Review Summary: Violent Riffs, angry lyrics and sweet harmonies.
It's been overstated, overused and overly-abused the subject of the first sparks of a band's lifespan, in this case, with the debut LP release of Heatmiser (the hardcore grunge whatever genre you wanna put in there band of late Elliott Smith) the same thing happens again.
It is impressive how the drummer Tony found a way to produce such a strong sounding album, i particularly enjoy the overall sound of the low end of the mix, the bass and drums are mixed together very tightly but still don't lose their general live feel somewhat of a mid frequency phasing or fuzziness in the sound that happens when a group of people play in a closed environment, to put it in words.
As for the songs the record begins with a great riff, which is always a nice begging for a record, as if the song Still would instruct you that the record starts in full throttle and it will have its up and downs through the entire playback, and that’s exactly what happens, an almost 50% 50% approach in to composition on this albums happens between Neil Gust and Elliott Smith, which in my opinion makes the best musical partner that Elliott Smith has had considering that he is most famous for his solo career.
After the beginning track the game of talking, cat and mouse and protesting begins to happen with songs from both musicians which help to give you a surprise to what's coming next. These are in my opinion all great ideas to think about when making a record in order to make it as accessible as possible to any listener.
The level of songwriting i have to say the favorite will always be Stray, on this particular track i feel the fury and angst of the 90’s it’s extremely well represented throughout the song, the screamings mixed with the beautiful vocal harmonies that Elliot Smith creates and the head smashing riffs really make this the best track of the album and make me think that if the record had in it’s time enjoyed the success it should have enjoyed, a big part of many listeners i know would consider this record important in music history.
I came in late for listening to this record because i was first hooked like most people on Elliott Smith solo career and i then discovered heatmiser, i realized many people i know never heard of heatmiser which really makes me wonder why this band never had it’s due recognition, but then again, so have many other great bands.
I strongly recommend listening to this album and with the rest of this great group of dudes.
