Bush – Sixteen Stone
Original Release Date: December 6, 1994
This is the album that started it all. This was also the album that just kept growing and growing in popularity. Even though it was released in December of 1994, the album was so popular, singles were still being released nearly a year and a half later. The final single, Machinehead was released on April 9, 1996. The album went on to be certified 6X platinum by the RIAA. It also produced five consecutive top ten songs on the Billboard U.S. Mainstream Chart and an impressive three songs in the Billboard Hot 100. Crazy thing is that there are so many other strong songs on the album in addition to the hits.
Body and Monkey remain two of my personal favorites on the record. The opening riff to Body is the perfect mix of Sabbath and Soundgarden that becomes even wider when the slide guitar lays over top and gives it an extra layer of depth. Monkey moves along as one of most head-bob worthy of all the tracks. This one just has a great groove to it. It’s one that I go back to often. Sucker, just moves.
Three songs that I would include in any time capsule of songs indicative of that era would be Swim, Bomb and Little Things. They both include ingredients of what made the era so special. Angst, dark overtones, crunchy guitars, strained vocal chords, big fat bass guitars and the occasional time signature disruption from non-replaced drums. You’ve gotta love that. I can almost see the crowd swaying and crowd surfing bodies, flying through the air.
As I stated earlier – there were no shortage of hits on this album. Everything Zen was the first single released from the record. Not only was it the opening track, it was a terrific choice to be placed as the first single. This really introduced people to everything this band had to offer. The intro was an attention grabber that announced the band’s intention to rock out as guitarist Nigel Pulsford literally set the tone. Then as the bassline from bassist Dave Parson rolls over the drums of Robin Goodridge, vocalist Gavin Rossdale introduces his signature vocals that made him a worldwide superstar. Maybe it was his James Bond-esque looks – either way this was the start of it all.
By the time Comedown and Glycerine came around the band seemed to be on top of the world, selling out some of the biggest and best venues all across America. Glycerine was one of the songs during that run and continues today, to be one of the most crowd pleasing songs in the bands catalog. It’s always special to hear fans singing a song back to the band that recorded it but it’s another thing when the singer is drowned out by the audience, despite the P.A.
When Machinehead was released the band didn’t really need a further push but the song took on its own life and scored the band yet another top five U.S. Mainstream hit. Honestly, the band could’ve probably released another single but it was almost new record time, by then. The album ended with two songs completely different from each other. Alien was one of those songs that I used to like to listen to in my big-ass (hey man, it was 1995-ish) headphones. This one always felt so huge to me. I loved everything about it. When I listened I could almost envision scenes from the film, Singles, being played while I closed my eyes. The last track was a seemingly forty-five second Ramones inspired outro. I liked it. It was a cool way to end the record.
As I always do with these anniversary pieces, I enjoyed going back and giving Sixteen Stone a listen, start to finish, as I always seem to pick up little things I’ve either since forgotten or things I heard for the first time. What I came away with on this re-listen was how major this record was to that time period and should be included on any list of the most important records to come out of the 1990’s. I can also tell you that I will not stay away so long this time around. This one is back in my rotation! Boom – time to go listen again.
-Tommy Marz
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