Bush – Nowhere To Go But Everywhere
Similar artists: Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Nirvana
Genre: Classic Rock, 90s Rock, Alternative Rock
We live in an era where any form of communication can be recorded and kept safe for all eternity. But it won’t. Disks will get wiped out; people will forget passwords, and modern technology will become obsolete quickly. They say that if a story is not written down and kept in the national library, it’s bound to get lost in about two generations.
Why would rock n’ roll be any different? There are only two ways to ensure survival over the forces of time. The first involves becoming a legend. It is reserved only for a handful of artists. These are the artists for whom fans are happy to keep stories, share them and, every so often, make up their very own.
The other option, albeit not any less difficult, is to create the kind of songs that inevitably you will hear in the future. These are the kind of tunes that defy the life cycle of hits. These are tunes that carry with them such power that are so memorable that people will demand to hear them. Regardless of what you feel about grunge and post-grunge, Bush managed to record at least, a handful of these classics.
Bush’s “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere” is intended as a treat to long-time fans, a new bonus track offered to supporters who will invest in the group’s new best of package. If there was a formula that helped the band’s most famous work retain its fame, then Gavin Rossdale and his bandmates haven’t forgotten it.
The song utilizes the soft-loud dynamics, the highly melodic chorus and Rossdale’s gritty vocals. Time has passed, and many bands have attempted to capture this sound. The fact that Bush can still do it better than most must surely say something about their collective ability.
District Five – Wasted
Similar artists: The Smile, Squid, Dry Cleaning, Omni, Black Country, New Road
Genre: Math Rock, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
There’s a lot of reassurance that must come with being in a band that has a recording contract and is established within a certain niche. Most of the time, this means that all you need to do for the rest of your career is churn out music that resembles the thing that got you here in the first place. It’s like being a baker in charge of baking pretzels using the same formula.
There are bands, however, who can only get by if they surprise themselves and surprise their audience. This means walking away from rigid patterns. It also means walking into a musical landscape that they haven’t charted yet, where it’s highly likely that they’ll get lost. The potential rewards, however, are sensational.
District Five’s “Wasted” follows the classic alternative-rock motto of never following a path that you’re too comfortable with. This is a record that contains a fair bit of prog-rock tactics, not to mention a tad of humour. But really, more than anything, this is a snapshot of the foursome’s laboratory of sounds, rock n’ roll doesn’t move in a straight pattern.
