THE GRUNGE MATCH - 014
Match 014:
Alice In Chains "Got Me Wrong" (1992)
Nirvana "In Bloom" (1991)
Pearl Jam "Daughter" (1993)
Soundgarden "667" (1988)
"Got Me Wrong", upon its re-release for the Clerks Soundtrack became one of my favorite Alice In Chains songs. I think that may be a bit ambitious to say now, but it's still really good. Unlike the other songs on "Sap" it has electric, distorted guitars for the chorus and bridge parts and an electric bass throughout. It's the most fully realized song of the bunch, and between the vocal and guitar harmonies definitely the most anthemic.
"In Bloom" was, on my first listen to "Nevermind" at the tender age of 11, the song I most gravitated towards. It wasn't a single yet (which, even though I lived through this, is still hard to believe such a world ever existed) and it felt like this neat, cool thing only I knew about because I was young and naive enough to not consider that by September of 1992, millions of people already owned this album. I think because of that (and that more of the load has been bared by "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Lithium" and "Heart-Shaped Box") I'm not as sick of this song as the other big hits of Nirvana. It's still got teeth to it, it still has a too cool for school flair...Hell, I even like the guitar solo, which is a giant "Fuck you" to guitar solos everywhere. Somehow, this song still manages to be the same sleazy, aggressive but in a devil-may-care manor not to scare you away after all its overexposure.
"Daughter" has always felt sincere, but I've never really been sure what it's about. Probably domestic abuse judging by the lyrics, but they're just vague enough to not really paint the picture clearly. The song manages to have an edge to it somehow in spite of an acoustic guitar strumming through the whole piece. Eddie Vedder is the only motherfucker that could sing this song in spite of being a male singing about a female character. It just seems like one of those songs he was put on this Earth to sing. The solo's nice; bluesy, kind of understated, yet present enough to make itself felt. All in all worthy of its incessant rotation and still a pretty damn good song.
"667" sounds like a slowed down version of "665". I think somehow "665" might be better, and that shit sucked.
This is by far the hardest Matchup I've had to rank so far. I usually don't have to listen to a song more than once to figure out if it's the winner, but even after two full listens of the first three I still wasn't quite sure. But my gut feeling told me this, and this is what I'm telling you now:
"In Bloom": 4
"Daughter": 3
"Got Me Wrong": 2
"667": 1
TOTALS:
Pearl Jam: 50
Alice In Chains: 37
Nirvana: 31
Soundgarden: 22
This will only get crazier, folks. We got a LONG way to go. (P.S.: In almost any other match, "Got Me Wrong" would've been a slam dunk 4. It's that caliber, and here it only got a 2. That's how stiff the competition was today.)
Alice In Chains "Got Me Wrong" (1992)
Nirvana "In Bloom" (1991)
Pearl Jam "Daughter" (1993)
Soundgarden "667" (1988)
"Got Me Wrong", upon its re-release for the Clerks Soundtrack became one of my favorite Alice In Chains songs. I think that may be a bit ambitious to say now, but it's still really good. Unlike the other songs on "Sap" it has electric, distorted guitars for the chorus and bridge parts and an electric bass throughout. It's the most fully realized song of the bunch, and between the vocal and guitar harmonies definitely the most anthemic.
"In Bloom" was, on my first listen to "Nevermind" at the tender age of 11, the song I most gravitated towards. It wasn't a single yet (which, even though I lived through this, is still hard to believe such a world ever existed) and it felt like this neat, cool thing only I knew about because I was young and naive enough to not consider that by September of 1992, millions of people already owned this album. I think because of that (and that more of the load has been bared by "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Lithium" and "Heart-Shaped Box") I'm not as sick of this song as the other big hits of Nirvana. It's still got teeth to it, it still has a too cool for school flair...Hell, I even like the guitar solo, which is a giant "Fuck you" to guitar solos everywhere. Somehow, this song still manages to be the same sleazy, aggressive but in a devil-may-care manor not to scare you away after all its overexposure.
"Daughter" has always felt sincere, but I've never really been sure what it's about. Probably domestic abuse judging by the lyrics, but they're just vague enough to not really paint the picture clearly. The song manages to have an edge to it somehow in spite of an acoustic guitar strumming through the whole piece. Eddie Vedder is the only motherfucker that could sing this song in spite of being a male singing about a female character. It just seems like one of those songs he was put on this Earth to sing. The solo's nice; bluesy, kind of understated, yet present enough to make itself felt. All in all worthy of its incessant rotation and still a pretty damn good song.
"667" sounds like a slowed down version of "665". I think somehow "665" might be better, and that shit sucked.
This is by far the hardest Matchup I've had to rank so far. I usually don't have to listen to a song more than once to figure out if it's the winner, but even after two full listens of the first three I still wasn't quite sure. But my gut feeling told me this, and this is what I'm telling you now:
"In Bloom": 4
"Daughter": 3
"Got Me Wrong": 2
"667": 1
TOTALS:
Pearl Jam: 50
Alice In Chains: 37
Nirvana: 31
Soundgarden: 22
This will only get crazier, folks. We got a LONG way to go. (P.S.: In almost any other match, "Got Me Wrong" would've been a slam dunk 4. It's that caliber, and here it only got a 2. That's how stiff the competition was today.)
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