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Velvet Revolver
Contraband
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AUGUST 2004
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“Headspace” searches for significance in a dangerous world. Gossip, drugs, celebrity and television are part of a destructive “Big Machine.” A man asks his woman, “Am I still that man who makes you who you want to be?” (“Loving the Alien”). “Dirty Little Thing” exposes the downsides of addiction. “Do It for the Kids” alludes to the myth of “safe sex” and the effect of divorce on children, however ...
It’s one of a half-dozen tracks littered with vile language, including angry f-words. Another of those cuts refers to bloody fisticuffs and a sexual encounter with a prostitute (“Illegal i Song”). A man confronts the woman two-timing him on the violent, profane “Spectacle” (“I’ll knock you right back down again/You incessant b--ch”). Among the things that “enslave” the singer on “Big Machine” are his wife and kids. Other songs sound like hallucinogenic ramblings (“Sucker Train Blues,” “Superhuman”).
This supergroup features members of Guns N’ Roses, as well as the lead singer from Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland (who was sentenced recently to six months in a drug program following a DUI charge). There’s a raw aggressiveness to Velvet Revolver’s music we don’t hear much anymore. A little hair metal. Some grunge. Despite smuggling in a few good social statements, Contraband gets busted for raw language and moral indiscretions.
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