Couldn’t Stand the Weather

Could be ever so slightly more "dirty", but as far as blues rock goes, this is top-notch stuff. SVR follows up a good album with an equally good and entertaining one. His tone sits between a rusty chain and a well-kept Cadillac, with slight calculated missteps that create atmosphere. He's one of those rare characters who can slob on the guitar and not make me claw my ears out.

One point of criticism was that SVR couldn't write for shit and relied on covers, particularly covers of Hendrix. That's a fair knock, though he still had enough in him to pen a few tracks with real staying power, like the title track and Honey Bee. Still, the album's true highlights are the covers: Voodoo Chile and Tin Pan Alley, the latter a slow-burning, desert-style blueser. Also, two tracks in his name are instrumentals, which doesn't help his case in the songwriting department, but who cares when you have machine-gun skills on the guitar that tells a story that some people can't even write down.