Vee Vee – Archers of Loaf
This was certainly an interesting listen. “Step into the Light” is a slow, but tuneful dirge with some backing harmonies. The lead vocals later on certainly point the way to that “can’t be arsed” quality that features on later songs.
“Harnessed in Slums” is reasonably melodic and has a good driving rhythm with a vocal style that I’d describe as “combative punk”. "Nevermind the Enemy" again has good drive but this time, the vocals are more whiny punk. There are some nice chord changes though.
“Underdogs of Nipomo” is energetic and starts with a suitably gnarly guitar intro. I liked this. Can hardly hear what he’s singing about, but the energy and guitar are great and there’s a decent riff to kick-off “Let the Loser Melt”,
The rap vocals spoil “Nostalgia” and “The Worst is yet to come” and ““Underachievers …” are pretty poor songs due to their lack of focus.
Do I hate this as Foggy suggested I would? Of course not, it passed the “real band with real instruments” and is fairly straightforward in its approach. I think there are enough riffs to keep most rock fans happy.
But what I don’t like about the album is its awful production. First of all, on some songs, it sounds like Eric Bachmann is bellowing into the mic but standing about 5 feet away from it. Then there’s the arsing about from time-to-time, where one band member or another sounds like he just dicking about on the guitar trying things out between takes.
@OB1 is right when he says that this sounds amateurish. Finally, the whole thing sounds like it’s been recorded with the dynamic range of a hamster’s whisker. Does an album recorded in the mid-90s have to sound this bad? With a decent producer such as Butch Vig or Gil Norton, they could have had a much better sounding record. Whatever you think about Nirvana’s
Nevermind, and although I like it, I still think that at least a third of it is shouty old rubbish, the production is near faultless. You can hear Kurt Cobain attacking the vocals and the loud-quiet-loud guitar sound is handled brilliantly.
That, as much as the songs themselves, is why this album caught a massive wave with fans and critics alike. Archers of Loaf sound just a bit too ramshackle here.
I don’t know a huge amount about the American alternative scene, but I’d take the more melodic Soul Asylum or The Lemonheads over the Loaf. I thought there was a fantastic buzzy guitar song to finish things off but alas, it was Sugar on autoplay. I decided to keep listening and Superchunk came on a bit later and I know Foggy likes both of these bands. I think there is enough on
Vee Vee to like, as well as some tracks of questionable quality. There are some interesting guitar parts, but too many poor songs and poor production so it’s a
5/10.
