Mudhoney Articles
Melody Maker
19 September '98
Mudhoney
Tomorrow Hits Today
HAVING ONE IDEA IS OFTEN WORSE THAN having none at all. Ten years after
they provided the portal through which grunge was discovered by releasing
"Superfuzz Bigmuff", the King Canutes of grunge are still standing exactly
in the same spot, desperately trying to turn the tide in their favour.
That Mudhoney failed where so many of their contemporaries (Soundgaren,
Nirvana, Pearl Jam) succeded is not simply a matter of chance. They never
seemed overly bothered about a career, as their subsequent albums, littered
with stoned in-jokes and lazy retreads of old ideas, graphically demostrated.
Strange then that they should suddenly decide now that it's time to sharpen
up their act.
Recorded with legendary Jim Dickinson producing (a man whose CV snakes all
the way from The Rolling Stones to Spiritualized), their first album since
1995's patchy "My Brother The Cow" is the sound of a band trying to prove
themselves one last time. Sadly, souped-up and ultra-heavy as it is (they
used 30 different fuzz-pedals while recording it), "Tomorrow Hits Today"
as defiantly unadvanced as ever.
Although intermittently exhilarating (the drugged-like repetition of "A
Thousand Forms Of Mind" and Dickinson's schizophrenic guitar effects on
"I Have To Laugh", in particular), it contains too many tricks we've
heard before. Most revealingly, the best song here (the swamp-whine of
"Ghost") isn't even one of theirs (the Cheater Slicks take that honour).
A vivid testimony to how one great idea can kill you, "Tomorrow Hits
Today" is only worth investigating as a reminder of days gone by. It
should be the last record they ever make. (5)
James Oldham
© 1998 Melody Maker
NOTE: Don't ask me why throughout the whole review the record was called
"Tomorrow HITS Today"...
