In summary:

Bush appear to have become distracted by trying to prove their critics wrong, and the result is Razorblade Suitcase; an ultra-raw album which lacks the catchy singles of their debut LP.

Razorblade Suitcase receives 6/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Bush found themselves in an interesting place in 1996.

On the one hand, their debut LP Sixteen Stone had conquered rock radio and made frontman Gavin Rossdale one of the pin-up stars of the grunge era.

But on the other hand, critics absolutely hated them.

For despite the string of hits their first album yielded, Bush were largely dismissed as “grunge by numbers” and “Nirvana rip-offs” as far as the media was concerned (especially in their UK homeland).

This dismissal bothered Gavin Rossdale – so much so, that he decided not to pursue further commercial success with the band’s second album, and instead tried to win over his doubters by adopting a much heavier, much harder sound on their second album.

The first step in Rossdale’s mission was to hire super producer Steve Albini.

Famed for his no-nonsense, raw-as-fuck production style, Albini brought a level of street cred far beyond that of Bush, so his appointment made many people sit up and take notice.

After all, if Steve Albini thinks they’ve got something, maybe he’s right?

Steve Albini: “I have worked in the studio with bands from the smallest to the biggest, from those with no expectations to those with the grandest ambitions, and I am confident in ascribing genuine motives to Bush as I am any of those bands.

Through working with Bush we became friends, and I’m as proud of this friendship as I am of any work I did for them. They made the music they did because they loved it, and they got popular because they worked their assess off and eventually others liked it.

You cannot ask for any more than that as an artist.”

Unfortunately the appointment of Albini backfired, as he had chaired Nirvana’s third (and final) album In Utero just three years earlier, and the similar sound of his minimalistic production only drew further comparisons.

That didn’t stop it from becoming a runaway success with the band’s army of American supporters, though, who had stood by Bush as they endured much of the same criticism after the arrival of their 1994 debut.

It reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, and spawned hit single Swallowed, which brought Bush their first (and only) #1.

Gavin Rossdale: “This record shows me trying to write songs as my life fell apart. Honestly, while my long-time girlfriend was packing her stuff to leave me because of all the bullshit that had been going on since our first record went crazy, I was in the other room writing these songs about feeling pretty hopeless and lost with it all.”

Albini’s raw production is a double-edged sword for Bush.

It certainly enables them to be heavier, and there are times here when it really works – such as the chilling Cold Contagious where the band create an atmospheric groove behind their frontman’s stripped back vocals, and Rossdale’s vulnerability on Swallowed which references his difficulties in adjusting to his meteoric rise to stardom.

"I'm with everyone, and yet not."

Elsewhere, though, it falls flat on it’s face.

I mean, there is no doubt that standout tracks like Bonedriven and Straight No Chaser could’ve benefitted from the same kind of studio heft which filled Sixteen Stone, but they struggle to hit their stride under Albini’s stripped back style.

Elsewhere on the disc, several tracks frustrate the listener by pairing up a great verse structure alongside a terrible chorus (A Tendency To Start Fires), or a terrible verse with a great chorus (Mouth), or wasting some of Rossdale’s best wordplay (“Sooner or later, masturbate or lose”) on tracks which are otherwise directionless (Distant Voices).

Oh, and we should also be fuming that the devastatingly effective final third of Insect Kin gets lost in the shuffle.

Razorblade Suitcase ultimately fails in it’s mission to win over the rock media.

However, it does a great job of showcasing the battle taking place in Gavin Rossdale’s head.

Blessed with an uncanny ability to pen radio-friendly rock songs, the frontman’s biggest skill appears to go dead against the core values of his chosen musical direction.

This leads to a jarring, conflicted record which fights itself from start to finish. At times it’s fascinating to hear him deny his gift, strangling the life out of potential hit singles by dropping heavily distorted guitar feedback and unnecessary out-of-tune violin samples over the top of otherwise solid tracks.

As a result, Razorblade Suitcase becomes an album with many great moments, but not many great songs.

In summary:

Bush appear to have become distracted by trying to prove their critics wrong, and the result is Razorblade Suitcase; an ultra-raw album which lacks the catchy singles of their debut LP.

Razorblade Suitcase receives 6/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★