Tuesday September 25, 2001

Underneath

(RCA)

Grade: C-

At its best, rock music is a rebellion, a reaction against the stifling norms of a culture grown stagnant.

Rock shook up picket-fence America in the 1950s, driving lust, longing and dirt back into our culture with each forbidden gyration of Elvis' pelvis.

In the '60s, artists like Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane hipped mainstream America to the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll of a new generation and left a permanently changed culture in their wake.

The Sex Pistols and the Clash rocked the '70s, smashing yawning holes in that decade's complacent, self-indulgent rock scene with the urgency of their raw four-chord assault.

And 10 years ago, Nirvana dropped Nevermind, a scorching album that introduced "alternative rock" to the masses and sent rock-by-numbers groups like Poison packing.

The problem with revolutions, however, is that they stagnate, ultimately becoming exactly what they sought to destroy.

Which brings us to Underneath, the latest album from the Verve Pipe. Anyone seeking insight into the world of rock 10 years post-Nirvana need look no further than this uninspired offering. The Verve Pipe could probably loosely be considered "alternative," to the extent that that tired label retains any meaning. But a stronger contrast to Nirvana's angry iconoclasm hardly seems possible.

Underneath is nothing if not safe. Vocalist Brian Vander Ark strings out platitude after platitude, crafting unambitious little tunes about love, girls and feelings tailor-made for today's mass-marketed rock radio.

This isn't really bad music - in order to truly suck, a group must take chances, and The Verve Pipe does nothing of the sort. The band's tuneful, melodic rock is impeccably produced and doesn't sound particularly disagreeable. But it's completely irrelevant and completely flavorless. If this is where the "alternative revolution" has ended up, rock needs a new shake-up fast.