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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Contraband, the debut album from Velvet Revolver, arrives with both a great deal of expectation and a great deal of baggage. That's the trouble with "supergroups": there's always the difficulty of stepping out of the shadows of the members' previous bands, and keeping old fans happy while appealing to new ones. Lead singer Scott Weiland gets off easy: he used to be in Stone Temple Pilots, widely regarded as an adequate, second-string rock band (in spite of selling millions of records in their native USA) due to the simple fact that they tended towards mediocrity. Not so his new bandmates Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, who as members of Guns 'n' Roses raised the standard for rock music in the early 1990s.
Judged against G 'n' R's peak, Contraband can't fail to disappoint. But it's important to remember that even Guns 'n' Roses never recaptured their Appetite for Destruction heyday, and at the very least, Contraband is better than The Spaghetti Incident. Sure, there are a number of tracks that sound too much like contemporary American, radio-friendly rock-by-numbers, but "Do It for the Kids" and "Big Machine" recall UK rock stalwarts the Wildhearts, with shouted lyrics and punky guitars. "Fall to Pieces" is a classic lighters-in-the-air ballad, all emotional build up and crashing crescendo, while "Set Me Free" boasts one of Slash's best-ever guitar riffs (no mean feat for the man behind "Sweet Child of Mine"). The pleasures of Contraband aren't always immediate, but they are there. It's just that they're often buried under the weight of the band members' histories. --Robert Burrow
This album comes with three randomly selected cover colours.
Album Description
This CD is available in three different coloured covers--white, red and black.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
i'm a huge fan of guns n' roses to start with. But as from today i'm officialy a bigger fan of velvet revolver. I've been listening to contraband for the past week on MTV's official website and its simply an amazing rock album. It kicks off with the punky "sucker train blues" which has a catchy bassline intro that'll stick deep into your head. The first 5 songs will rock you to the bone but then suddenly this down-spiralling riff from slash invites you to share what I think will be the song to catch everybodys attention to this band. With the name "Fall to Pieces" this is a beatiful power ballad that has a another catchy chorus and amazing guitar solo. This isn't the only ballad on the album, there's 3 in total. The other 2 are amazing too, with really strong lyrics and beautiful melodies. Other hard rockers include "Dirty Little Thing" (with a speedy solo) and "Slither" (this is probably the best heavy one on the album). If your sick of buying albums with 1 or 2 good songs, then the rest are crap... then fork out the cash for this one because believe me this doesn't fail to deliver!! There's at least 11 strong tracks on this album. Definately worth every penny!
P.S i forgot to mention the track "Loving the Aliens" very emotional track, really really good song
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Firstly, Contraband is an excellent album. Despite the group being made up of several ex-Guns N' Roses members, the sound is refreshingly modern rock. Excellent tracks on the album include Slither, Sucker Train Blues, You Got No Right, Fall To Pieces... the list goes on. In fact, the only track I'm not fond of is Loving the Alien - it's very slow in contrast to the rest of the album.
However, if you're looking at the import version, the chances are you already own Contraband and are looking for something extra for your collection. The three bonus tracks Surrender, No More No More and Negative Creep are all quite good. Not a patch on the rest of the Contraband album, but worthwhile having. They are all covers of other band's music (for instance, No More No More was originally recorded by Aerosmith) but Velvet Revolver have put their own take on it. Best track is probably Surrender, but if you're in the mood for a heavy, driving metal song, Negative Creep is the one! One small disadvantage is that the UK Bonus Track, Bodies, is not present on this album. I know, it's an import, but Bodies is a good song.
The videos are pretty much as you'd expect - not particularly high quality and they're just the Music Videos for Slither and Fall To Pieces. A "behind the scenes look" would have been nice, but of course they're limited to one CD.
The major advantage to this release, however, is the lack of BMG Copy Protection that's on the UK and European versions of Contraband. This means that you can listen to the CD on your PC or Mac, and it's not got those annoying "sparks" of sound. It's also possible to import the music to your MP3 player, so if that's what you're after then this is an excellent CD to buy.
In summary: Great CD1, CD2 is ok but worth having if you're a collector, and both CDs are an improvement if you find the BMG Copy Control restrictive.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Audioslave set the recent benchmark for what could be achieved by taking a singer from one late, great rock band (although Stone Temple Pilots were never in the same league as Guns N Roses, or, with regard to Audioslave, Soundgarden) and the guitarists and drummers from another seminal rock band.
Perfectly timed to steal the thunder from the inadequate GNR best of, Contraband fulfils all the promise the line up offered. Full of huge guitar licks and memorable solos (well, if Slash couldn't still leave an imprint on an album, who could?) and with Scott Weiland's voice providing an edge of authentic 'rock' - all deep throaty venom, but capable too (on Fall to Pieces for example) of a satisfying change of pace - Velvet Revolver prove that some bands can indeed match the hype.
As has been said, basically if you love Slither, then this is the album for you.
Good to see Weiland actually making headlines for music and not for failed rehab attempts / arrests too. Seeing his skeletal frame gyrate around in the Slither video shows that 'heavy' rock's own Mick Jagger - check the hip wiggling! - is back on that ball.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Contraband - Velvet Revolver
Took quite a while to get around to buying this album, having wanted to since hearing "Slither" on the radio. Have to say I'm glad I did. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Foxtrot Oscar
Rubbish
My pc could only see the dvd side of the disc and my laptop decided to score a perfect circle on the disc when I tried it in that. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Mr. S. Godbolt
Spectacular return of the Gunsmen
I personally stayed away from this album until now probably because it was so hyped up and huge on release. Read more
Published on 15 May 2010 by Franz Kiffka
Breath of Fresh Air.
Can people get over the fact the appetite will never happen again that was Guns N Roses and this Velvet Revolver and what a hell of a band. Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2010 by J. Arthur
confusing
Good music but didn't realise from the description that it also contained a DVD. My computer and Bose system didn't recognise it so fairly pointless DVD sadly. Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2009 by Mrs. D. Billings
A missed opportunity
I bought this with enough of an open mind to not expect it to be GnR Mark 2(000?). Unfortunately I was correct; this is a poor album. Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Mr. B. Gray
Perfect mix of STP & GNR . Rock genius ....
I want to start by saying i will always be a fan of Scott Weiland , whatever he does . Stone Temple Pilots were and still are a superb rock band and Guns N'Roses are still an... Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2008 by M. ODonnell
Velvert revolver
This is my 3rd fav album ever behind appetite and use your illusions 1. If you listen to something once then decided if you like it or not then its not for you as it is a grower... Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2007 by Shoe2190
A top quality hard rock album
I'd heard a great deal about Velvet Revolver, however, being a GNR fan of the old school I was weary of listening to anything that may be just a second rate GNR clone. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2007 by Jim
More like Velsh*t Revolver
One of the worst cd's I have the misfortune to own. And that Included Matchbox Twenty's "Mad Season". Read more
Published on 2 Aug 2007 by Craig Davis
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