Sunday, January 4, 2015

RETRO REVIEW: Mother Love Bone - Apple (1990) "Transition from glam rock to grunge at change of the decades"

♫ After listening to this album and being able to truly appreciate it, I always ask my question what could have been… At the time of its original release it was just an album with… But now looking back, with a more historical view you can easily put it between the 80's hair metal sound and 90's grunge or alternative rock if you like as some fusion of the two worlds that won't collide (at least that's the precedence). But this collision makes perfect sense to me.

♫ I knew about this album for very long, but couldn’t set up my mind to comprehend it. It had this sleazy yet anxious vocals, it was fun, yet deep, it was funky yet straight forward and had many more of those opposites attributes, which left me constrained. Basically I couldn't classify this record in my own personal library - I mean, I appreciate music to be diverse and unique and don't like to toss bands in one bag and tag them with one genre, but this one just didn't fit. I love each decade of music for what it was and listen to grunge and glam with equal passion.

♫ I would put this record on par with Alice in Chains' Facelift which manage to fuse those genres on their debut as well but somehow that one was more obvious. That's why I love Mother Love Bone's effort so much, it has their deceased singer personality all over it, the temporary state of the rock sound, the whole mixture just blends together tastefully. As mentioned this album has strong historical meaning to me, it surely made his mark, but I would put in a rock 'n roll encyclopedia with the note for every newbie saying that this sound marks the natural transition of the decades, which was hardly replicated later.

♫ Lead singer of this band named Andrew Wood died prior of this album's release, like other rock stars, it was drug related, but this is just a fact. The album created hype, sold very well (Platinum in the US) considering this to be a disbanded act at the time of its release. The unanswered question is, what impact would it have if the band would go on tour and promote the album and would this album be the defining one of the 90's or their subsequent release. That's the mystery it creates for me when you listen to it. But like from any other bad thing, something beautiful is born which proofs that the circle of life exists in music as well. The newborn was Pearl Jam, which started out little but came out big, but that's another story.

RATING:
  • 10 out of 10 Earphorical Points