Rapid Fire Reviews: The 90's
For those of us who didn't grow up in the 90's the haze of flannel shirts, postmodern irony and Bart Simpson merch might as well be another planet. But as the musical aesthetics of the decade are being revived by contemporary artists and mined for commercial success it's worth our time to see what some of those classic acts are up to now. There's the big picture music critic/cultural analyst take but the honest truth is that I've seen a lot of 90's rock acts dropping records recently and I figured I should at least talk about them since I so often reference the era of music positively.
Earthling - Eddie Vedder
Oui - Urge Overkill
Most people these days who know about Urge Overkill know them from their cover of Neil Diamond's Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon which features prominently in Pulp Fiction. But if you talk to people who know their stuff about 90's alternative rock they will certainly tell you that the band is worth a deep dive. For some reason I was under the impression that this band was no longer really an active project even though it's only been about a decade since they released new music. So when I saw some of the media surrounding this new release I thought it deserved a shot. The most defining characteristic of the album is definitely the vocals which are absolutely all over the place. Occasionally on the record the are employed with that bellowing growl so characteristic of the late 90's and at other times it's like a glammed up David Lee Roth impression. There's also a few moments where the vocals and lyrics both start to really resemble something Crain Finn would do which is certainly an influence I didn't think I'd be mentioning. There is also quite a bit of instrumental variety on the record though thankfully in a much better way. They are firmly in the world of alt rock but they pull sounds and arrangements from numerous different eras and styles and pull them off pretty well. What shortcomings the record obviously has vocally and lyrically are at least partially made up for by admittedly standard but nonetheless enjoyable instrumentation throughout. I still can't see anybody who isn't already a fan of this band or a diehard for the era they originally came from getting a whole lot out of the record. 5/10
Pearl Jam is one of the defining bands of one of the defining musical movements of the early 90's Grunge. However the band hasn't limited their sound or ambition any way with lead singer Eddie Vedder in particular expanding his ambition and musical horizons throughout the second leg of his career. I think an album purist could make the argument that some of his other works bleed more into the worlds of concept or covers albums and that Earthling may be the closest thing we've ever gotten to an Eddie solo album. The record also follows Pearl Jam's return in 2020 with Gigaton, a record that was met with a modest amount of acclaim from fans and critics. So that's where I come in. As somebody with a huge appreciation for some of Pearl Jam's classic albums, I did not like Gigaton. I didn't find their instrumentation or songwriting nearly as exciting as many fans seemed to and as a result I didn't really even know this record was coming out until recently. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the record but I'm not surprised by the combination of massive arena rock heartland ballads and chugging alt rock that it pulls off. While I've considered a lot of Eddie's tracks in recent years to be painstakingly sentimental he is really leaning into it here. While cliché is too strong of a word I do think that thematically most of this record will be VERY familiar for fans of classic rock. Compared to Gigaton I'll say that this record is much more daring, exciting and unpredictable, and all the better for it. While the ballads don't generally excite me as much as the larger and louder songs and the social commentary he occasionally shoots for can feel a bit half baked, I was surprised to have enjoyed more of this record than I didn't. Even its most egregious decisions like the honest to god Stevie Wonder harmonica jam Try or the hokey Elton John duet that follows are at the very least funny. Once again I don't foresee this record changing anyone's mind but I also think it's one of the better projects I've heard Eddie involved with in years. 6/10
Requiem - Korn
I've never been all that crazy about Korn. I hate to say things like "they're before my time" or "you had to be there" as if that's a valid excuse given the hundreds of bands and artists whose music predates me that I still love. But maybe its true because it is pretty easy to find people online vehemently defending Korn's discography as a triumph of the nu metal era, but I just never got it. And through the first three songs on this record I actually thought I was coming around to the bands sound. But after that the wheels kind of fall off completely. The first three tracks add up to a dark, chugging set of hard rock songs that play it pretty close to the chest but I still enjoy. After that the band dials up the edginess and delivers numerous songs that I can't even imagine listening to with a straight face. The horrible purposefully gruff vocals, the melodramatic lyrics and the chugging butt rock guitar riffs add up to a very difficult listen which is crazy because there are about 4 songs on the record where they avoid all of those shortcomings completely. I had a feeling I wasn't going to "like" this thing though I was certainly fooled by the solid start it gets off to. But from that point on it becomes pretty much exactly what I was afraid of, an actual Korn album. 5/10
