in-your-face. Overall, the band's approach on EIGHT ARMS is more focused and aggressive. Despite poppy diversions like the effervescent "The Morning Sad" and the almost-ballad "Loneliness Is Worse," there's a grunge-derived mudslide of sound that powers this album. Whether the lack of dynamic/sonic range from tune to tune is consistency or flaw probably depends on which side of the Veruca Salt fence you stand on to begin with. Singer-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post show themselves to be several steps above their post-grunge peers in the songwriting department. The songs here are well-structured, highly melodic and not without humor (see "With David Bowie"), a commodity far too precious in the alt-rock world.