Bush - The Science of Things

Bush has always been really confusing to me. I tend to like their singles, but never enough to buy an album or look into them. When I talk to people about them, they either despise them, or say something along the lines of “hey, they're pretty good. I like that song about zen.” They just seem to be ubiquitous. For certain time periods they just kind of represent what was on the radio. And yet when I try to classify what it is they do well there are always others that do it better, and in fact others I think they were ripping off.

So how do I feel about Bush? I've been thinking about this for a while, so when I realized that this album was the next one on my list I was pretty bummed. I figured it was gonna take me a while to figure this out, once and for all. But then it hit me: they are the Billy Joel of the 90s.

Think about it: generally mediocre band that somehow survives on standout singles that seem to have seriously ripped off other songs. Defined by a lack of genre loyalty that somehow boils down to bandwagon jumping to whatever is hot at the time. They are not bad, the music is entertaining, but there is nothing here worth getting excited about. Hell, Gavin Rossdale even married someone far too hot for him, who is also a worthless human being. It all fits.

This album pretty much exemplifies all this. Theres some fun songs on here, but its nothing other bands haven't done better. At the time they were given a lot of critical praise for the incorporation of electronic elements into their music, but even at the time that was a bullshit piece of praise. Even in the top 40 there were already other, better bands who were doing the type of dj-grunge that is on display here. Off the top of my head? Incubus. And they were a lot better.

I honestly don't know if im going to keep this. Theres some really fun music here, but I really doubt im going to ever seek this out just because “Chemicals Between Us” is kind of fun and the album tracks have a good energy. Except fuck, that song is like a direct ripoff of the Seal song "Crazy." How did I not notice that? fuck Bush.