Mudhoney are hardly an unknown name amongst our readers here. Quite apart from the coverage of last year’s album and tour by myself, they are cited as being an influence for the likes of Nirvana, mainly in their earlier more punk like tracks and the band that probably kept Sub Pop going as a label until Nirvana came around. So, a new EP already? Let’s dive into it…
It is, to put it bluntly, exactly what you would expect from Mudhoney. Lots of fuzzy punk goodness, with the usual political and social anger not so subtly thrown into the lyrics. Seven tracks in total, one of them a slight rehash of ‘Kill Yourself Live’ – entitled ‘Let’s Kill Yourself Live Again’ – with both the first and last tracks, ‘Vortex Of Lies’ and track ‘One Bad Actor’having a slightly different feel to their usual punk, coming across more like a more Stooges orientated track, in the style of ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ or ‘No Fun’ – that whole dissonant rock track that still has such punk undertones despite sounding very much like a darker rock song.
The track ‘One Bad Actor’ is actually one of the standouts on the album, at that. In what feels very much like a dig at Donald Trump, with lyrics such as “One bad actor versus the rest of the world…my middle finger is on the button…” seemingly pointed in that direction, it’s the perfect example of Mudhoney’s usual dark sense of humour and allegorical storytelling at the height of their ability, showing that while they may have been around for just over three decades as their current incarnation, there is no shortage of their righteous anger slipping or diminishing in any way, in the current world climate. ‘Vortex of Lies’ has a similar outlook to ‘One Bad Actor’, both in musical tone and lyrical feel, while the rest of the album is very much orientated towards their usual punk feel.
It’s hard to judge one EP against the full releases of a band that have been around for quite this long and been so prolific – this being their 15th studio release between EPs and full releases. It stands up for itself against their early back catalogue – even the effervescent Superfuzz Bigmuff – in feel, though with a touch more polish than the heady early days and sudden explosion of Superfuzz and certainly should be ranked as a strong release. If it were released by a new band, or one without the pedigree that Mudhoney have already accrued, I would probably have even more praise for it – that’s how highly I personally rate Mudhoney and their releases and the general high standard we get from them. It should be in my top EPs of the year – bar a mass of incredible releases coming out before the end of the year – and should be added to your collection.
‘Morning In America’ is on Friday. You can get your copy HERE.
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