Following an ‘intense’ five years playing bass with Courtney Love’s band Hole, and twelve months on the Smashing Pumpkins farewell tour, Canadian Melissa Auf der Maur is launching out on her own. 2004 is already turning out to be quite an interesting release year with strong albums from David Kitt and Woodstar already done and dusted. This album continues to up the stakes.

On reading the notes that accompanied the album, I noticed that notables such as producer Chris Goss and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme (who’s name has been cropping up all over the place) were involved. Other collaborators include Brandt Bjork (Kyuss), Eric Erlandson (Hole) and James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins). With this level of rock musicianship, one would be forgiven for thinking it could be a great record. It is…

The record opens in adventurous sonic fashion with Lighting Is My Girl. The first thirty seconds are taken up by swooping electronics and rock instrumental sounds, before Melissa’s voice comes into play. It’s an attractive, clean-cut, young voice that contrasts well with a song on the heavier side of the rock spectrum. A great start, but it gets even better with the rampant Followed By Waves that hits you like a bullet. It’s distinctive, and with a darker and more expressive vocal from Melissa that puts the seal on the album’s highlight.

Real A Lie follows and sustains the rocky vibe and quality of what’s on offer here. The song finishes on some spectacular vocal harmonies, and dies away with distant keyboard notes and Melissa’s slowly fading voice. Excellent. Melissa has pulled off the extremely difficult trick here: to create an album that sets itself apart from the rest in a market that has become boringly homogenous. The pace and mood are diverse, although the general vibe is various shades of dark. Production wise, the album sounds wonderful and has to be one of Chris Goss’s best achievements, especially in the way he has managed the many complex sounds on the album (including many wonderful instrumental moments), while allowing the vocal space to breathe. As a rock songwriter (albeit with very strong collaboration partners) Melissa has created an album that deserves to heard and bought in very large numbers. I’m hoping to witness Auf der Maur perform shortly in Manchester so watch this space!

4.5/5