The canonical "big four" of grunge are said to be Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. Of these, really only Pearl Jam were active in 1998: Nirvana were no more in the wake of Kurt Cobain's death, Soundgarden were broken up at the time, and Alice In Chains were on hiatus. However, members of three of these groups would release solo material or other projects in that year.
Pearl Jam:
Not only were Pearl Jam active at the time, they had two releases in 1998: Their fifth studio album Yield and first major live album Live On Two Legs. Yield is one of their stronger albums - by this point they had managed to turn the more experimental moments of Vitalogy into something more cohesive. Unfortunately rock radio had already started its pattern of playing one or two singles off whatever the newest album was, then going back to pretending only the first four albums existed. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of Pearl Jam on the radio already, but the least they could do is mix things up and play things off other albums: "Given To Fly" and "Wish List" are catchy enough to share airtime with "Even Flow" and "Better Man". Live On Two Legs was probably more notable in its day - not only was it their first major live album, but they also hadn't released a hits compilation yet, so I can see it being a defacto "Greatest Hits" in some listeners' collection at the time.
Going solo (Scott Weiland, Jerry Cantrell) :
Scott definitely deserves credit for not playing it safe with his solo debut 12 Bar Blues - there's very little that sounds much like Stone Temple Pilots here: Instead there's electronic experimentation, psychedelia, and homages to other artists ("Barberella" is David Bowie, "Lazy Divey" is late 60s Beatles, "Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down" might even be Tom Waits). Jerry Cantrell was apparently more reluctant to go solo with Boggy Depot and it shows a bit: The heavier tracks recall Alice In Chains' self-titled, the lighter ones recall Sap and Jar of Flies, and one of the only attempts to broaden the palette is the inclusion of horns in "Cut You In" - still there's plenty to like if you're a fan of the band.
Also of note: Chris Cornell's "Sunshower", his contribution to the Great Expectations soundtrack - Cornell would release his solo debut in 1999, and it was very much in the same vein.
Comments
Post a Comment