THE GRUNGE MATCH - 048

Match 048:

Alice In Chains "Frogs" (1995)
Nirvana "Dumb" (1993)
Pearl Jam "Mankind" (1996)
Soundgarden "She's A Politician" (1992)

"Frogs" is not as bad as I remember now that I take another listen.  It is super long, clocking in at 8:18, and it's the uninteresting kind of slow so that doesn't help its case, but the chorus saves it (though at the five and a half minute mark, the song devolves into the mumbling, free association jammy bullshit I remember it being).  If you cut the last three minutes, it would be perfectly fine, but NOOOO.  Instead it's a wash.

"Dumb" is one of my personal favorites from "In Utero".  It doesn't aspire to be anything greater, but it doesn't underachieve in spite of its lack of intentions.  It's got a cool cello thing going on, it's pretty chill without being a dirge, the lyrics are kind of...well, dumb but since the song is called "Dumb", it fits.  I can vibe to this.

"Mankind" is the first time Stone Gossard takes over singing duties for Pearl Jam.  If he wrote the lyrics, I hope he never does this again, because his voice is okay but the words are infantile rock and roll garbage.  It be gobbletygook, main.  And the music is a bog standard alternative song from 1996.

"She's A Politician" sounds like a re-recording of something from "Ultramega OK".  It's less than two minutes, it's got some sorta cool riffs but a weird, jagged chorus that's sort of off-putting.  Being that they're a MUCH tighter band in 1992, "She's A Politician" comes off much better than the random trash that dragged down much of their full-length debut.  It needs some work, but eh.  Not the worst.

"Dumb": 4
"She's A Politician": 3
"Frogs": 2
"Mankind": 1

TOTALS:

Pearl Jam: 136
Alice In Chains: 128
Nirvana: 109
Soundgarden: 108

Nirvana continues to hang on with all they've got, but tomorrow brings changes.  Yes, "In Utero" has a better side B than side A, but "Superunknown" makes its first mark on the scene.  And fittingly, "Alice In Chains" (the album and the band as we knew them) will be "Over Now".

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