Veruca Salt month concludes.
We've been celebrating this month's release of Ghost Notes, the latest album from Veruca Salt. The album is the first from the band in nine years and the first from the original line-up in eighteen.
We've had most of a month to digest and enjoy the new music. I've spent lunch hours texting fellow Salty Jenny about this track or that song and plenty of extra time on the road between here or there, taking the long way so I could squeeze in one more listen. The most exciting and surprising aspect of the new release is, simply, the thing is good. Really good.
Our first taste from two Record Store Days (MMXIV) back showed us the band had at least one excellent track in them. Even that could have been too much to ask for, as it's not unheard of for the return of an old favorite to lead to nostalgic disappointment, with the new music just not able to match up with the memories of old.
But we have something special here, not just a single, but an entire album of great tracks, equaling and possibly even surpassing the band of old. It's packed with music as energetic and spirited as the same tracks blasting from my 16-year-old self's car speakers in my high school days. But this is no rehash. The emotional history of the band (and the maturity that springs from it) is ever present, lifting the music into brand new territory.