Album: Superfuzz Bigmuff
Artist: Mudhoney
Release Date: October 20, 1988
Genre: Grunge
Length: 0:22:25
Label: Sub Pop
Producer: Jack Endino
1,001 Album Book: Yes
Decent mix of late 80s rock and early grunge...
The debut EP by the grunge group Mudhoney, Superfuzz Bigmuff was named after the group's favorite guitar effects, the Super-Fuzz and Big Muff, and the album reached #3 in the UK on the Indie Chart.
Opening the EP with the track "Need" is indistinguishably grunge, with the crunchy guitar, the garage-rock voice of the lead singer and the ride-cymbal based drum patterns. The background vocals during the chorus provide a needed contrast behind the lead vocals singing. While this is very much a grunge song, Mudhoney seems to be one of the first grunge bands because it isn't the exact same sound as bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
The second song "Chain That Door" starts off with extremely frantic drumming, quickly using guitar build-up to give an entrance for the singer to announce "Where do you think/we've seen that girl?/Chain that door, I'm outta your world" and then the song truly begins. This small intro is great because it presents the themes of the entire track but still makes it seem like an intro. The frantic drumming stays behind for the entirety but still sounds different than the beginning, while the guitar plays more melodic rhythms than just accompanying rhythm to the drums.
"Mudride" is the third track on the album and has more melodic ideas than the prior tracks. Starting off for nearly one minute two guitars contrast each other perfectly with fuzz and distortion, the drums coming in to help give a beat to the track just to be followed by the strained vocal style of the lead vocals. The song continues as the beginning but in each verse something new is added to keep it fresh such as the tom fills from the drums in verse two, and the guitar solo after verse three.
The most notable part across the entire EP is the use of the guitar effects which the album is named after. The crispy sound exuding from the guitar parts is perfectly shown in the fourth song "If I Think" as it features lighter parts with the effect played slightly but is contrasted with the harder gritty feel. This song shows off the lead singer's vocal style really well too as it has parts where he sings timidly and then bursts with the grunge rock sound.
The final track on the EP serves as a great closer with a lot of different sections. The song features fast-paced heart-beats from the drums, with the bass (something you couldn't really hear throughout the other tracks) playing along with the bass. The guitar solo, while not the greatest sounding solo in history, is a nice change up from the monotonous sound from the guitars. The song comes to a stylistically nice close with all the instruments slowing down to the point they just end on a stinger.
While this album does have some interesting ideas, and is enjoyable to listen to, I found myself getting slightly bored. The patterns across each song are slightly different throughout but overall it has the same feel for each track. The lead singer's vocals don't really entice me to continue to listen to the group, but it was nice to listen to the contrast in his voice between each of the songs. I overall enjoyed my time listening to this record to learn more about early grunge but I will probably not listen to it again sadly...
Favorite Songs: "Chain That Door", "No One Has"
Least Favorite Songs: "Mudride"
Production Quality:
Mix = 5/10 (Too much guitar that isn't balanced well with other instruments)
Innovation = 7/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 7/10
Lyricism = 4/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 5/10
Instrumental Timbre = 8/10
Group Chemistry = 9/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 6/10
Overall Rating: 6.2/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!
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