BANDS:

Punk & Ska
80's New Wave/
Post-Punk/
College Bands
90's & Beyond
Virginia, North
Carolina, & DC

Clara Venus: Greatest Hurts
[self-released]

Like Bob Dylan covering Paul Westerberg B-sides, though not quite as good as it sounds, Clara Venus Greatest Hurts is no less a formidable rock album, decent from start to finish, with the occasional song like Candy Cigarettes to suggest a band flirting with greatness.

It is their best song and is remarkably effortless for an album featuring a lot of riffs and gritty vocals (imagine Soundgardens The Day I Tried to Live with Pearl Jams Black, minus the stadium hook).  It bleeds right into Rolling in the Wrong Direction, another song that finds them in top form the two-part chorus of I think Im rolling in the wrong direction, followed by a nifty little guitar hook is a mini-highlight.

There are wonderful moments all over, in fact: the unconscious middle-eight on Doesnt Work Right, the frenetic percussion of Secret, the guitars on everything, but songs like Dont Call It Love, Talk, and Liar underpin the records nagging limitation: these are songs that are as good as it gets without being great.  Is that so bad?  Not at all.  The albums a keeper, to be sure, but how often itll be in the rotation without a song like Bastards of Young, Androgynous, or even I.O.U remains to be seen.

Clara Venus Official Website

Check Amazon, Insound and CD Universe to purchase this album.

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