The Verve Pipe

July 18 - 25, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

** The Verve Pipe

VILLAINS

(RCA)

On this, their major-label debut, TVP churn out ultra-earnest melodic rock that strikes somewhere between overwrought drama and sincere, subdued passion. Tempered by lilting back-up harmonies and the occasional psychedelic wash, the raspy lead vocalist occasionally waxes a calm Bob Mould and wanes a slick Peter Gabriel, achieving idiosyncratic resonance amid straightforward wails and croons. Those tones take center stage over a dense, rarely cranky guitar and subtle keyboard effects. Moody, but not predictably (in these angsty days) dark, most of the songs feature personalized accounts of wistful love and nostalgia over a drumbeat that carries each song from one into the next. With Jerry Harrison's polished production, it's a smooth, potholeless trip.

-- Chesley Hicks

(The Verve Pipe play the Paradise this Saturday, July 20.)