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:: Track list & details
In their 18th year of existence, Mudhoney have reached the point where each new album, as far as the public is concerned, is less about a fresh statement, and more about how it stacks up against their history. Old school fans needn't fret, though; if Nirvana were The Beatles and The Stones of the alternative era, then Mudhoney were AC/DC and The Ramones—dependable, durable rockers who can still get it up live, and in the case of Under A Billion Suns, still keep producing relevant rock 'n' roll records.
The biggest difference between Suns and Mudhoney's other albums is its lyrical slant—for the first time ever, Turner & Arm are tackling (gah!) more "adult" issues (see "Hard-On For War" and the "humanity is the problem" anthem "It Is Us"), but other than that, it's business as usual. "I Saw The Light," is a sort of satanic boogie, offset by a hilarious, minor-key gang chorus. Funky, '70s-AM radio horns transform "Let's Drop In" into a kind of suicide-soul, while "Empty Shells" and "Blindspots" are ballzout riff-rockers—the latter calling to mind Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold," as performed by gas-huffing mutants. Kickass!
Some old-school sourpusses might dismiss this album as a shadow of All Good Boys Deserve Fudge, but the reality is, Suns is one of the band's strongest albums ever—continuing the sonic evolution that began with 2002's Since We've Become Translucent without losing their essentially blue collar garage-sludge essence. Thirty years from now, drunken teens will still be doing donuts to this album in a field somewhere, an empty forty and a pack of rubbers by their side—and really, ain't that a better legacy than gracing the cover SPIN magazine?
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