Bush - The Sea Of Memories

Bush - The Sea Of Memories
Genre: Alternative/Rock
Rating: 3/10

2011 seems to have been the year of rebirths with many defunct bands reforming after long hiatuses. The latest addition to this swell of bands is nineties post grunge band Bush who return this year after a decade of silence with their new album The Sea Of Memories. Bush were formed just after the grunge explosion of the early nineties and unlike many of their peers chose to take on a more standard rock sound. In the gap between 2001's Golden State album not much was heard from the members of Bush apart from frontman Gavin Rossdale (who is essentially more famous for marrying Gwen Stefani than anything else). Rossdale formed Institute a short lived rock band and even tried going solo more recently under his own name both endeavors falling short of the exposure and commercial success of Bush. Now it seems the band have reconvened without their original bassist or guitarist.

The music on display on The Sea Of Memories differs quite a lot from the simplistic primal rock Bush began producing at the start of their career and favours a more mellow tone. Whilst acoustic and piano ballads became more frequent on their later releases The Sea Of Memories is almost entirely composed of soft tracks. The main issue with the record as a whole is the mixing, whilst Rossdales singing is adequate the music in the background is so low down on the mix it's hard to work out what the music is actually doing. If anything The Sea Of Memories owes more to Institutes electronic sound than Bush's straight forward guitar driven rock. Whilst some technical flourishes on some tracks are quite well employed the album from start to finish feels quite tired and sombre. The bands debut Sixteen Stone rippled with energy, Sea Of Memories of however feels like a band playing it so safe that the whole experience is devoid of excitement. Whilst the music shouldn't have to be upbeat or in your face you would assume that after a ten year hiatus when the band agreed to come back they would've done it as a result of having something spectacular. Unfortunately Bush do not and Sea Of Memories is merely a lacklustre collection of crooning dreary ballads. The solitary highlight of the whole album is the single "The Sound Of Winter" which shows some interesting distortion and the same depth as the band's earlier material. Unfortunately the rest of the album is fairly shambolic especially the cringey over the top closer "Be Still My Love" which is so pedestrian and mainstream it could be used as elevator music.

Overall Sea Of Memories is by far Bush's worst album to date. Lacking in imagination and having little impact at all it proves to be nothing more than a collection of indentikit ballads that show no flair or passion that made Bush an interesting band. Whether this reunion is purely a money spinner is debatable whether the album is a worthwhile purchase is less debatable, it just isn't worth buying. A contender for worst album of the year.

Download: "The Sound Of Winter"