Veruca Salt: Eight Arms To Hold You

The first 22 raw, feedback-drenched seconds of Veruca Salt's new Eight Arms To Hold You send a clear message: The band is ready to rock. Unfortunately, the remaining 50 minutes and 41 seconds retreat rapidly from that aim. Eight Arms To Hold You is cookie-cut from the sophomore-slump mold: The muscular riffing and sour-sweet vocals that carried the band's debut American Thighs are here, but they're bleached of their charm by overhead-smash production and an annoying jauntiness that makes some tracks gratingly unlistenable. The album's not a total letdown: Between the hyper-friendly radio tracks and some misguided power-balladry, there are bright spots, mostly when leads Louise Post and Nina Gordon let the snarl show through the shine. And there's a firm, pouty sexiness that pervades the record—though on an album this glam-powered, the lust should lead, not follow.