Velocity Girl - Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts (1996)

Buried beneath the loud guitars and psuedo-grungy riffs of Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts, there are hints of the effortless pop sensibilities that made Velocity Girl\'s first two albums so charming. However, it takes a lot of digging to find those hints. Vocalist Sarah Shannon sounds completely lost admist the carefully considered bombast of the guitars. When she does make herself heard, it\'s usually at the expense of her melodic skills. Velocity Girl has been both melodic and loud before -- check out the intoxicating rush of \"My Forgotten Favorite\" -- but throughout Gilded Stars and Zealous Hearts they sound too concerned with proving that they can rock and not just a cute, little pop band. In the process, they forgot to write melodies for either the vocals or the guitars.