People always seem to have certain songs or albums that are indelibly linked to memory, usually high school, usually involving something to do with a pants party and almost always confusing. The Verve Pipe's "Villains" album (among scores of other albums that I won't go into) has some-such connotations. It's one of about 30 records I had to mentally reclaim from the dark and musty corner of my mind that I'd reserved for emo thoughts about an ex-girlfriend and reassign with newer, happier memories. I'm glad I did cause this record frankly kicks that special brand of ass and _never_ gets old. Something about vocalists with that gravely, smoking-since-childhood voice seem to endure all mutations of music trend, Rob Dickinson of The Catherine Wheel, Peter Gabriel, Colin Hay all fall into this same category, and it somehow makes them timeless. Some say The Verve Pipe jumped the shark after Villains, and to an extent I'd agree, while their eponymous release was really quite good it didn't smack of the gritty alternative that was doing so well in the mid to late 90s. Their final album "Underneath" further supported this trend, it sounded like the soundtrack to moving out of your dorm room after you graduate or selling the car you first hit third base in. The end of an era, as it were. And did anyone else thing it was weird to hear Brian Vander Ark's voice coming out of "Marky" Mark Whalberg's mouth at the end of "Rock Star"?