Vent 414 - Vent 414

On paper this should be a cracking album. But therein lies the problem. How many times have things seemed to make total sense on paper only to find that during the transformation into a physical form something goes wrong? History is littered with them; communism, the England football team, pop tarts and stringy cheese..... the list goes on.....

So what happened? Everything seemed to make sense; Miles Hunt, from the recently disbanded The Wonder Stuff, forms a rock orientated band and enlists Billy Duffy and Pete Howard to help out. So far so fantastic. Then get Steve Albini to produce the debut album (by which time Duffy had left). What could go wrong? Nothing as far as I was concerned as I rushed out and bought the album on day of release. 

I knew from reading articles in the press that this was going to be a rock album so I was prepared. Anyone who was expecting cow sized antics would've been totally baffled. But I liked The Cult, Nirvana and other 'rawk' bands so it should've been well within my listening spectrum.  It wasn't. It came across as raw, loud, tuneless, angry and ..... well quite frankly rubbish. What on earth was Miles playing at? To rub salt into the wound, Miles went on record stating that "This is the best band I have ever been in", or words to that effect. To the thousands of loyal Stuffies fans this was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Vent 414 were about as far removed from indie pop as I was from becoming the Queen of England.

How could this be? Perhaps it was me? Maybe I just didn't get it. Surely I can't have wasted my £13.99 of an Miles Hunt album that I didn't like? Yes that's it - I just need to adjust to this new sound. But after several attempts to listen and like the album I gained nothing but a headache and a growing sense of disappointment. So I did what any decent person would do and recommend it to a friend. Well I needed a second opinion didn't I. With my glowing review passed on to NR I waited for his opinion. If anyone was going to appreciate the album it was him; he had a penchant for loud rock, was a fan of The Cult and The Wonder Stuff.......

....he was not impressed; with the album but particularly with me for making him waste is money. But at least I now had my opinion. It was official, the debut album from Vent 414 was rubbish and could be consigned to the shelf for ever.....

....until today that is. One of the reasons I started this project was that I knew Vent 414 was languishing on the bottom shelf (I have my record stored in alphabetic order obviously) in the attic. The time would come when I would give it another go. Maybe with more mature/deafer ears this might not be the ordeal it was in 1995. Well....... it's not as bad as I remember. There are some half decent songs on the album, 'Fixer', 'At The Base of the Fire' and 'Laying Down With You' but they are so LOUD THAT YOU CAN'T HEAR YOURSELF THINK. But I didn't hate every minute of it. So I'm starting to wonder if it is me. Again. Right what I need is a third opinion. Any takers?