| Sixteen Stone | review #2 | 1994 |
| Razorblade Suitcase | 1996 |
| Deconstructed | 1997 |
| The Science Of Things | 1999 |
| Golden State | 2001 |
(Pat D.'s review)
As much as I hate saying anything Gavin Rossdale wrote is "OK", it wouldn't be fair of me to crush this album. Bush was a strangely enjoyable band back before girls thought Gavin was hot, and he let it go to his head. Speaking of head, early last year, Gavin was still getting some of that from No Doubt hottie Gwen Stefani. Droooool......... Why he ever let her go is indicative of his overall intelligence.
And so is this album. The lyrics are horrific. I'd say Gavin-poo is right up there with the blokes from Talk Show when it comes to putting words to music. How about this line from the poetic Gavin: "Gotta fly to Los Angeles/Kill my asshole brother" ("Everything Zen"). And he gets worse on the later releases (See the horribly cliched opening to "Greedy Fly" off of Razorblade Suitcase). There are some cool, if overly simplistic riffs on here, such as the ones in "Everything Zen", "Machinehead", and "Little Things".
Let me also point out, that I was listening to "Glycerine" long before those trendy teenage girls found it and got the radio stations to play it 24/7. I also stopped listening to that song long before anyone else. So HA! Well, "Glycerine" was a pretty fun, simple little song until that overplay, so I liked it. "Bomb" and "X-Girlfriend" are also interesting compositions. Bush weren't a terribly innovative band; they ripped off grunge from Seattle, and applied way-overdriven distortion and Gavin's extremely one-dimensional voice to some catchy riffs (which, if you listen to the later releases, they must have stumbled upon by pure luck) and called it revolutionary.
The other tracks on here indicate how blase this band really is, and how ungifted each member is instrumentally. The few solos that appear throughout here are dull (courtesy of Nigel Pulseford), and they consist of about two notes repeated over and over pumped through a wah in attempt to make them sound decent. Didn't fool me for a second, though. The drummer (Robin Goodridge, if memory serves) is buried in a muddy, sloppy overdriven mix until you cannot even hear him. Not that it matters; he plays the drums like a fourth grader. And Gavin plays about 2 chords on his guitar (if it's actually plugged in). However, there are a couple of tracks that are interesting in a simplistic, pop kinda way. Overall, it might not be a bad purchase if your a teenybopper. The CD insert does have some nice pictures of Gavin.
HIGH POINTS: None. LOW POINTS: None.
Considered by most fans (the few that are left) and critics to be the band's finest (and for that matter only decent) effort, but I don't really know since I'm probably never going to listen to any other Bush album. Sixteen Stone is an album that's mostly been ripped off of Nirvana, who weren't very good to begin with, so things on this album obviously aren't very good. Despite this, though, there is nothing really painful (except maybe the lyrics) or even boring ("Alien" comes really close), and the songs, as generic as they may be do have some good hooks every now and then. All of these factors mixed together turn Sixteen Stone into a consistently mediocre experience, maybe even a good one if you turn your brain off. I didn't though, so mediocrity it is.
I would guess you know the hits, but I'll talk about them anyway, since almost all of the others sound exactly the same to me. "Everything Zen" is catchy, and so is "Machine Head," which might annoy with what seems like endless repetition of "Breathe in, Breathe out" by the time the song has ended. "Glycerine" became a huge hit due to the world's favorite and probably most overused chord sequence, but I guess it's ok despite that. I like the strings in the end. The lyrics are just as laughable as ever, and the song is definitely not the "tell it like it is" track that it seems to try desperately to be.
The only real surprise Sixteen Stone has to offer is the 45 second punk song "X-Girlfriend" which closes off the album. Other than that this is your standard grunge record, which isn't something the band should be proud of. There are no highlights on this album, but at the same time there are no lowlights (is that even a word?), it's just pure mediocrity. If this is their best album then Bush will most likely be completely forgotten over the next few years. Maybe they deserve it. But I still don't have a problem giving this the same rating as the highest acclaimed grunge album Nevermind, but neither are all that good. If I want good grunge rock I'm going to pull out a Pearl Jam album, not this stuff.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
COMMENTS
[email protected] (Andrew McQuillan)
Shit, I remember first hearing of Bush back when Glycerine was being played on Muchmusic and radio (and back when they were called Bush X in Canada due to an old Canadian band being called Bush). Gavin gets so much attention compared to everyone else in the band, that when I first saw that video, I seriously thought Bush was a solo artist because Gavin was the only damn person in the video. I thought Bush was a solo artist until the Machinehead video came out. As for the album, it's pretty good. I didn't find Razorblade Suitcase to be too bad either, although that album falls flat a tad after eight songs or so. Sixteen Stone is a little more consistent.
