Veruca Salt - "Rub Her Soul"

Veruca Salt seemed to have a lot going for it. Fronted by Louise Post and Nina Gordon, the group alternated from catchy power pop to grunge, perfect for the '90s. However, since Gordon's more pop-oriented music ended up on the radio and MTV, friction may have been inevitable. 

Gordon left the group in 1998 for a solo career, and Post continued with Veruca Salt with all new members other than herself. Both released new albums in 2000. It occurred to me that if you took the best of both albums, you could have something that might resemble what a third album by the group could have been had the split not happened.

1. Same Person
2. Alone With You
3. Wet Suit
4. Like It Happens Everyday
5. Yeah Man
6. Unsafe at Any Speed
7. Imperfectly
8. Number One Camera
9. Officially Dead
10. Badway
11. Hellraiser
12. Tonight and the Rest of My Life

To narrow down the choices, I decided against Post's "Born Entertainer" and "Only You Know" and Gordon's "Black and Blonde" as they seem to be angry bashes of each other.

I think it's interesting that Gordon seems to have shied away from the pop-rock that had been successful with Veruca Salt, and instead focused on ballads. Three of her more rock-oriented songs didn't make the cut for her solo debut. But I've included two -- "Alone with You" and "Unsafe at Any Speed" -- here as they both would have made good Veruca Salt songs, I think. I also took the two most rocking songs from the solo album -- "Badway" and "Number One Camera." Finally, I also added "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" since it was the album's title cut.

From Resolver, the Veruca Salt album that Post released on her own, I chose "Same Person," "Wet Suit," "Yeah Man," "Imperfectly," "Officially Dead" and "Hellraiser" as I think they are the best of the bunch. 

And then it was simply a matter of weaving the songs together to make a nice 12-track album. To my ears, this is a better result than the two albums that were released. I like the alternating lead vocalists and the combination of hard rock and power pop that was Veruca Salt's signature.

Since Veruca Salt used plays on Beatles titles as well as some song references, I did the same here by titling it Rub Her Soul. For a cover, I found this image of boot prints by Gavin Turk and added the titles.