The Verve Pipe made their major-label debut under the direction of producer Jerry Harrison with Villains, recasting themselves in the inauspicious mold of a post-grunge act. On an initial listen, the album does little to distinguish itself from the masses, though patient revisiting reveals a band of more depth, with Brian Vander Ark's songwriting improving vastly over previous albums and more subtle aspects, like the tasteful organic keyboard arrangements, actually adding texture and dimensi...   [ read more ]

CD $6.63

The Verve Pipe were one of the handful of post-grunge bands that had a hit in the mid- to late '90s that was ubiquitous, and then had the bottom suddenly fall out from underneath them. That hit, of course, was "The Freshmen," a pained, earnest mid-tempo dissection of a relationship gone wrong that the band's lead singer/songwriter, Brian Vander Ark, wrote years before the Verve Pipe had formed. Starting as an acoustic ballad, by the time it turned into a radio hit it was given a brooding ...   [ read more ]

CD $7.58