Libertad
by Velvet Revolver
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Album details
US: 3 July 2007 on RCA
UK: 2 July 2007 on RCA
The Brendan O’Brien-produced ‘Libertad’ is the second release for the "supergroup" of vocalist Scott Weiland, bassist Duff McKagan, and guitarist Slash.
The critical consensus
The consensus? It’s better than the debut. So says Billboard, All Music Guide, Amazon, and other critics. Dotmusic says "it’s got all the DNA of a pure-bred rock classic," and AMG finds Libertad both more energetic and more "cohesive" than Contraband. Billboard adds that it "builds on the strengths" of the debut, and that "a terrible cover of ELO’s Can’t Get It Out of My Head is the lone stumble on this thoroughly satisfying second effort." Entertainment Weekly also hates that ELO cover, but invites listeners to "stop pining for a new Guns N’ Roses release, break out your air guitars, and bask in the glory of Libertad." (The Hartford Courant likes that ELO cover, by the way.) In an approving review, The Onion AV Club finds the album excessive, but says "the excess may be exactly what makes these songs work."
Of course, "better than the debut" doesn’t always translate to "good." Spin hears "songs that are punchier and a bit more memorable" than Contraband’s, but still doesn’t care much for the album. Artist Direct says the disc is "a solid set of sleazy dive-bar rockers, but its quality only stands out because of the relative lameness of the supergroup’s contemporaries." The Boston Globe finds the band’s chemistry lacking, saying "they don’t click so much as they compromise." Aversion calls out the album for not going above and beyond: "Velvet Revolver seems more than happy to plop itself into a holding pattern, reliving the big, bad rock riffs and sweaty dynamics without adding to them." Mojo doesn’t dislike the music ("Rock, in all its generic McStoopidity, gets no better in 2007"), but declares that Weiland is certainly no Axl Rose. PopMatters discounts the album as "bland," saying "everything new is simply an amplified version of what came before, to little avail." And The New York Times works the phrases "outdated flamboyance" "bad lyrics" and "pole-dancer rock" into a negative review.
This album blows the doors off its predecessor.
-Amazon.com
Review roundup
- Dotmusic, 9/10
- All Music Guide, 3.5/5
- Amazon
- BBC
- Billboard [7 Jul 2007]
- Blender [Jul 2007, p.119], 3.5/5
- Entertainment Weekly, A-
- Harp
- Hartford Courant
- Hot Press, 7/10
- The Onion AV Club, B+
- Rolling Stone [9 Aug 2007, p.90], 3.5/5
- San Francisco Chronicle, 3/4
- Sputnikmusic, 3.5/5
- Uncut [Aug 2007, p.118], 3/5
- Artist Direct, 3/5
- Austin Chronicle, 2/5
- Aversion, 3/5
- Boston Globe
- Chart Attack
- IGN, 6.9/10
- Mojo [Jul 2007, p.106], 3/5
- PopMatters, 5/10
- Spin [Jul 2007, p.104], 2.5/5
- Washington Post
- Glorious Noise
- The New York Times [2 Jul 2007]
Tracklisting and media
- Let It Roll
- She Mine
- Get Out The Door
- She Builds Quick Machines
- The Last Fight
- Pills, Demons & Etc.
- American Man
- Mary Mary
- Just Sixteen
- Can’t Get It Out Of My Head
- For A Brother
- Spay
- Gravedancer
- Re-Evolution
Thanks for gathering so many reviews. But it seems you’ve posted a lot of the bad ones without including some important good ones, like (a) the New York Post, 4/4 stars; (b) the San Francisco Chronicle, “year’s best rock record”; (c) Cinemablend “Libertad–a super record”; (d) AP, “Libertad” might just be THE rock record of the summer”; and (e) USA Today, 3/4 stars “Suprisingly Successful Second Set”
Thanks for the extra links. Note that those reviews were not included because, to be fair, we utilize the same 80 or so publications for each album included on the site, and those publications are not among the ones we currently track. (Of course, you wouldn’t know that, since we haven’t bothered to post a list of our publications yet… that’s definitely our fault!) Also, we will be adding the S.F. Chronicle to our group of publications later this week, so we’ll add their review of Libertad when we do.
Thanks for your reply & addition of the S.F. Chronicle. But your omission of the USA Today (3/4) and AP reviews is curious to me because USA Today has the largest circulation of all newspapers in the U.S., and the AP review (which I’d approximate as a 4/4) has been picked up and reprinted in dozens of regional papers plus YahooNews and MSN. It seems incongruous that the less-widely circulated NYTimes review, plainly an outlier, goes unchecked by these very favorable reviews from similar publications.
Note also the stellar BBC review, http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/34p2/ “Libertad is the ever-maturing sound of a truly great rock ‘n’ roll band: Let it roll!”