Review Summary: Bush's third release was the epitomy of a band trying to stay alive while their genre was dying.
By the end of the 90s, most of the grunge bands had died out on account of cocky lead singers (Soundgarden), drug overdoes (Alice in Chains), suicide (Nirvana), or just a lack of popularity. Bush was one of the bands that managed to hit it big with their debut
Sixteen Stone during the grunge era, but never really had much success outside of
Sixteen Stone and of their moderate hit,
Mouth (The Stingray Mix) off of their remix album,
Deconstructed. Bush was a band that eventually went off to make music that wasn't by any means mainstream or grunge by that matter. They never had a consistent tone or sound with every album; and this killed Bush. See, the problem is that it shouldn't have, because
The Science of Things, the album that basically killed Bush, was the most underappreciated and unknown album of the late 90s.
With this album, much like their remix album
Deconstructed, Bush added an electronic flair to their Smashing Pumpkins-influenced 'wall of noise'. For example, traditionally
Letting the Cables Sleep would have been one of the album's slower songs featuring a few guitar noises and a few drum solos. But in
The Science of Things, Bush makes this song with electronic noises, beeps, and just miscellanious sounds all throughout the song. Bush was never that good with their older albums, they lacked identity and they weren't very original; but with
The Science of Things Bush truly came into their own, but managed to throw all that away with their poor attempt at making another grunge album with their last release,
Golden State.
The Science of Things is filled with hardened, loud rockers just like in previous Bush albums; but with some of that electronic 'flair' that makes this album just so good.
Warm Machine is prominently noisy, filled with heavy, layered guitars with some keyboard noises mixed into the layered guitar sections. This song's chorus is quite catchy, and simple; but the instruments in this part really make this song an excellent song. They manage to create a nice sound that no one else has with this album and the song shows this, making
Warm Machine one of the best songs on
The Science of Things. While songs like
Jesus Online just sound like standard, prototypical grunge songs that could have been featured on
Sixteen Stone, the single off of this album,
The Chemicals Between Us is a relatively keyboard/synthesizer driven sex song. Its really catchy and upbeat, and is heavy on the electronic noises and distorted guitars. Gavin Rossdale, (the lead singer) features some mood-setting distorted vocals in the verses as well. The song is another really good song on
The Science of Things.
40 Miles From the Sun is a slower, guitar-oriented ballad that manages to keep up a 'creepy' feel to it while managing to be a relatively heartfelt ballad.
Disease of the Dancing Cats is a hard rocker that is another heavily grunge-influenced song but actually manages to keep itself from falling into the hole of grunge copycats with its awe-inspring chorus and guitar work. But not even that, the lyrics to this song are very cryptic and deep, especially for Bush's standards. But truly, the reason to buy this album is the eleventh song on the album,
Letting The Cables Sleep. Truly electronic-influenced, this song manages to be like the hit from
Sixteen Stone,
Glycerine on steroids. There's plenty electronic noises and such heard aloud, but the best part of the song is just how atmospheric and cryptic the song is. It's slower, but doesn't drag by any stretch of imagination because while it doesn't have much of a chorus, its very catchy. The song is truly an excellent one off of
The Science of Things. And to close out the album
Mindchanger finishes this album off in style with the guitar work and the way the guitars are distorted in the chorus. Another great off of the album is found at the end.
All in all, Bush's
The Science of Things is an album that has some amazing songs in it mixed with some wonderfully original sound techniques. But what draws away from
The Science of Things is the fact that there's too much unoriginal grunge ripoffs found scattered about, and the sound that is featured prominently in most of the album's best isn't found about in many other of the songs. Its just a shame that Bush went back to bland, boring, grunge clone music with their last album, because who knows, maybe we could have got a full album of electronic-influenced grunge that is like the best off of
The Science of Things.
