If there's a touch of irony anywhere on this record, it's in the cover art. A rather playful series of references to the Velvet Underground, it puts the reverence for rock and roll's past that Velvet Crush mainmen Ric Menck and Paul Chastain on full display, but it turns out they chose the wrong band to pay homage to. The Velvet Underground were all fiery confrontation, restless exploration and urban decay, and the Velvet Crush are really none of that; if anything, they're revivalist, pious, and utterly suburban. But they did get one thing right on the cover of their latest album, and that's the title.
Soft Sounds abound on this, their fifth proper full-length, and first since 1999. Long gone is the hyperactive jangle and thick guitar sound that propelled 1994's Teenage Symphonies to God and their other early records, replaced instead with a piano-dominated sound that perhaps reflects older age and deeper thought, but doesn't excite quite as much. It's not nearly as extreme as, say, Eric Carmen leaving the Raspberries and recording \x93All By Myself\x94, but it's sort of the same idea.
Even with the change in sound, the Crush keep it in the Me decade, as evidenced by the Badfinger/America/Big Star harmonies and Leslied guitar that pop up on the slow-gaited opener \x93Staying Found\x94. \x93Don't Take Me Dowx94 is the sole look back at the band's early nineties basement days, Paul Chastaix92s gentle tenor sounding just as good today as it did when he relocated from Champaign-Urbana to Rhode Island over a decade ago. Menck grabs the mic for a heavily countrified take on the Boxtops' \x93Rollix92 in My Sleep\x94 that lays yet another wreath at the Shrine of Chilton, but never approaches his ragged delivery.
A pair of additional covers reveal where the boys' musical heads have been lately, though they bring everything they touch right back to their own middle ground. Their take on Fleetwood Mac's \x93Save Me a Place\x94-- originally on that band's wild Tusk-- could almost be counted radical for the way it reins the song in and makes it sound conventional (for a recent version closer in spirit, if not sound, to the original, check out Camper Van Beethovex92s version on their full-length cover of the entire Tusk album). Stranger is their version of Scott Walker's \x93Duchess\x94, which oddly sounds almost exactly like \x93Knockix92 on Heavex92s Door\x94. Chastain does his best, but only a few vocalists can handle Scott Walker truly well, and he really isn't one of them.
Looming huge in the background throughout the album is Matthew Sweet, who recorded Soft Sounds over the course of a couple years and plays a host of instruments. Though he leaves the spotlight to the band (as any producer should), and his voice blends seamlessly into most of the harmonies, there are times when you can definitely pick out his guitar. With so many fey tenors going at once, comparisons to Grand Prix-era Teenage Fanclub are apt, while \x93Some Kind of Light\x94 is a veritable Ocean Blue tainted with Quaaludes.
In the final equation, the Velvet Crush wear their new, more velvety sound well-- flourishes like the jazzy arrangement of \x93Party Line (Samba)\x94 are definitely welcome-- but it would be nice to get more than just one old-fashioned hit of jangle. Teenage Symphonies... is still their best, even all these years later, but Soft Sounds is a fine record on its own merit, sure to earn repeat listens now and then.
