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MUDHONEY
Vanishing Point

Sub Pop (2013)
Rating: 7/10

Mudhoney will go down in history as the little band that should. Of all the bands that emerged from the Seattle music scene during the grunge explosion of the 1990s, Mudhoney was the band that should have been huge, but went almost entirely unnoticed. While others were bearing their souls, or giving the listener lyrical philosophy lessons, Mudhoney recorded tongue in cheek, thick-witted gems like ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’, from the 1988 Superfuzz Bigmuff EP, and ‘Fearless Doctor Killers’, from the almost breakthrough album My Brother The Cow in 1995.

The band predated many of the Seattle groups that would go on to fame, was an influence on most and has outlived nearly all of them. Mudhoney are survivors.

In recent years, Mudhoney has toyed with the tried and true formula to incorporate psychedelic rock and horns. As a result, recent releases like Since We’ve Become Translucent (2002) and Under A Billion Suns (2006) have left fans underwhelmed. Vanishing Point is a return to form. The songs offered are full of the sloppy garage rock that Mudhoney does best. Frontman Mark Arm is on top of his game, nasally intoning the lyrics of a band that has never grown up.

‘Slipping Away’ opens the album in the vein of some of Mudhoney’s best moments, bringing to mind the band’s Piece Of Cake era (1992), the only Mudhoney album to chart within the US Billboard Top 200 in the US to date. The band’s trademark humour is apparent in ‘I Like It Small’. The joys of small things like limited production, small basements and small handguns are praised. It’s impossible not to laugh at lines like “And when I orgy I cap it at 12”. This is the Mudhoney fans remember.

Dense humour permeates Vanishing Point as it does on Mudhoney’s best releases. ‘Chardonnay’ is a punk number reminiscent of Black Flag that revolves around the hatred of Chardonnay wine. ‘The Final Course’ is as close as Mudhoney has ever come to a serious song, and even that is rife with parody. Between the humour and The Stooges-style guitars, both rhythm and lead, Mudhoney sounds more like The Stooges than The Stooges do these days. Mudhoney has always mixed up The Stooges, MC5, punk influences and humour to create their sound. ‘I Don’t Remember You’ is a nearly perfect mix of all of these. The band has tapped into that old energy on Vanishing Point, and created an album that takes me back to my favourite Mudhoney albums.

To be fair, it’s not all good news on this release. ‘In This Rubber Tomb’ opens well, but then plods along, never delivering the required punch. Similarly, ‘Douchebags On Parade’ doesn’t really go anywhere.

All things considered, this is still the best Mudhoney release since the close of the 1990s. Mudhoney remains what they always were – a singular entity that’s too melodic to be noise rock and not shiny enough to be pop. Vanishing Point is a Mudhoney album the way fans expect it; muddy, gritty, clunky and unique.

Jim McDonald

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