Verbana – Into The Pink

Verbana
Artist: Verbana
Title: Into The Pink
Label: Capitol
Rating: 5/10

This is how Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl described Verbena’s album: “It’s a return to good rock music… they have a great spirit and energy along with really catchy tunes. It’s like a nasty, sexy Rolling Stones meets Debbie Does Dallas tuned down to a C.” Grohl has some interest invested in this record; he produced the album. And it sounds like it too. The album owes a lot to Nirvana and a little to the Foo Fighters.

Verbena is made up of Anne Marie Griffin on guitar, bass and vocals, Les Nuby on drums, and Scott Bondy on guitar and vocals. Their songs are tightly knit with Bondy fronting the group and Griffin adding harmony and unity to otherwise loose songs. Bondy has a gritty yet smooth voice that could be compared to Kurt Cobain, but his voice doesn’t have as much soul as Cobain’s once did. The songs are mostly pop with distorted guitars. Nothing really new here. Griffin’s contribution to vocals, especially on “In The Pink”, makes this album just a bit better than most of the alternative bands out there who are trying to keep their genre alive.

“Baby Got Shot” opens with a throbbing bass line that has an old school punk sound to it. Even when they go from punk to pop, they never leave their rock ‘n’ roll skills behind. “John Beverly” is the most Nirvana-ish track but is also one of their best tracks. “Pretty Please” has a feverish bass line and sounds like what you might have expected to hear at CBGB’s about two decades ago. “Depression Is A Fashion” is nothing more than a PIL rip. “Black Skies, Black Rainbows” is the album’s ballad but doesn’t quite come off well.

If you liked Nirvana’s Bleach, you will probably enjoy Verbena’s Into The Pink. Each song is a short, concise rock track with choruses that command attention. The problem is that the album often seems a bit monotonous, especially as you get closer to the end. The guitars rage on occasion, the drums snap and crack, and the bass thumps, but the vocals never stray far enough to test their potential. And as with the vocals goes the entire album.

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