ARTIST: Mudhoney
TITLE: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
YEAR RELEASED: 1991
CHART ACTION: #34 UK
SINGLES: Let It Slide (#60 UK),
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Not unless you were a grunge head.
LINEUP: Mark Arm, Steve Turner, Matt Lukin, Dan Peters.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Perhaps Mudhoney’s finest album moment, when they wrote the most consistently without diverting into slovenly noisy weirdness.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Of any of the Sub Pop bands from the era, the word ‘grunge’ fits best with Mudhoney’s guitar sound in the early days, especially on “Let It Slide” from this album.
Here, Mudhoney focused on the album as a whole and wrote several tracks that are among the best of the era, with a track like “Into the Drink” featuring a great riff, the right attitude, and enough hooks to keep it in your mind.
Mark Arm’s vocals aren’t all just shouting here (he almost croons on “Good Enough”), and while there’s still some too-long meditations, overall it’s a punchy record that stands up even now.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: EGBDF – the treble clef mnemonic – actually is “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour”, but I like fudge better.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No
GRADE: A-: Probably the most consistent Mudhoney album, and one of the better grunge albums on Sub Pop.