Mudhoney
Under A Billion Suns

For the first time, I find myself reviewing a grunge band, or rather "the grunge band".

Yes indeed... the band from which Nirvana took inspiration to make the historic 'Nevermind' and their other highly acclaimed albums is called Mudhoney, and 20 years later it is still here offering us old-school grunge like Pearl Jam, delighting our ears with ever increasingly depressive sounds without losing ground with the passing years.

This album, more than just confirming their great ability to make grunge, also shows that they know how to produce something different like good psychedelic rock, post-punk, garage, and rock'n'roll with more punk/metal distortions, skillfully blending the three streams with tasty intelligence.

Let's take a closer look at this album: Where Is The Future, the opening track, immediately demonstrates the successful grunge-psychedelia combination, with very depressing melodies and a voice singing a very introspective and "trippy" ballad. The support, although superfluous, of the brass is also nice. It Is Us, the second piece, with a riff almost resembling Astronomy Domine, a song surely known to Floydian generations. However, the piece is a classic grunge track as we have heard many, so nothing too exciting. Third on the list is I Saw The Light, a song with more rocking tones, which connects perfectly with the fourth, more retro and psychedelic, with a very '70s distortion. It is Endless Yesterday, the piece that most represents Mudhoney's venture towards more rock shores with some help from the brass and an atmosphere made lively by the fuzz.
Empty Shells, a slightly happier song, is a well-composed piece, but the clear punk influences from historic bands like the Sex Pistols and Ramones do not seem to give excessive benefit to the piece, resulting inconsistent despite being very interesting in the second part. Hard On For War, a song with very hard rock rhythms and (still in fuzz) distortions, built on blues keys and with a generally acidic atmosphere, suitable for a protest text like the one in question.

Then comes A Brief Celebration Of Indifference, a piece that opens very vividly, immediately animated by a sudden change of speed that creates in the song, supported by very acidic distortions, an atmosphere halfway between the Who and the Stooges. The song, without lyrics, is instead one of the most fun, even though it's the shortest of the entire album (2:06). Let's Drop In, another track in a blues key, with a very dark bass line, bacchic rite brass, and Led Zeppelin-like vocals, escapes any genre, resulting in a very well-conceived and almost catchy piece. The third-to-last track is On The Move, a manifesto heralded by the title of the unbroken dynamism of Mark Arm's band, active and lively like few others. More than a grunge piece, it seems indeed a party piece in the American punk style of The Clash, and this is certainly not a bad thing.
In Search Of, a piece accompanied by "highway" riffs and a Depeche Mode-like vocal line on a post-punk base, is ultimately a more or less manneristic reinterpretation of the classic Mudhoney refrain, but it can still be an enjoyable piece, thanks especially to an excellent "claustrophobic journey" atmosphere.

The album ends most originally; the song, Blindspots, is indeed the outlet point of the Mudhoney mentality, where the song remains on the same line of delightful rock song until the unexpected variations of the brass leave room for a "fake" jam session where everyone plays on their own, manifesting for the freedom of rock in all its forms. In short, the album sees Mudhoney, as dusty as they were in the last works like 'Since We've Become Translucent,' being uplifted thanks to a well-managed and organized mix of genres along rather original lines; they are indeed one of the few grunge bands to have survived so long, alongside Pearl Jam, despite the American audience favoring more popular metal (Korn, System Of A Down) and the pop/rock of Oasis, Blur, and other bands (obviously not talking about rap, hip-hop, and commercial music in general).

This album is ultimately a rather interesting album that I would personally recommend to anyone who declares themselves a fan of grunge and wants to get an idea of how each genre can evolve endlessly and of how it takes just a few minds on the same wavelength to create something good even after they seemed squeezed to the bone. Good.