The Rock Album Survivor Reviews Thread

[JGuy Grungeman]

Houdini by Melvins



Style: Stoner Rock, Sludge Metal
Release: September 21, 1993
Round: Stoner Rock

That's right, the famed sludge album co-produced by Kurt Cobain. I decided it was time to get Melvins out of the way, and now I have a consensus. The most interesting thing about this album is the seemingly gibberish lyrics in some of the songs. I can't make them out, but I can get an idea:

"Your make a doll a ray day" could be "You make a dollar a day."

I'm not sure, but I'm going to assume there's some level of lyrical creativity there since it doesn't completely sound like gibberish. However, Osbourne didn't have a deep message in mind when he wrote this, so idk. I won't write anymore about that, since I can't interpret them very well. They are interesting, though, and they're worth looking into if one wants a message.

Lyrics aside, it seems to me this album has given me a very good idea of sludge music (which I'm very new to). It also taught me something about the Melvins. You see, they don't write simple songs, and are a bit creative. However, their rhythms are a bit simple. Ity seems like they spend a lot of time playing the same note slowly or quickly. However, it still sounds good. Each song is fairly creative enough to differentiate the release from other metal albums. Plus, the songs are sung by Buzz Osborne's deep, powerful metal vocals that seem to bring a form of soul to the album no matter what schizophrenic gibberish he sings. He has multiple ways of singing, some manlier ways, some sludgy ways, and some weird ways. And let's not forget the weird, unique guitar tricks used to bring a strange, drugged up sound during some instrumentals, notably the instrumental on Sky Pup.

Music dfoesn't have to be very creative to be good, but it should be true to the sound its going for plus attempt to steer away from genericness. All I know is that Houdini wis not a very "creative" album when compared to other metal greats like Paranoid, Operation Mindcrime or Seven Keys 2. But it does have some creativity to it because it adds a lot of dark sound effects to the music, making the listener wonder what's going on. Plus, it was a true metal album with real metalheads as band members, guided by Cobain's production, and he did a better job at producing Houdini than Steve Albini did on In Utero.

Melvins have proved don't need fantastic songwriting skill to be a talented band. All they have to back themselves up is a true metal soul and stay as weird as possiblew without overdoing it and without straying away from metal feels. And with that, they can make anything they do sound good. I'm very sure if Houdini was written by anyone else, it wouldn't be as good. I'd say this is a very worthy metal album and a grand addition to the stoner and sludge scenes.

94. Not voting it off. Yet.

[Tristan_Geoff]

Originally Posted by JGuy Grungeman

Houdini by Melvins



Style: Stoner Rock, Sludge Metal
Release: September 21, 1993
Round: Stoner Rock

That's right, the famed sludge album co-produced by Kurt Cobain. I decided it was time to get Melvins out of the way, and now I have a consensus. The most interesting thing about this album is the seemingly gibberish lyrics in some of the songs. I can't make them out, but I can get an idea:

"Your make a doll a ray day" could be "You make a dollar a day."

I'm not sure, but I'm going to assume there's some level of lyrical creativity there since it doesn't completely sound like gibberish. However, Osbourne didn't have a deep message in mind when he wrote this, so idk. I won't write anymore about that, since I can't interpret them very well. They are interesting, though, and they're worth looking into if one wants a message.

Lyrics aside, it seems to me this album has given me a very good idea of sludge music (which I'm very new to). It also taught me something about the Melvins. You see, they don't write simple songs, and are a bit creative. However, their rhythms are a bit simple. Ity seems like they spend a lot of time playing the same note slowly or quickly. However, it still sounds good. Each song is fairly creative enough to differentiate the release from other metal albums. Plus, the songs are sung by Buzz Osborne's deep, powerful metal vocals that seem to bring a form of soul to the album no matter what schizophrenic gibberish he sings. He has multiple ways of singing, some manlier ways, some sludgy ways, and some weird ways. And let's not forget the weird, unique guitar tricks used to bring a strange, drugged up sound during some instrumentals, notably the instrumental on Sky Pup.

Music dfoesn't have to be very creative to be good, but it should be true to the sound its going for plus attempt to steer away from genericness. All I know is that Houdini wis not a very "creative" album when compared to other metal greats like Paranoid, Operation Mindcrime or Seven Keys 2. But it does have some creativity to it because it adds a lot of dark sound effects to the music, making the listener wonder what's going on. Plus, it was a true metal album with real metalheads as band members, guided by Cobain's production. Any simple by Cobain's production, and he did a better job at producing Houdini than Steve Albini did on In Utero.

Melvins have proved don't need fantastic songwriting skill to be a talented band. All they have to back themselves up is a true metal soul and stay as weird as possiblew without overdoing it and without straying away from metal feels. And with that, they can make anything they do sound good. I'm very sure if Houdini was written by anyone else, it wouldn't be as good. I'd say this is a very worthy metal album and a grand addition to the stoner and sludge scenes.

94. Not voting it off. Yet.

Great album. I hate when people classify Melvins as stoner though, and I question it's placement with the others in the round. I mean, some Melvins is stoner (Senile Animal especially) but it doesn't dum them up overall as well as sludge does.

Also, I'm curious as to why you hate Steve's production on In Utero, as I love his raw aproach (also, REM producer Scott Litt did remix about half of that album so it'd sell better and be more radio-friendly so that might have helped with that too). But I'm a huge Albini fan, so I'm still gonna question you as to why, just curious.