Mudhoney - Mudhoney (1989)



Mudhoney’s caustic sound and rowdy spirit never fails to charm. On this, their debut full-length album, the band expanded on the grunge template set by their seminal 1988 E.P. Superfuzz Bigmuff and took the Seattle sound to the verge of mainstream acceptance. The album contains everything that made Superfuzz Bigmuff great: guitars sounding like broken car exhausts, Dan Peters’ drumming wizardry and of course frontman Mark Arm’s snotty and menacing vocal drawl. Album opener ‘This Gift’ is a rallying call not only for the Seattle sound, but also for the American alternative rock underground that would explode into the mainstream in the following decade. It’s a song that means business. You also have the classic ‘You Got It’, a sneering “fuck you” to celebrity twats and a rowdy sing-along anthem with some great guitar interludes. The band have never sounded so sinister on the slower, darker, blues-inspired songs such as ‘Come To Mind’ and ‘When Tomorrow Hits’, the latter covered by Spacemen 3 not long after. It’s this darker underside to the album that makes it all the more vital and bursting with intent, while also contrasting nicely with the more tongue-in-cheek songs such as ‘Flat Out Fucked’.

Like Superfuzz Bigmuff and the music recorded by Mark Arm and Steve Turner’s previous band Green River, Mudhoney’s debut album is a great snapshot of pre-Nevermind alternative rock and a city which every major-label would soon want a piece of. An essential album for fans of the late 80’s American underground.

Recommended Songs: ‘This Gift’, ‘You Got It’, ‘When Tomorrow Hits’.


My Bloody Valentine - Ecstasy and Wine (1989)



While Loveless is the album that My Bloody Valentine will forever be remembered for, as well as their full-length debut Isn’t Anything to some degree, what tends to be forgotten is this great collection of songs. Ecstasy and Wine is a compilation comprising of their Strawberry Wine single and their Ecstasy mini-album, both originally released in 1987. What is also worth noting about these recordings is that they were the first releases with Bilinda Butcher in the band. The band sound a lot different to the one that crafted Loveless and had a sound closer to C86 indie-pop albeit with a noisier edge. The album contains some thrilling songs, in particular ‘Never Say Goodbye’ with its warm boy-girl vocal hooks and fluid guitar breaks. It’s an addictive and overlooked MBV classic. There is still plenty of evidence of their early jangle-pop sound with songs such as ‘She Loves You No Less’, ‘I Don’t Need You’ and ‘Safe In Your Sleep’, all of which have a breezy and innocent charm of their own. It’s on the likes of ‘Clair’ and ‘(Please) Lose Yourself In Me’ however that hint at the noisier and more experimental soundscapes they would achieve on 1988’s You Made Me Realise and Isn’t Anything.

Ecstasy and Wine is a great documentation of a band in the midst of a transformation and in the beginning stages of sonic exploration, a journey that would take them all the way to the otherworldly textures of Loveless. In its own way this is a great collection of songs and an album deserving of more recognition.

Recommended Songs: ‘Never Say Goodbye’, ‘She Loves You No Less’, ‘(Please) Lose Yourself In Me’