martindavey87 ‘Ten’ is the debut album by hard rock band Pearl Jam. It was released in 1991, during grunge’s heyday, and with the help of a number of hit singles, it sold in its millions, rocketing the Seattle band to superstardom, and becoming one of the most influential bands (and albums) of the early 90’s.

But for all the accolades and praise this album receives, I find it to be more of a mixed bag. The first half in particular, are all absolute bangers, and arguably some of the bands best material, as well as some of the most famous rock songs to come out of the first half of the decade. But the rest, well… they’re not terrible… but they’re not overly exciting either.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad, and the album as a whole still flows quite nicely. But the first half gives you the likes of ‘Evenflow’, ‘Once’, ‘Alive’, ‘Why Go’, ‘Black’, and of course, mega hit ‘Jeremy’, basically, some of the best hard rock songs of their time. The second half just feels like background music. A lot of the energy and grungy angst is gone, and replaced by what feels like chilled out, elevator music. Special mention to funky bonus track ‘Dirty Frank’, while slightly unusual, is embarrassingly catchy!

Overall though, the good on this album outweighs the bad, making this an all-round solid debut. Its status as one of the all-time greatest might be slightly hyperbolic, but yet, it HAS held up for all these years, and despite the filler tracks, it’s still fairly easy to listen to all the way through.

martindavey87 Two years prior to becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet, and giving us one of the most famous and recognizable albums in history, grunge rockers Nirvana released ‘Bleach’, their 1989 debut.

While it’s noticeable that this album is much more raw and gritty than its successors, there’s no denying the quality and sincerity in the writing. The band is already laying the foundations for what’s to come, not only in their own work, but for the whole grunge scene. But sadly, underneath the solid writing and musical performances, a lot of the songs do get a bit repetitive after a few listens.

The production is pretty rough, mostly at times sounding like it was recorded by a bunch of amateurs in their garage, but then, I guess that’s what appealed to a lot of grunge fans. It’s not too overproduced or polished, and I guess it suits the grittiness of the music. And while the record feels a bit samey after a few songs, I suppose there are a number of highlights worth mentioning. ‘Blew’, ‘About a Girl’, ‘Mr. Moustache’ and ‘School’ are all pretty decent tracks. But in all honesty, I don’t think I’ll ever really go out of my way to listen to any of them.

As a whole, ‘Bleach’ isn’t a bad album, I just don’t think it’s particularly memorable either. It’s clear to see what direction Nirvana were going in, and how they would have stood out in the late 80’s music scene amongst all the rock and pop acts. But ‘Bleach’ just isn’t for me. And since their next output will become one of the most famous albums in history, I think I’ll just listen to that instead.

martindavey87 Nickelback fan here! Hi everyone! I love this band. I don’t care if they’re soppy, radio-friendly pop stars, or hard rockin’ heroes, these guys know how to write catchy, memorable songs, that are easy to get into, and are great to sing along to, or great to just flat out bang your head to. For all the hate they get, I think the Canadian quartet are massively underrated as songwriters.

But yeah, this album, ‘No Fixed Address’, isn’t very good.

They’ve stuck to their formula, with some songs massively overproduced to give them a huge sound, and plenty of melodic soppiness cater-made for pop fans, but I just really can’t get into these tracks. Sorry guys. I’m still a fan. As always, praise to Chad Kroeger’s vocals, which are always a joy to listen to (I for one, think he’s a fantastic vocalist), but overall, the songs are just pretty dull and uninteresting.

This album does have its moments though, with two absolute bangers in particular. ‘A Million Miles Away‘ is a huge, upbeat and energetic track that starts the album with some promise, but the true gem is the cheesy but infectiously fun ‘She Keeps Me Up’ (bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?). As goofy and mainstream-friendly as they can get, this song is genuinely fun to listen to, incredibly catchy and full of positive energy. Honestly, I love it!

But sadly, that’s as far as it goes with this record. I love Nickelback, and I know they still have plenty of hits left in them, but for no viable reason other than “I can’t get into it”, I just can’t get into it.

UMUR "Superunknown (Redux)" is a various artists tribute album released through Magnetic Eye Records in July 2023. It´s a tribute to Soundgarden´s fourth full-length studio album "Superunknown" (March 1994, A&M Records) and it features all fifteen tracks from the original album covered by different artists. The tracklist order is the same as on the original album, but most of the artists manage to put their own spin on the songs, which makes "Superunknown (Redux)" an album worth your time. There´s nothing less interesting than listening to covers which are 100% true to the originals.

Ufomammut opens with a heavy and psychedelic stoner rock/metal cover of "Let Me Drown", and it´s such a cool and different interpretation of that track. High Priest´s cover of "My Wave" is great too and the dusty low-key recording of "Fell on Black Days" by Marissa Nadler is also a good quality cover. Unfortunately Somnuri falls into the catagory of artists who have created a cover of "Mailman" which is too close to the original. The same can be said about Valley of The Sun´s cover of "Superunknown". It´s competently performed and well produced, but it´s not particularly different from the original.

