Archers of Loaf – Vee Vee
By
Jesse E. Mullen
Vee Vee is without a doubt the Archers at their peak. With
the album utilizing a more unified, and fleshed out (though no less intense)
sound than Icky Mettle, they tackle their songs with a flat, dry production, preserving
all of the energy of the four musicians, and giving us the closest recorded
effort to sounding like one of their live shows (excluding Seconds Before
The Accident, and Curse of the Loaf of course, the two actual
live albums put out by the group.) Highlights include the hard-hitting melodic,
alternately tuned "Harnessed In Slums," the majestic "Greatest
of All Time," which predates Pavement's similarly low e-string heavy
ballad "Grounded" by a month. Also, the mellow, slightly experimental
"Floating Friends" seems to point to the sparser, sound fx heavy
material on the loaf's last two albums, All The Nation's Airports and White
Trash Heroes. The guitar interplay between Eric Bachmann and Eric Johnson has
not waned in the two years between Vee Vee and their debut (Icky Mettle.) They
continue to use their counter melodies in beautiful and aggressive ways, and
although not a lot has changed on that front, they've had it perfected since
the beginning. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Alias Records/1995
