The Verve Pipe were hit hard by the sophomore slump, and frankly, their major-label debut didn't treat them all that well, either. As produced by Jerry Harrison, brought the group too firmly within the post-grunge masses, even if it did result in a commercial breakthrough -- but that was with 'The Freshman,' an old song, one that was a favorite as they played college bars around Michigan. The follow-up to tried to break from that album and the stigma of 'The Freshman' by having producer Michael Beinhorn give the group an overly slick, overly serious sound. Like other Beinhorn productions of 1998-1999, it seemed commercial, but it didn't play that way -- and since the Verve Pipe didn't have the push that Hole and Marilyn Manson had with their Beinhorn albums, they were stuck with a sophomore flop. Two years off and a substantial revamping later, the Verve Pipe re-emerged with, a record that was considerably different from the Beinhorn album and Villians -- in fact, it returned the group to the sound of their early, self-released albums, showcasing a guitar pop band born and raised on college rock bands like R.E.M., XTC, and H端sker D端. Much of the credit has to go to the first successful matching of band and producer, since they're working with Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, himself an underground pop guru who knows how to make clean, economical, good-sounding records that play to a band's strengths. He never smothers the group in modern sounds, heavy guitars, or anything that stands the way in the songs, letting the band glide on ballads and churn out the rockers.

The Verve Pipe - Underneath music CD album at CD Universe, The Verve Pipe Brian Vander Ark vocals, guitar; AJ Dunning guitar, background vocals; Doug.

They sound more natural than they ever have on record, and Brian Vander Ark and Donny Brown respond by their best set of songs. It helps immensely that Vander Ark splits the writing duties with Brown, since the drummer is as talented a writer as the frontman, and it results in a tight, 11-song album that showcases their strengths as craftsmen and a journeyman alt-rock band. Is a mature album by a band raised on classic '80s college rock, and while that may not necessarily be the sound of 2001, it should please many listeners who grew up on the same bands as the Verve Pipe.

In April 1996, my freshman year of college, Verve Pipe performed live. They'd just released their major label debut, Villains, the previous month and the song Photograph was starting to get some serious airplay (at least in their native Michigan, where I was attending college). I purchased Villains and later their Indie label debut EP, I've Suffered A Head Injury and their 2nd release, Pop Smear. Other than a few tracks I really didn't get what all the fuss was about. For the next few years I was content to ignore them. Their next eponymous release wasn't even a blip on my radar in 1999.

Then in 2002, I stumbled upon one of the songs from Underneath and I had to hear more. At a small out of the way music store in an out of the way strip mall in Elyria, Ohio I picked up a used copy of Underneath-- and the money was very well spent. Fast Blog Finder 3 0 2 Crackers. Unlike their other albums which were lukewarm at best, Underneath was a prize. One of those rare CDs with not a bad track on it, a solid effort from start to finish. Now when I put this CD on, I'm transported back to cool spring and summer nights of solitude as I was trying to find my way back to me after getting lost somewhere along the way a few months before. Along with Dream Theater's Awake album this CD was my emotional road map that led me back to the person I'd somehow forgotten I was. I'm a perpetually puzzling and persistently pleasant person.