Next up is Frayle covering "Head Down", and that´s a great female led doom metal version of that track. It´s nicely dark, heavy, and creepy. To my ears it´s one of the highlights of the album and it´s a great example of a band making a cover their own. So how does Spotlights fare covering the most famous and iconic track from "Superunknown"? Well... "Black Hole Sun" is thankfully covered in a both respectful but also heavier and different version from the original. The cover is almost 7 minutes long, so Spotlights have also added some parts to the original track (basically just an outro guitar solo, but it´s still pretty great), which was only 5 minutes long.

"Spoonman" is covered by Horseburner and it´s different enough from the original to matter (it´s actually one of the better covers on the album). It´s harder edged and heavier and thankfully featuring a vocalist who doesn´t try to sound like Chris Cornell. I like the harmony guitar part around the 3 minutes mark and the blistering lead guitar work throughout the track. Oregon based doom/stoner rock/metal act Witch Mountain covers "Limo Wreck", and it´s another great female led cover track. Heavy, organic, and delivered with great vocal attitude by Kayla Dixon. It seems Soundgarden´s songs lend themselves well to female vocals. Beastwars covers "The Day I Tried To Live" and it´s one of the few covers on the album, which my ears don´t agree much with. The original version of "Kickstand" is a short, fast, and energetic rocker, but Jack Harlon and The Dead Crows have chosen to make the song much slower, more heavy, and four times as long. The heavy psychedelic cover version is quite different from the original, which is a plus in my book, but unfortunately it´s not a particularly great cover.

"Fresh Tendrils" is covered by The Age of Truth and it´s a decent if not great cover. "4th Of July" is one of the standout tracks on the original album, because of its heavy and bleak nature, so I was interested to hear what Marh Ursellis Steppendoom could do what it. As it turns out this cover is slightly less heavy (although definitely still pretty heavy), and a little more atmospheric and eerie sounding than the original. This cover has character and I respect Marh Ursellis Steppendoom´s decision to try and give the song a twist. "Half" was always one of the least remarkable tracks on "Superunknown", but Dozer at least try to make it more interesting and succeed in doing so. I´ll go as far as to say that this cover is almost more interesting than the original. Darkher closes the album with their cover of "Like Suicide", and it´s arguably one of the highlights of "Superunknown (Redux)". Again it´s a female led cover and it´s quite different from the original. It´s sombre, atmospheric, melancholic, and the instrumentation is different from the instrumentation on the original too.

So upon conclusion about half of the covers on the album are either great or even brilliant, and the other half are at least decent (some are even great but a bit too close in sound to the originals), so "Superunknown (Redux)" is overall a good quality release and it´s definitely worth a purchase for fans of Soundgarden. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Core" is the debut full-length studio album by US, California based hard rock act Stone Temple Pilots. The album was released through Atlantic Records in September 1992. Stone Temple Pilots were formed in 1985 by lead vocalist Scott Weiland and bassist Robert DeLeo under the Swing monicker (they later recruited drummer Eric Kretz), but changed their name to Mighty Joe Young (after Robert´s older brother guitarist Dean DeLeo joined in 1989 and suggested a name change). The band recorded a demo under the Mighty Joe Young monicker and made a name for themselves on the San Diego club scene using that name, and Atlantic Records eventually took notice and signed the band. While in the studio with producer Brendan O´Brien recording the material for "Core", the band were told that a blues band existed using the Mighty Joe Young name, and the band were therefore forced to another name change. They settled for Stone Temple Pilots.

Stone Temple Pilots are often lumped in with the contemporary Seattle scene and artists like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains (and were often criticized for it by the contemporary music press), and while there is certainly some truth (ok, a lot of truth) to that Stone Temple Pilots were not a worsphipping clone act. They had a enough original musical elements to stand out and it´s predominantly the voice and singing style of Weiland which point toward Seattle (and especially Alice in Chains lead vocalist Layne Staley). The songwriting is also top notch and "Core" features many standout tracks and it´s through and through a high quality hard rock release.

Radio/music video hits like "Plush" and "Sex Type Thing" are among the best known tracks off the album, but there´s not a single sub par track on the album and I could just as well have mentioned tracks like "Dead & Bloated" or the 8:25 minutes long "Where The River Goes" (which are the two tracks bookending the album), or the hard rocking and faster-paced "Crackermann" as some of the highlights. Stone Temple Pilots can also do melancholic ballads which they prove with "Creep", but their greatest success is actually the tracklist flow. Even the two shorter interlude tracks "No Memory" and "Wet My Bed" serve a breather purpose and work well in transitioning the album to the next phase.

"Core" features a professional, powerful, and detailed sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. The performances are also strong on all posts. hard rocking and sometimes pretty heavy guitar work, organic and powerful drumming (and some pretty nice percussion too), clever bass lines, and the strong voice and passionate delivery by Weiland in front. This does not sound like a debut release at all. There are no odd experimental tracks (save for "Wet My Bed", but that one fits the concept and atmosphere of the album), inconsistent songwriting, or unpolished musical ideas, which don´t fit in. This is an album which works from start to finish and a 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.