Sweet 75

Instead of following Dave Grohl's lead and returning to action with a straight-ahead grunge band, Krist Novoselic takes a riskier course of action with Sweet 75, his first post-Nirvana band. Teaming with Yva Las Vegas, a vocalist he met while she was busking on the streets of Seattle, Novoselic attempts to bring adventure and experimentation back to guitar-oriented alternative rock with Sweet 75's eponymous debut, with mixed results. It's admirable that the duo blends indie-rock with heavy rock, Mexican music, lounge and country, but the intentions are often better than the final product. Former bassist Novoselic acquits himself well on guitar, but he rarely comes up with truly captivating hooks. Similiarly, Las Vegas has a powerful voice, but she treads too closely to conventional riot-grrrl territory to give the music much lift. Furthermore, Sweet 75 sounds clueless when it takes a detour into cocktail music, or when they sing the puzzling country parody "Ode to Dolly." Those moments, as well as the adequate but tiring full-throttle punk rockers, detract from such whiplash fusions as "Fetch," which float between menacing jangle and muscular chords. Songs like "Fetch," and the duo's excursions into Mexican-flavored rock, illustrate that Sweet 75 are at their best when they're blending genres, instead of dedicating themselves to one specific style, and those are the cuts that make Sweet 75 a promising debut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi