X-Cop Fly Company

Bush’s Razorblade Suitcase is always criticized and shit on. Their first album, Sixteen Stone, which contains all their classic rock radio hits, was criticized for being a set-up corporate ripoff of then-deceased Nirvana. (And while we all love the hits, it isn’t anything special. I have it.)

So for their next album, Razorblade Suitcase, Bush does something unique. Except that the name Steve Albini, producer of Nirvana’s final studio album In Utero, was behind it. Now Bush was copying In Utero. But unlike In Utero, Razorblade Suitcase wasn’t “I’m such a stressed-out emotional wreck right now and don’t know what to do [but commit suicide]” but a calmer though still painful “You really hurt my feelings and I’m very upset”.

The first half of Razorblade Suitcase, which includes two former “radio hits” that are no longer played, was heavier and seems to detail a failed relationship. The last song of that first half slows down, leading into apparent hurt feelings on the second half, with the last song conveying an “It’s time to move on.” A hidden track is a brief instrumental encore of one of the songs, beginning with weird guitar noises that will scare you shit awake if you fall asleep while listening.

I used to listen to this album frequently back when it came out (1996). It’s very therapeutic on bad days. 2-3 years later I join the Internet, and am thus exposed to popular opinion, eventually on this album. I don’t get why Razorblade Suitcase is so unpopular. It must have been out of print for a while, since it’s still for sale as “Original recording reissued” according to Amazon. Though now that we’ve gone back to the hit single (vs. the whole album) under the influence of MP3 and iTunes, the reason seems to be more apparent.

As for Bush, they got into techno in 1997 (as did other rock bands, it was a big fad), afterward fading into obscurity (I remember finding their 1999 album The Science of Things emotionless) and finally crashing down with post-9/11 censorship of their last album. I recently heard singer Gavin Rossdale singing Mayer/Mraz girly rock. Sad.

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