Sophomore Slump

A bands first album is a tricky thing. If the album is good it builds a solid fan base and usually leads to a great second album. By this time the band knows what's working and what's not working and fix any holes that were present for the second album. Now when a band puts out a first album that's incredible that's when things start to get funny. Where do you go from there? Your first full album ever blew up, now what? Well you release a second album with extremely high expectations and a large majority of the time it falls short of expectations. This is how a lot of bands fall into obscurity.

"Hey do you remember so-and-so?"

"Yeah their first record was awesome! What ever happened to them?"

"Their second album wasn't as good and then they dropped off the face of the earth."

"That's too bad."

This describes my relationship with the band Bush (I almost wrote this describes my relationship with Bush but I felt that was setting myself up for too many jokes). I loved, loved, loved Sixteen Stone. What an incredible debut album. Machinehead, Everything Zen, Come Down, and of course Glycerine. That album had everything a kid in the 90's could want. I would listen to it over and over and over again. It had to be my favorite album that year. It actually got to the point where Bush was playing locally and I tried to get tickets and failed. I was crushed. The night before the show a friend of mine won tickets on the radio and called me up to see if I still wanted to go. I said of course. He invited me into town the next day where we'd meet up get some lunch, he'd give me the ticket, and then we'd go to the show. Awesome. Unfortunately that's not what transpired. I did go into town to meet up with him, and we did have lunch. Only then did I find out that he sold the ticket he promised me to some other kid and they went to the show. I was left at home while I watched all my friends go see Bush. It is one of the shittiest things anyone has ever done to me. Who promises someone a ticket and then sells it afterwards?! Not cool.

All of that is besides the point though. Bush's first album put expectations very high for their sophomore release. I remember back then people were starting to refer to them as the next Nirvana (eeep). So when Razorblade Suitcase was released needless to say I was pretty pumped. I want to say that the first single off the album was Swallowed and that song didn't suck terribly. So purchasing the album I felt pretty good. When I got the CD I immediately put it in my CD player and what followed was...disappointment. Wow this album is not very good. Maybe it would have been a good record if Sixteen Stone wasn't so awesome, but the problem here is that Sixteen Stone is that awesome so Razorblade Suitcase fails to compare.



It took me a minute to figure out that Bush was the song of the day today because I didn't recognize the song. History is an okay song I suppose, actually I'm surprised it made my ipod. Razorblade Suitcase left such a bad taste in my mouth that a majority of the songs off it didn't make the cut on to my ipod. I also gave up listening to it years and years ago. You know when you don't initially like an album and you forget about it, and then sometimes you play it for no reason what so ever and something clicks? It's like man I was missing out because this album was sick. That never happened with Razorblade Suitcase. I always found it to be a bad album. It's too bad. Just think of Gavin Rosedale now. What do people know him for? It's not being in the next Nirvana that's for sure. He has sadly become that dude who married Gwen Stefani.

I think Bush has actually gotten back together and released a new album of sorts, but I think it's too late. They had their chance back in the 90's and they let it slip through their fingers. I'm sure I can go to a Bush concert real easy now and I'm sure it will be all types of nostalgic and maybe even a little fun. But I think it might be a little too late for that as well. I think we both missed out on something here.