The Melvins – Nude With Boots
It seems a strange thing to say about a band that has been making records for well over 20 years now, but The Melvins’ time may have finally come. Historically best known for their association with the nascent Nirvana, perhaps the time is now right for their Sabbath influenced sludge rock to get the recognition they deserve.
Since hooking up with the insanely prolific Mike Patton, various members of The Melvins have been involved with the Fantomas and Tomahawk projects, and ‘Nude With Boots’ is their first recording together for a couple of years. The formula doesn’t stray far from the usual. Heavy beats, grinding guitars and chugging riffage, but, hey, these guys were doing it way before most of the current Stoner Rock pack, so who are we to say they should be doing any different?
Since the addition of two members of Big Business, Jared Warren and Coady Willis, the band has acquired more of a cutting edge and more musical agility. This is no more apparent on tracks like the blistering opener ‘The Kicking Machine’, ‘Suicide In Progress’ and ‘The Smiling Cobra’ where the monster riffing is married to some clever changes and somewhat Pattonesque vocals.
The title track itself comes on like a Southern fried boogie on steroids with a blindingly catchy guitar melody. This is a bit of a departure for these boys, almost anthemic you could easily hear this blasting out on a stadium soundsystem. Just to remind you this is no ordinary band we’re dealing with here, this is followed up by a minute of audio strangeness in the shape of ‘Flush’!
Ultimately, what The Melvins have done here is they’ve gone and made and absolutely classic rock record. After so many goes it’s not funny, they have made a stunningly coherent album. Accessible without being overtly commercial, combine this with the profile raising curation of the Christmas ATP, it could be that 2008 is the year The Melvins breakthrough. How weird’s that?
Top Tracks: ‘The Smiling Cobra’, ‘Nude With Boots’.
Released 07/07/2008 on Ipecac
