Veruca Salt - Eight Arms To Hold You (1997)

In case the AC/DC allusion in the title of American Thighs didn't clue you in, the balls-to-the-wall crunch of Eight Arms to Hold You makes it clear that Veruca Salt were always closet metal fans. Sure, the album's title was the working title for Help!, and there's an endearing love note to David Bowie on the record, but the album couldn't sound further from the British Invasion or gender-bending art rock if it had been recorded by the Prodigy. Thanks to producer Bob Rock, every song on the record is powered by fully rounded heavy guitars and big, big drums -- a sound that went out of style in 1990. Beneath it all, Nina Gordon and Louise Post still have a knack for charming, singsong melodies, but only occasionally do these songs call for bombastic production. Those that do, like the infectious "Seether" rewrite, "Volcano Girls," qualify as guilty pleasures, but too often, the songs are buried by heavy guitars. Veruca Salt sound awkward when they try to rock out.