(08) Bush - Razorblade Suitcase (1996)

“Razorblade Suitcase” is the second album by the British post-grunge band Bush, released in November 1996.
Gavin Rossdale may try his best to sound like Kurt Cobain, and his British band may strum and bang Seattle-style, and Steve Albini may produce like he never left the alterna-grunge basement, but the songs here are pure pop for now people--now being Grunge-mania 1996.
Razorblade Suitcase, the outcome of this shotgun wedding, is a decidedly mixed bag. To his credit, Albini actually toughens up Bush's arena-ready thud, adding a new set of dynamics by stripping the mix of reverb; the moments of silence in "Greedy Fly" crackle like small explosions. Albini's stark recording approach also makes the most of the occasional mistake, capturing a spontaneous feedback squeal or finger scrape against reluctant strings, which gives the band's performances an unexpected live-sounding vitality. Bush even rise to the challenge of Albini's post-punk pedigree, adding atonal guitar to the sea-chantey lurch of "History" and shimmering Sonic Youth-style drones to the climax of "Insect Kin."

Unfortunately, for all of their strained attempts at artistic credibility, Bush refuse to let go of the hackneyed posturing that catapulted them up the charts. As a songwriter, frontman Gavin Rossdale relies on nonsensical couplets like, "Do you feel the way you hate?/Do you hate the way you feel?" ("Greedy Fly"). It's bad enough that in "Straight No Chaser," Bush consciously ape the mallternative power-ballad format of their big hit "Glycerine" – but to name the former after the great jazz standard by Thelonious Monk is unbearably pretentious and insulting.

The band's derivative tendencies are everywhere: "Swallowed" borrows liberally from the Pixies' abrasive melodicism; "Synapse" looks a little too closely to PJ Harvey for inspiration. And let's not forget Nirvana – Rossdale's vocals in "Insect Kin" are a blurred xerox of Kurt Cobain's, just as the chord progression in "Mouth" uncomfortably recalls "Heart-Shaped Box." Moments like these make one wish that Bush would just accept their status as the Bon Jovi of grunge. When Rossdale sings, "We are servants to our formulaic ways," in "Greedy Fly," it hits a little too close to home.

Tracklisting:
01 - "Personal Holloway" – 3:23
02 - "Greedy Fly" – 4:29
03 - "Swallowed" – 4:53
04 - "Insect Kin" – 4:27
05 - "Cold Contagious" – 6:01
06 - "A Tendency to Start Fires" – 4:04
07 - "Mouth" – 5:46
08 - "Straight No Chaser" – 4:02
09 - "History" – 4:17
10 - "Synapse" – 4:52
11 - "Communicator" – 4:25
12 - "Bonedriven" – 4:32
13 - "Distant Voices" – 6:20

Length 61:43

Released: November 19, 1996
Recorded: 1996, Sarm Hook End, Berks, England and Abbey Road Studios, London, England
Genre: Post-grunge
Label: Trauma/Interscope Records
Producer: Steve Albini

Personnel
Paul Palmer - Mixing
Robert Vosgien - Mastering
Winston - Voices
Gavyn Wright - Violin, String Arrangements
Bush - Main Performer, Performer
Dave Guy Parsons - Bass
Nigel Pulsford - Guitar, Arranger, String Arrangements
Gavin Rossdale - Guitar, String Arrangements, Vocals
Frank Schaefer - Cello
Vaughan Oliver - Art Direction, Design
Paul Hicks - Assistant Engineer
Perry Montague-Mason - Violin
Glen Lutchford - Photography, Portrait Photography
Adrian Philpott - Art Direction, Design
Tom Elmhirst - Assistant Engineer
Timothy O'Donnell - Design Assistant
Steve Albini - Engineer
Robin Goodridge - Drums