[email protected] (John Schlegel)
These guys were all the hype at my high school back in '95-'96. Talk about bad taste. It just goes to show how stagnate corporate rock had become in the second post-grunge phase of the mid-'90s. This album manifests everything that had become reprehensible and hypocritical about the so-called "alternative" rock movement at perhaps its final peak. So soulless, effortless, and mercantile this crap is. The "melodies" here (if indeed there are any) are generic enough to be used in a fictional made-for-TV movie about a rock band, but not for a REAL rock band! And everybody thought they were rebels for listening to this stuff! Because that's what MTV convinced them was the truth! WHATEVER!! These guys were sooooo popular! WHYYYYY?!! The last wave of butt-rock at the end of the '80s had more taste than this--at least those guys could play their instruments! I guess history repeated itself, for you can go a long way with a pretty-boy frontman.If I farted it would sound better than this.
(reviewed by Pat D.)
Whatever small array of talent (or luck, more likely) the Bushmeisters had before is nowhere to be found on this album. The lyrics are just as bad as Sixteen, if not worse, and only one song has a remotely catchy riff to it. That would be "Greedy Fly", the only track worth mentioning. On the other hand, you might get a good laugh out of such drivel as "Swallowed" with a laughable chorus. Or maybe the wonderfully scripted "Cold Contagious", in which Bush enter the Talk Show land of dumbass song titles and subjects.
Some of these songs might be listenable if they weren't so damn boring. Like "Personal Halloway". I always get a laugh at the song "Tendency to Start Fires". What the hell? Call it "Arsonist", you idiot! How about "Mouth" with the exceptional chorus "Nothing hurts.......like YOUR MOUTH!!!!" Now that's lyrical brilliance, baybee. "Mouth" would be remixed on the Deconstructed album, another shitfest.
It has never been more clear to me that the only reason Bush got anywhere is because of Gavin's Teen Beat looks. It seems like he's on the cover of one of those magazines every few months (not that I look, mind you). Hey, I'm sure it must be great to be be around Gavin, so you can get all the hot chicks he doesn't have time for. However, I would HATE to get bashed by critics all the time when Gavin writes his pathetic songs which I have to "swallow" and play..
Post your comments / reviews for this album
What the?!?!?! You gave this album a higher rating than Megadeth's So Far, So Good... So What?!?!?!?!? Man, you are going to HELL!!!!!!
(reviewed by Pat D.)
I could not have been more happy when I first listened to this CD. See, I never really liked Bush to begin with, but when millions of teenagers (mostly girls) swarmed radio stations with requests for Bush, and you could not walk into a magazine store without seeing some Teen magazine with Gavin's mug on it, I began to loathe the band. Like U2, I have problems with people who overrate bands for whatever reason. So, with all the prepubescent girls screaming that "Gavin is God" and the critics being too chickenshit to tell this band off, you would think that Bush actually had talent. Which they don't. Gavin has ABSOLUTELY no range as a vocalist. Nor does he have any talent as a poet. And I'm not even sure he actually plays his guitar. I'm sure anything's possible, considering a child could play most Bush songs. None of the other members put in any inspiring performances on their instruments.
Speaking of instruments, this album has none. Its basically just remixes of old Bush tracks. Now, I cannot stand electronica in the first place, but Bush electronica.....ugh. Nothing new or inspiring to hear here, and the lone radio single was the ridiculous "Mouth" that still makes laugh out loud when I hear the dumb chorus. I gave U2's Zooropa a super low rating because they were a once great band that sold out to the current trends, and sacrificed their music in the process with that album. But Bush for the most part, really does suck. And the fact that they had to stoop as low as to do a remix album seals their fate in my mind. The CD does make an interesting little coaster, though.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
COMMENTS
A 1? Why so generous?? This is without a doubt one of the shittiest albums ever put together. I can't believe that I used to like these guys so much. I can play 2 chords, can I be in the band??? Gavin and those other guys can go to hell. This album gets a big fat 0 from me.