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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"We're all confusion/we're all the rage", August 29, 2006
For their sophomore effort "Razorblade Suitcase," Bush went into the studio with producer Steve Albini to replicate what Nirvana had done with "In Utero"-- strip away the gloss and create a jagged, thorny, live-sounding record. (Not that Bush had that much gloss in the first place. Compared to "Sixteen Stone," "Nevermind" sounds like a Michael Jackson album.) They succeeded, resulting in a(nother) string of huge radio hits and one of my personal all-time favorite albums.
Albini's rough-edged production is a perfect fit for Bush. Drums are impossibly loud, guitars churn and scrape unpredictably, and Gavin Rossdale's voice floats crystal-clear above the rest of the mix. His songs are a blend of straight-ahead rockers and more intricate songs filled with twists and tangents. "Swallowed" and "Greedy Fly" have to be two of the weirdest, least straightforward hit singles in rock. Ballads "Straight No Chaser" and "Bonedriven" are like skewed, dissonant reflections of the bands' earlier signature hit "Glycerine." As the album progesses, the mood darkens, culminating in the austere "Communicator" and the menacing "Synapse," before closing with the more hopeful "Distant Voices" and a short reprise of "History." There's not a bad song to be found, all of the tracks building on "Sixteen Stone"'s strengths while simultaneously branching out into more obscure territory.
Bush took a lot of critical punishment for following in Nirvana's footsteps, and while the kinship is undeniable, it's also nothing new in rock music: Nirvana is indebted to the Pixies, who are indebted to the Jesus and Mary Chain, and so on. Bush's music stands on its own despite its influences, and "Razorblade Suitcase" is their crowning acheivement, an album that perfectly captures its era yet hasn't dulled with age.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is A Great CD..., January 13, 2000
Ok. I've looked @ the other reviews (ah-umm, the bad ones) and I can see how a person might not like this CD. I almost returned it b/c, like one other reviewer said,the music kinda sounds the same (and I was let down by "mouth" @ first). But after listening to each one, I discovered that they're all different in their own ways. "Swallowed" "Greedy Fly" and "Mouth" are probably the most recognizable tracks on here. (Note:The version of "mouth" on this album ISN'T the one you hear on the radio & is on the American Werewolf In Paris SndTrk) "Synapse" "Bonedriven" "Straight No Chaser" are the 3 that are really good, even though they're not well-known.Try it; I wasn't really a hard-core Bush fan before. :)
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
some just don't get it, March 5, 2000
I've been reading the reviews for this album, and alot of them disgust me. I have a feeling that alot of these people who rate bush's album with one star go home and listen to Smashmouth or Kid Rock, two of the biggest flunky's I can think of in today's popular music scene. Razorblade Suitcase is by far the best Bush cd. Sixteen Stone was also an awesome cd , but it lacked the rawness that the band displayed on their second album. Their music, especially on tracks such as Bonedriven and Straight No Chaser, has the amazing ability to convey the emotions that Gavin's feeling. I can understand why some people just don't get the music. It's because their shallow and simple minded, who would rather listen to a little ditty that everyones listening to then a song that was practically torn from the heart.
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album Razorblade Suitcase 
