From Nashville comes an artist with groove, intention, and substance all bundled in one. Venus Evening’s remarkable modern rock record contains a smorgasbord of different stylistic elements and genres that range from the more ecstatic and high octane to swooning and woozy psychedelic jams. Topically, there’s a vulnerability that Venus Evening brings out through focusing on his own personal struggles and insecurities. With the entire record being pieced together in a spare bedroom, the sheer weight of the accomplishment in piecing this together is enough to make you take note. But you won’t stay for that. Rather, the depth of the emotion that he’s able to evoke through his lyrics and more so through his magnificently layered arrangements will keep you engrossed in Friendly Weapon.
Opening with a faint and slightly hazy piece, Friendly Weapon kickstarts through My Surface in a triumphant albeit confusing manner. The arrangement feels scattered, a bit haywire, and altogether incoherent at times. But inside and embedded within it there’s some sense to the madness, a quality that has you yearning for more. When ‘Perfect Vice’ hits, that slick guitar riff that it opens with has you lying back in complete bliss. His vocals here are smooth as hell, the kind of lackadaisical swagger that sets apart the coolest of the more vibe driven rock stars. But it’s perhaps on ‘Blossom’ that Venus Evening really struts his musical mettle. The tune’s acoustic section serves as a singular holding piece to an otherwise hypnotic tune that finds footing around it. The album’s closer ‘Smile for a Frown’ is a grandiose, indulgent, and opulent full blooded piece that really puts the entire thing to a satisfying conclusion.
A majestic rock record.