ARTIST: Mudhoney
TITLE: Mudhoney
YEAR RELEASED: 1989
CHART ACTION: #1 UK Indie
SINGLES: This Gift, Here Comes Sickness
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: You Got It, When Tomorrow Hits
LINEUP: Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Matt Lukin, Dan Peters
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: First actual album illustrates the groups grungy side to the max, with gritty, dirty distortion.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Starting out with their classic single “This Gift” and moving through several early Mudhoney classics, the first full-length by the seminal Seattle band has tasty grunge nuggets.
But, it also shows the bands’ limitations. Try as they might, the LP has a problem with some songs sounding similar to each other. A few, like “You Got It” change things up a bit with an intro before the sludgy stuff starts, but still as the album goes on it all blurs a bit.
Still, “When Tomorrow Hits” is a good respite near the end of the album. That track has a tension build with a release at the end and is one of the better slow songs they’ve done.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: They covered a song by Blue Cheer, but changed the title slightly and credited it to themselves. Now boys…
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: B: I love some of it, and some of it just seems like grungy background music. Still, I’d give my right arm to produce the guitar sound on “This Gift” or “Flat Out Fucked”.