Screaming Trees: Ocean Of Confusion - Songs Of Screaming Trees 1990-1996 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The best of the Epic years from Seattle's most underrated grunge band Screaming Trees never really fit in their time and place -- too psychedelic and swinging for the Seattle grunge scene, too hard and weird for mainstream rock. This compilation of the group's post-1989 Epic recordings charts the band's awkward bid for popularity, with nineteen tracks, including the minor hits "Alice Said," "Butterfly" and "Nearly Lost You." The revelation here is how vibrant the music sounds fifteen years later -- the Trees have aged much better than Seattle peers like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Propelled by Gary Lee Conner's swirling riffs and singer Mark Lanegan's gruff, narcotic baritone, they could be heavy, hypnotic and dark, as on "Shadow of the Season" and "More or Less," or elegant and restrained, as on "Sworn and Broken" and "Dying Days," both of which eulogize Seattle in the aftermath of grunge and too much heroin death. The Trees were a contentious, proud and self-destructive band, prone to fighting one another and sabotaging their careers. This anthology lets you hear all the magic they could summon but could never hang on to.