The Verve Pipe were hit hard by the sophomore slump, and frankly, their major-label debut didn't treat them all that well, either. As produced by Jerry Harrison, Villains brought the group too firmly within the post-grunge masses, even if it did result in a commercial breakthrough — but that was with "The Freshman," an old song, one that was a favorite as they played college bars around Michigan. The follow-up to Villains tried to break from that album and the stigma of "The Freshman" by having producer Michael Beinhorn give the group an overly slick, overly serious sound. Like other Beinhorn productions of 1998-1999, it seemed commercial, but it didn't play that way — and since the Verve Pipe didn't have the push that Hole and Marilyn Manson had with their Beinhorn albums, they were stuck with a sophomore flop. Two years off and a substantial revamping later, the Verve Pipe re-emerged with Underneath, a record that was considerably different from the Beinhorn album and Villians — in fact, it returned the gro