THE GRUNGE MATCH - 040

Match 040:

Alice In Chains "Sludge Factory" (1995)
Nirvana "Aero Zeppelin" (1992)
Pearl Jam "Who You Are" (1996)
Soundgarden "Room A Thousand Years Wide" (1991)

The beginning of "Sludge Factory" is the best part of the song.  I'm not saying it's all downhill from there, but that opening is just tits.  And that riff, despite only the chorus to break it up and only being three notes NEVER gets old.  This song is over seven minutes.  It never gets old.  It still cuts just as hard the hundreth time they hit that three note barrage as the first.  Then the ending kinda goes to some bullshit jam thing which sort of undercuts what went before it but not too badly.

"Aero Zeppelin" is one of my favorite songs on "Incesticide".  It's got vocals you can sort of understand for a change, but the delivery is so easy-going you don't need to care what's being said.  It's got some cool riffs, it's got solid bass work from Krist Novoselic, it's got energy, and when the vocals get yelly you can actually understand them better.  Plus that riff in what stands in for a chorus?  One of my favorite Nirvana riffs.  Shit is metal, yo.

I've never really liked "Who You Are".  I remember from the first time I heard it in the summer of '96 through to the thousanth I'd heard it in the summer of '96, this song was a mess.  It sounded like they just stopped giving a fuck and started playing whatever random objects they found in the studio instead of actual instruments and Vedder just...floated away into shit land.

It is an awkward song to be sure, but now I dig the vocals a lot more, and kind of realize they're the backbone of the song instead of the normal rock instruments I'd become so familiar with.  This is actually pretty cool now that I listen to it for the first time since 2008.  So yeah.  I've changed my mind about this one.  It took twenty years, but I finally get it now.  Slow learner.  (Though to be fair, this song is OUT THERE.  But I think that's what I like about it now.)

"Room A Thousand Years Wide" is one of my favorite Soundgarden songs.  I've loved it since the first time I heard it on WQFM and I still love it now.  It's got an uncharacteristically chill delivery from Cornell until the chorus (possibly owing to this being one of the only songs he didn't write any part of in the band's history), it's got a rhythm that sounds a lot more fucked up than the 6/4 it is, and it's got a fucking SAXOPHONE SOLO OUT OF NOWHERE at the end.  How can you compete with that?

"Room A Thousand Years Wide": 4
"Aero Zeppelin": 3
"Sludge Factory": 2
"Who We Are": 1

Hey, I like "Who We Are", but this is actually some stiff competition. But don't feel too sorry for Pearl Jam.  They're still on top (for now...)

TOTALS:

Pearl Jam: 118
Alice In Chains: 110
Nirvana: 90
Soundgarden: 84

Come back tomorrow for four songs that are all pretty laid back.

Comments

Popular Posts