Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Bush
Label: Caroline International S&D
Release: 2017
Runtime: 57:44
Rating: 2.5/5
Here comes the seventh studio album from a band that took a long break between 2002 and 2010 and counts as something of a phenomenon from the era when the grunge invasion was slowly fading out. London alternative rockers Bush caused a real sensation on US soil as early as the first half of the nineties and have sold over twenty million studio albums to date (the debut »Sixteen Stone«, released in 1994, has gone six-times platinum in the US). But unlike the generous North American continent, the British Isles back home gave them far less support at the time. Over there, everyone was busy with Britpop, and Bush got a raw deal. The Scots Gun got overlooked too, for example, while Stiltskin, thanks to the mega-hit Inside, “survived” for at least one album.
Anyway, after the reactivation and the comeback album »The Sea Of Memories« in 2011, Bush changed not just the lineup but the style too. The new one, the seventh studio album, called »Black And White Rainbows«, continues this stylistic transition. Here Gavin Rossdale and co. flirt even more with a softer sound, and you can pick up more and more of the stuff U2 influenced during the heyday of the indie rock scene. Already the opening track, Mad Love, draws parallels to bands like 30 Second To Mars and the like.
This is downright strange, and honestly surprising. This shift. Bush obviously want to please everybody, but first and foremost they’re after a new fan base this time. It’s clear this album will do them more of a disservice than a favor, and the old music critics, especially the ones back home, will stay stepmotherly toward the band in their reviews of the new album too. »Black And White Rainbows« has nothing to do with the swaggering post-grunge moment that made Bush famous early in their career, on the albums released in the nineties.
We’re facing a whopping fifteen new tracks and almost an hour of new music. A decidedly overlong album, seeking first and foremost the favor of a new generation of music-consuming masses. The guitar is under heavy expressive and production control here, while assorted samples and programmed loops push their way to the surface of the production. The band handles the arranging by dressing up Rossdale’s lead vocal with harmonic melodies, and arena-style “oh-oh” chants are not missing either, which strengthens the feeling that with this album Bush want to catch the moment of contemporary MTV-style “alter-schmalter” pop indie rock . Although the solid Peace S that follows softens the opening impression, with the album picking up in the amount of rock decibels, from there on the record starts to water down slightly. The elements that soften the sound, mentioned in the paragraphs above, start to take the lead, and the real own goal comes before the halfway point with the “weird” experiment Toma Mi Corazon. Even in spots where the band makes use of microphone feedback and various levers for mangling the guitar sound of given phrases, those moments don’t grab hard enough production-wise and stay sonically untapped, stiff, “suffocated” in the production, and consequently inexpressive. Nigel Pulsdorf, come back!
The songs are mostly cut at a mid-tempo to slow pace, and Rossdale’s vocal gets softened as much as possible, addressing the listener without a trace of fury. As such it adds to the dreamy atmosphere of the album. This softness and these mild pastels painting the sonic landscape bring Bush the sonic and stylistic shift they were looking for and wanted to achieve, but the question is whether the band will win over a new generation of listeners. Quite the opposite, rather. Old fans of the band may well turn their backs on them, which of course will put the band before a new question: reach for the levers of their own past output, or keep experimenting with sound, as they did on the “double-edged” new album.
Bush – Mad Love (official video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exqfNG8AXCg
Lineup
Gavin Rossdale – vocals, guitar
Chris Traynor – guitar
Robin Goodridge – drums
Corey Britz – bass guitar, backing vocals
Production
Gavin Rossdale
Tracklist
1. “Mad Love”
2. “Peace-s”
3. Water
4. Lost in You
5. Sky Turns Day Glo
6. Toma Mi Corazon
7. All the Worlds Within You
8. Nurse
9. The Beat of Your Heart
10. Dystopia
11. Ray of Light
12. Ravens
13. Nothing but a Car Chase
14. The Edge of Love
15. People at War
