Veruca Salt - Eight Arms to Hold You

Having made their name on a lo fi Chicago indie record, Veruca Salt did the least indie thing imaginable for the follow up: they hired Bob Rock, the man who made Metallica's black album, and let him build the biggest sounding rock record of 1997.

It absolutely works. "Volcano Girls" opens with a riff that could fill an arena and contains a lyric explicitly explaining the seether from the first album, which is either a joke or a taunt depending on your mood. "Shutterbug" is faster and meaner. "Straight" and "Don't Make Me Prove It" are under two and a half minutes each and hit like punches. "With David Bowie" is a Louise Post song that has almost nothing to do with David Bowie and everything to do with wanting out.

The tension between Nina Gordon and Post is audible across the whole record and Gordon left the band shortly afterward, which turned Eight Arms into a document of something falling apart at exactly the point it sounded most powerful. It has aged considerably better than its commercial reception suggested it would.

Geffen and UMe 180 gram black vinyl reissue, lacquers cut by Ian Sefchick and pressed at Rainbo Records.