Auf De Maur: Auf De Maur

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * *)



Having been the bassist in Courtney Love's Hole and for a short time in the Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf De Maur probably has some stories to tell. Probably colourful ones about employer-employee relations.

She also has a wide pool of famous rock friends helping out on her debut solo album ,including Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, A Perfect Circle's James Iha and Jeordie White, Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson, and Hole's Eric Erlandson among others.

But good contacts and all that ring-in guitar grunt can't distract from the feeling that song-wise there's not too much going on here. Some of these do sound too much like Hole hand-me-downs (and there's a whole Courtney Love album due any day to corner that shrinking market).

Though the good old quiet-loud dynamics of Taste You do the trick, and I'll Be Anything You Want at least comes with a sly wink and an amusing Black Sabbath reference among its glam-rock swagger.

But while tracks like that and plenty of others here show she's a bass player who knows her way around a riff, they also confirm that Auf De Maur is no great presence as a vocalist.

Label: Capitol