THE GRUNGE MATCH - 085

Match 085:

Alice In Chains "Lying Season" (1991)
Nirvana "Blew" (Live) (1991)
Pearl Jam "Get Right" (2002)
Soundgarden "No Attention" (1996)

If ever there was a song that was the halfway point between "Facelift" and "Dirt", this is it.  I'd say about 51/49 "Facelift", actually.  It's a lot peppier than the stuff on "Dirt", but it's got the vocal stylings of the latter release, fleshing out more what would become the Alice In Chains sound.  There's a lot of power chords and head bobbing flavor to be had.

Here's two tidbits for your synchronicity bingo: 1) The last song off of essentially the last single disc Nirvana album is the same song that started their first.  2) This performance is from November 25, 1991.  One day before Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" came out.  The album Nirvana dethrones from the top of the charts in the moment music critics like to point to and scream "SYMBOLISM!!!" as they collapse in ecstasy.  And in a bit of irony, this 17th and final track begins with Kurt saying "Thank you for your patience", like this whole set has been an inconvenience for everybody.

The song is a full step up from "Bleach", in D this time.  It's more upbeat as a result, but not as tight, which is weird because it's less sludgy.  It's a passable version and different enough to merit its existence, but a weird and arbitrary choice to end the album.

"Get Right" is a bog standard "upbeat Pearl Jam song" and it's two and a half minutes.  I felt like half the lyrics were "I wanted to Get Right".  There's nothing inherently wrong with this song, but I feel like it bounced off of me and I didn't even bother to see where it landed to pick it up again.  For a much much better version of this song, see "Hail, Hail", which I would put in the upper middle of Pearl Jam's ranked catalogue.

Weirdly enough, "No Attention" sounds like an "upbeat Pearl Jam song" too, but it has more balls, more energy and as a result more raison d'etre.  It's faster and tougher too, which considering this album was Soundgarden's "let's play around with softer faire" experiment, says something.

"No Attention": 4
"Lying Season": 3
"Blew" (Live): 2
"Get Right": 1

TOTALS:

Alice In Chains: 224
Soundgarden: 224
Pearl Jam: 206
Nirvana: 196

Soundgarden re-ties for the lead and Nirvana is back to within ten of Pearl Jam.  Tomorrow we get the lone new song from the self-titled "Nirvana" greatest hits package, then from there, the band goes on "With The Lights Out".  Stay tuned.

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