Scott Weiland
(Softdrive/New West/Red/Sony)
Running from Velvet Revolver like a moose in a forest fire, Scott Weiland seems to have found his unhappy place in Galoshes. Like his underrated solo effort of 1998, 12 Bar Blues, Weiland takes to sadness' sweet soul with a sort-of ruinous passion - a real Death in Venice glam-slam and psych-pop vision with but several thick hints of Germanic Waits-ian floppy boot-stomping for good, I mean, real bad luck.
It's not as big, brassy or layered as 12. But that doesn't mean "Missing Cleveland" and the slurrier "She Sold Her System" aren't potently riff-heavy and droning. While Weiland gains points for aping Elvis Costello on the barbed-wire wonk of "Blind Confusion" he shockingly loses by screwing up the obvious - Bowie's "Fame."
No matter. There's plenty of surprises to j'adore on Happy (bossa Scott doing the samba on "Killing Me Sweetly"? wow) and that he's odd of the ever-bland Velvet Revolver (shame; their first CD was solid arena rock at its haughtiest), things can only get wetter.
Standout Tracks: "She
Sold Her System," "Blind Confusion" A.D. AMOROSI
