I’m listening to “Adrenaline”, where Velveteen Queen are singing about standing by for rock ’n’ roll, and I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently.
Bon Jovi were the first band I ever really loved, and seeing them a couple of weeks ago sent me back to those old records. It also reminded me what nonsense it was to claim Nirvana killed hard rock. They didn’t. They merely helped kill off the bad stuff.
Now, on their second album, The Greater Good, Velveteen Queen make precisely the sort of record that some people probably thought wouldn’t exist in 2026.
From the opening moments of “Too Far Gone”, everything is gloriously familiar and gloriously sleazy. It’s in the solos, it’s in the swagger and it’s in the absolute conviction with which the Swedish band deliver it.
The piano on the title track has a touch of the Stones about it. “Quit preaching about the greater good,” sings Samuel Nilsson, before announcing that “we need a revelation”. This sounds ready to lead the charge.
“Talk Or Walk” is so catchy it probably needs a vaccine, while the vocoder is a lovely touch. Then comes “Adrenaline”, which is huge, shamelessly arena-ready and gives not a jot of care about originality. Why should it? They’ve built this stuff to be played live, preferably in front of thousands of people with their fists in the air.
You can’t hear music like this without thinking about “Livin’ On A Prayer”, but Velveteen Queen understand exactly what they’re doing. Besides, if the choruses are this enormous, who cares?
“Can’t Go Back In Time” changes the mood completely, with something resembling an early Stone Temple Pilots song breaking out. The acoustic guitars emerge for “Chains”, yet even when stripped down, Velveteen Queen somehow still sound massive.
“It Ain’t Over” is an homage to the one you can’t get out of your life. In their case, you suspect that might be because the sex was good. Then the sirens go off for “Liar”, but the party carries on regardless. And those choruses? Wow.
Dig a little deeper, though, and there’s an anti-social-media message beneath the surface. “Creating panic and more clickbait,” Nilsson sings, even as the band sound like Guns N’ Roses preparing to level the Rainbow Bar & Grill.
Indeed, the harmonies on “Best Of The Best” are pure Sunset Strip. “Sorry” is another ballad, because albums like this always had two, although there’s a neat twist: this time, he’s the one who did the leaving. Even then, the observation that “sorry is just a word” doesn’t sound particularly repentant.
Certainly, the boogie of “Try (To Believe Me)” offers no apology. It simply gets its head down, gets on with the job and finishes with a solo that absolutely rips.
What’s interesting about Velveteen Queen is that they don’t necessarily sound like a stereotypical Swedish rock band. This isn’t the polished melodic rock of H.E.A.T., nor the punk-infused attack of The Hellacopters. Instead, it sounds like ’80s and ’90s hard rock without qualification or embarrassment.
Producer Søren Andersen knows more than a little about making this sort of music sound enormous, and The Greater Good absolutely benefits from his skill.
The greater good, as it turns out, is very good indeed. If a new breed of hard rock is coming, Velveteen Queen could yet be its kings.
Rating: 8/10
