Razorblade Suitcase

11/19/1996 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

Any self-respecting American rock critic had good reason to loathe Bush on its arrival. In frontman Gavin Rossdale, the band had a heartthrob whom the critics' significant others (and probably many critics themselves) secretly pined for. The band's first single, "Everything Zen," stole the lame "sex is violence" line from Jane's Addiction, and most significantly, it was quite clear that Bush had hopped on the grunge bandwagon. The nerve of those limeys. America finally had a new and fairly interesting rock movement it could call its own, and these Brit pretty boys were trying to cash in.

I, myself, felt this way about Bush until the string-laden single "Glycerine" grabbed a hold of my psyche. Quite frankly, it was the best Psychedelic Furs song that Richard Butler never wrote. "Glycerine" led me to reconsider Bush. Sure, they weren't exactly original--but who the hell is? Even Saint Kurt Cobain said he was aping the Pixies on Nevermind.

This brings us to Razorblade Suitcase, Bush's fine follow-up to the multiplatinum Sixteen Stone. Of course the fact that Steve Albini "recorded" the album is going to bring up more comparisons to Nirvana, which is nothing that Bush has shied away from. In fact, "Greedy Fly," one of the best tracks on Razorblade Suitcase, sounds incredibly Nirvana-like. Kurt would be either disgusted or proud. "Swallowed," the album's first single, has a healthy mix of loud rockin' guitars and pop tunefulness with a chorus that wouldn't be out of place on a Weezer record.

On "Bonedriven," Bush turns to that mix of strings and raspy vocals that made "Glycerine" a hit. Some might say it sounds a bit like Nirvana's "All Apologies," but Bush has nothing to apologize for. The critics might not get it, but the kids understand. Like a Nirvana album, Razorblade Suitcase debuted at the top of the charts, but Nirvana is gone. Bush is here now, and the Foo Fighters won't have a new album out for at least another few months.