I distinctly remember spinning VR’s debut album Contraband over and over again the summer it came out. In fact, as I recall, I juxtaposed it with the Scorpion’s Unbreakable. Now, I note that I can reel off the track listing for the Scorps and can still sing all the songs. Do you know what I remember about Contraband? Noting at all. Even scanning the cover doesn’t really help. Ergo, I’m looking for this to be a great improvement … but sadly, it isn’t. I would be extremely surprised if this band would get a major label deal if they weren’t whom they were. 

There is some enjoyable material on Libertad and of course the guitars are excellent. The first six songs are all very good and their choruses are more memorable than anything off the debut but from there on in everything goes to Dullsville. Pills, Demons & Etc is my pick of the bunch as the best song whilst Mary Mary just doesn’t hack it for me despite the dirty sound generated by Slash and co. 

For A Brother is apparently about Scott Weiland losing his own brother to a drug overdose and this is perhaps the only time that a Weiland vocal has ever moved me. It is also much the better for being a rocker and not the maudlin effort that one may well have expected given the subject matter. The cover of ELO’s Can’t Get it out of My Head is surprisingly good and shows what a good song it is stripped of the ELO’s over produced sound. 

The album proper ends with Spray and Gravedancer and I could easily deal with never hearing either of these inessential efforts again and it is at that point that I became somewhat confused. On some versions of the album here are extra songs tagged on as bonus tracks and one of these needs commenting on. 'Talking Heads’ seminal Psycho Killer, appears on the iTunes version of the album and is one of the funkiest, taut and generally great songs of the late twentieth century. Here, VR have turned it into a lumpen, plodding mess. This is quite a depressing trick to be fair. Yuck. 

Now, as we all know, opinions are like arseholes but in mine, VR have now had two shots at combining their various talents to make a cohesive memorable album and on both occasions they haven’t quite cut the mustard. Whether or not they get a third chance may well depend on the success of Chinese Democracy, whenever it finally gets released. If that stiffs the pressure will truly be on for a Roses revival.