MattA75's Full Review: Sixteen Stone by Bush (Rock)
After Nirvana broke through, record labels scrambled to find their imitators. Unfortunately, because Nirvana's sound wasn't the most commercial, the would be imitators wouldn't work very well. This explains the still coming plethora of Pearl Jam wannabes and the rather striking lack of Nirvana wannabes. However, the record labels don't take no for an answer, and so, we have Bush.
Bush were slagged by every music critic known to man for being a Nirvana rip off. They had hijacked Nirvana's sound, or so that's what was said. Funny, but with the exception of the use of feedback on a few tracks, the Nirvana influence, while there, is slight.
Now, don't get me wrong. Were Bush original? Jesus no! Were they as derivative as rock music can get without being a full on cover version of some band out there? Yes! But were they good for at least one album of solid rock ear candy that still sounds good today, especially when compared to bands like Nickelback or Linkin Park? You bet your a*s!
OK, so maybe I'm hyping this band, and this album, their debut Sixteen Stone, a little too much. After all, when this album is the ultimate height of your career, that's not saying a whole lot. However, there was a time when it could be said that Bush might have been the hottest rock act in the United States (say March-May of 1997?). It also should be said that a band named Creed now owns that title. What can I say, this country loves it's pig slop for the masses.
Oh, the album, how silly of me. Well, it spawned no less than five top 40 singles. If I'm not mistaken, it may just have been the last rock album to do that (Creed came close with 4 from their debut). The first of which also leads off the album, Everything Zen. This is ultimately the track that most likely spawned the title of Nirvana wannabes. It definitely has that hard guitar edge that isn't exactly easy on the ears. However, as far as the singles from this album goes, this is by far the worst one.
The two best singles from this record were Comedown and Machinehead, respectively. Comedown had that sweet, slinking bassline that just slithered it's way throughout the song as it's backbone, except for that wonderfully loud chorus that made you just want to sing along. Machinehead, the last of the singles from the album, had that great guitar riff and the drums that made you want to air drum right along to every single beat of the song.
The other two singles were Little Things, a pounding rocker which acted as the song that interested me in Bush for the first time, and Gavin Rossdale's solo Glycerine, an awful piece of tripe if I've ever heard one.
Interestingly, the album tracks are extremely strong. I love the herky-jerky vibe of Monkey, with it's distorted guitar riff. Alien is the power ballad single that should have been, it's the only point on the album where Rossdale's voice really shines. And the poppish, somewhat gritty punk of X-Girlfriend is the perfect way to close out the album.
While Rossdale's voice isn't very good at all (let's be honest here), the music has enough hooks in it that you won't care. The hooks are the reason this album spawned five singles, and let's face it, as far as arena rock goes, it's been done a lot worse than this. If you're looking to get a little Bush tonight, you can do a lot worse than this.
Since this disc, the band has released the multi-platinum Razorblade Suitcase, a remix album titled Deconstructed, a rather experimental album titled The Science of Things, and last year's awful return to "basics", Golden State. Razorblade is the only other album you really need to consider getting, but even that is a huge fall off from this.
This was part of paulyoungotti's British Invasion write off, highlighting the many contributions from America's favorite allies, the British!
Check out the other participants:
Cletta1201
Cripper
Dedemw
Ekidd911
HawgWyld
kristinafh
Kuuleimomi
lambchops
MagnumForce
MattA75 (that's me!)
Pacman Y2J
Paulyoungotti (host)
Thevoid99
Tigger500
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.