Every supergroup, by their very nature, carry a large amount of baggage right from their inception. And Velvet Revolver, with their choice of Scott ‘Can’t Stay Off the H’ Weiland as their frontman, exacerbated the problem. There was more talk about the politics and issues that the band faced than there was about the music. Especially so after the debut proved to be very mediocre. However, ‘Libertad’ seems to be about erasing all of that.

I’ve always been a fan of Weiland. Stone Temple Pilots has long been a critically underrated act and I never got the Pearl Jam comparisons. And it goes without saying that the GnR guys changed the face of music when the unleashed ‘Appetite’. But somehow I knew that Velvet Revolver’s debut was not going to click with me. Luckily, the new album can restore some of my faith in the possibilities of this band.

Velvet Revolver seem, for the first time, to be settling in and getting comfortable playing with each other. The debut sounded a lot like the GnR guys had put together some solid sounding songs and then brought in an uncomfortable hired gun to stamp on some lyrics and vocals. This release finds Scott along with the rest of the band gelling and basically just kicking back and doing their thing. No worries about success or failure, just having fun writing some songs. And it works!

‘Libertad’ has everything you could ask for in a rock solid release. Catchy melodies abound. Clever, well-balanced and fresh sounding arrangements. And, of course, Slash being Slash by igniting every song with killer riff after killer riff. And he still knows exactly when to lay back and let the vocals take the forefront and when to ‘turn it up to 11′.

Of course it’s not a perfect album, as you can tell by the track ‘Spay’ which sounds far too much like a holdover from ‘Contraband’, but it will definitely be spending some time on my player and once again gets me looking forward to many more albums from this band. Screw ‘Chinese Democracy’.