Their subsequent releases featured some great songs, such as "Greedy Fly" or "Chemicals Between Us" but somehow the mood of poetic desperation has diminished. This album is definitely one of the best things that the 90s had to offer, particularly the beautiful dreamy "Comedown", possibly the band's best song. The record company graciously included a booklet that contains all the lyrics and a picture of the band.


Beats Nirvana...   August 20, 2004
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

How shall I start kiddos. Well...back in 1990...I had the DISPLEASURE of seeing Nirvana live in concert. If you ask me...they are the rip off artists. They ripped from Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and many more bands. Now about Bush's 16 Stone album... This album came about 7 months after Kurt Gobang's death. Everyone discovered that grunge isn't over yet, at least the 7 million people that originally bought the album (in which, how could "grunge" die with a band that "grunge" wasn't born from). Now...it is 2004...ten years after the release...and we're still talking about it...tells me that it made more of an impact than anyone will admit. The album popped off 5 top ten hits, and kept us in the era for another few years (before grunge really faded and left us with KORN).
If you kids really listened to the lyrics, you'll find that Gavin writes in "metaphors" (look that word up). Nigel, the lead guitarist of the band, is clearly one of the most talented players of the day. He was "composing" music for piano at age 8. His slide guitar work on the album was first rate, as well as his string arraingments. Oh, and here's one more secret...every band back in that day...they all played Fenders and Gibsons, through a boss overdrive pedal, into a Mesa Boogie amp..THEY ALL SOUNDED ALIKE. Bush's writing was clearly better than most...lyrically, and instrumentally. Alot of people were just pissed simply because Kurt offed himself (or was offed by his wife...if ya ask me...they should have offed each other).
Anyhow, as for me, a person who was older than 13 in that day, and who is from Seattle...Most of you have no idea of anything about the grunge movement, where and when it came from. It wasn't a Seattle thing...it was a bunch of bands from all different locations who were fed up with hairbands, who crafted a different style, and all busted through the door and washed out the 80's.
So, about 16 stone. The album came out in Dec. 1994. Everyone was sobbing over Kurt's death...then...from the depths of MTV (before it sucked), or your car radio...you heard Everything Zen start playing and everyone asked themselves "Who's this?!?". All of the sudden, the song takes off...running up the charts. Then you hear Everything Zen, then Comedown, then Glycerine, and Machinehead start to take off. By this time the album has sold millions of copies (I happen to own 4 or 5 in which most are worn out), and shows are selling out. The concerts have the fans jumping up and down, crowd surfing, and moshing. Everyone is raving about this band that has come from England and somehow brought the heavy rock back to a sobbing bunch of teenagers, that for some reason were offing themselves over Kurt's death.
Bush brought an album out that wasn't about self pitty...it was about many emotions. "Everything Zen" is a reality check stating that nothings perfect. "Little Things" explained about the "little things" in life that kill (metaphor). "Bomb" was a song about a bombing in a town square. "Comedown" was about being happy and not wanting to comedown from cloud 9 (no matter what that cloud consisted of). "Machinehead" is a song for all of you heavy lead foot drivers like myself. "Monkey" is a song about being someone's slave. "Glycerine" is a natural element found in tears. A song that spoke of love and life and not to let the days go by. "Alien", a song about a person that you once knew...but no longer recognize them (metaphor).
So anyway, for the people who bash this record....you obviously missed the point of the lyrics, and the music...and you will always look upto a person who, until proven otherwise, shot himself (good role model to have). I'm almost 30 now, and my "grunge" days are long past, but not forgotten. I still play and record grunge music in my home studio, and I still listen to Bush, and all of the other band's from the 90's...even some nirvana. But this album really brought another sense of the heavy riffed guitar music of the day, with lyrics I could understand because the person singing them was sober and not messed on heroin. I remember driving around on so many rainy days in Seattle listening to this album, and wondering how a country on the other side of the world, could produce a band, that would storm america's billboard charts, yet make so many people angry. You gotta admit, this album rocked alot of radios, concerts, festivals...and even lifted some spirits. It's not an album about talent...it was an album about simple heavy guitar riffs, catchy hooks, and lyrics that spoke of something not everyone understood....why do we always want to make it more of an issue than that?

By the way...it was Rolling Stone magazine that started the entire "Nirvanabes" crap. Appearantly...they didn't know about the other bands before Nirvana that Nirvana sounded just like...convenient how that was overlooked.


Awesome CD!   November 21, 1999
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

The song Glycerine, which is on this CD, was my highschool's homecoming song this year.. It is a completely awesome song and the lyrics mean soooo much! There are also many other cool songs on this CD like Comedown... You should buy this because I truly think it is Bush at its greatest!