Record Exchange Boise

Reviews:

Despite Mark Lanegan's latterday emergence as a troubadour of note, his old band Screaming Trees has been given short shrift-due, in part, to the higher profiles of the Washington group's Northwest peers (Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana). Yet no grunge mix tape would be complete without the inclusion of "Nearly Lost You," from 1992's Sweet Oblivion and the best-selling soundtrack to Seattle-scene film Singles. This 19-song anthology plucks about 3/4 of Oblivion's tracks-the brooding, Neil Young-meets-Led Zep "More or Less" is another grunge archetype-plus a healthy sampling of 1991's more overtly psychedelic Uncle Anesthesia and 1996's ornate, neo-orchestral Dust. Also included are a pair of unreleased tracks from '94, "Paperback Bible" and "Watchpocket Blues," the latter an intriguing melding of slide-guit blooze and full-on alterna-gallop.

And while Ocean is far from comprehensive-two mini-albums and three LPs, most of them on SST Records, predated the Epic era-it still does justice to Trees' legacy. Brothers Gary and Van Connor provided, respectively, the guitar and bass overdrive and drummer Barrett Martin the ass-shaking oomph, and in baritone-lunged Lanegan the band possessed a vocalist of Scott Walkerian drama and Ian Astbury-like power. Pure molten musical alchemy.