Mudhoney
The Lucky Ones

It's incredible how Mudhoney, after 20 years of music, can still thrive on the same sound. I always hear people here and there saying that Mudhoney is a grunge band and that they still make grunge. Honestly, I don't understand what's grunge about this album.

I don't care what they think, but this isn't grunge. Maybe once, the Melvins were grunge, and Soundgarden. It's true the Melvins are involved, but I don't understand how some people find Mudhoney's current way of making music consistent with grunge. I may be blasphemous, but in my opinion, they have never made grunge, and even less so today.

It doesn't matter. I just know that Mudhoney can still play and they haven't lost the grit and energy of those early works, all vitriol and Molotovs.

If you miss the angry moments spent blasting "Suck You Dry" and "Touch Me I'm Sick" (speaking for Generation X), then "The Lucky Ones," Arm and the crew's eighth endeavor, is definitely for you. But forget the grunge. This is rock 'n roll, hard rock 'n roll. Very little tranquility, lots of frenzy. A great music moment. I'm not tipsy, this work is almost on par with everything Mudhoney did in the '89-'90 biennium.

Honestly, I'm happy for Mudhoney. I find them in a good moment. A golden moment to grab their aging Gibsons from the corner of their garage and hit the scene with only rock 'n roll (but I like it).

Already the first four tracks ("I'm Now," "Inside Out Over You," "The Lucky Ones," "Next Time") immediately take us back to the garage. How can we not mention the figures of Dave Alexander and Ron Asheton?. Stooges at full volume, Peters' virtuosic drumming is launched into open space at supersonic speed. A bass, never so incisive for the Mud; a guitar, never so frenetic. It fills all the spaces and makes everything complete. Worse than my grandmother's crocheting and my mother's combined. And that voice, which (not so subtly) mimics the most unrestrained and wild Iggy.

"And the Shimmering Light" serves as a break between the two "hard" blocks: a moment teetering between the ballads of the Pogues and the allure of a certain recent alternative. But it starts again with "The Open Mind," which openly recalls "1969." As I said, the reference to the Stooges is all there and it's very evident. More rock 'n roll with more drumming tanks complete with guitar bombs in "Tales of Terror," a bit Melvins a bit Van Halen, and in "New Meaning," a sort of "Loose" à la Mudhoney, less Mephistophelean.

In short, a nice addition to the other good works of this year, which at least in my opinion is giving us great music. As far as I know, rock 'n roll is still healthy. Listen to believe.