Toadies
When I took the indestructible cellophane packaging off of my new Toadies CD (Rubberneck), I noticed the ”©1994 Interscope” on the back. This made me think of Sixteen Stone, which was the first—and my first—Bush CD. And the only one I will vouch for in any way positive.
One of my little heuristics for buying old albums is to count the number of songs I was expecting to be on the CD before I pick it up, then count the number of songs I am surprised are on the album. Then, when I play the whole album, I count the number of songs I remember but did not recognize before listening to the CD.
For this album, it was 1+1+2. In fact, it happens to be the same pattern for Sixteen Stone. For reference, that would be (“Machine Head”) + (“Comedown”) + (“Little Things”, “Glycerine”).
The fact is, this is a very good album. It somehow manages to portray an image of a hard jam band while keeping song lengths down to sub-early-Dave Matthews levels. Lots of instrumental breaks, and even an instrumental opener. Pretty hard, but mitigated by a level of weirdness that makes the experimental stuff very easy to swallow. Plus, “Tyler” is just a cool little song.