In summary:

Bush have finally been able to strike the balance between the irresistable singles of their debut LP and the consistency of their third LP. Golden State is a highly polished rock record which is loaded with great guitar hooks, and it’s one of the best albums of the year.

The Science Of Things receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Bush’s 1998 LP The Science Of Things was a key moment in the band’s history.

After spending years trying to win over a stubborn media, the UK rockers finally embraced frontman Gavin Rossdale’s natural born ability to write radio-friendly guitar hooks and catchy choruses, resulting in what many believe to be their best album so far.

So it should come as no surprise that eventual follow-up Golden State (2001) continues in the same vein, taking everything which made it’s predecessor such an effective rock record and amplifying it even more.

This is an outstanding rock album from start to finish, and sees the UK rockers finally deliver on the huge potential they had shown in flashes throughout their three previous LPs.

Opening track Solutions works nicely as a sort of career retrospective, coming into focus with a arpegio segment which sounds like it would’ve been right at home on Razorblade Suitcase (1996) before launching into some loud-as-fuck power chords which have been pulled directly from The Science Of Things.

It sets the tone for the remainder of the album, too, as most of the 12-track playlist consists of similarly tight melodic arrangements, heavy choruses, and guitar hooks aplenty.

Highlights include the rip-roaring lead single The People That We Love, tremendous closing track Float, and the desperate ballad Inflatable, which features Rossdale at his lyrical best.

“You’re so pretty in white,
Pretty when you’re faithful.”

Inflatable

Interestingly, much of the album’s story took place outside of the studio.

The album was cancelled at the last minute as a result of the September 11th attacks on New York City, as the original version of the album was set to feature a number of things which the band felt would now be deeply inappropriate.

And they weren’t wrong, either.

The original artwork was set to feature the outline of an aeroplane travelling at high velocity, and the title of lead single The People That We Love was originally Speed Kills. There was also a lyric change in the track Headful Of Ghosts, where Rossdale decided to change the word “terrorist” to “maverick”.

Bush do occasionally slip back into the “grunge-by-numbers” which brought them such heavy criticism in the mid-90s (most notably on Headful Of Ghosts), but for the most part they avoid past mistakes, with the material of Golden State doing a good job in showing us how they’ve mastered the art of the “quiet/loud” style which made them such a popular rock band in the first place.

It’s also the first Bush album on which frontman Gavin Rossdale truly lets loose.

You see, while there’s no doubt that he’s at his best when armed with nothing more than a microphone and a guitar (see; Glycerine), this time around it’s actually the rockers which steal the show.

Tracks like Superman (“Long, slow rope still hanging!”), Fugutive, Hurricane, and Reasons are prime examples of a band playing with a degree of freedom which we’ve not heard from them before, and it sounds absolutely great!

“I don’t even know,
If I can swim again.
You know how cold it gets,
With all your struggling.”

Reasons

Golden State closes with a 4-track set as strong as anything Bush have released to date.

Standout track Land Of The Living demonstrates just how adept Rossdale has become at penning radio-friendly rock songs (and is perhaps indicative of how good Razorblade Suitcase may have been had it received the same kind of studio heft, as it uses a simular arrangement to many of the tracks on that LP).

Fans of the band had spent years wishing the frontman would break free from the restrictive vocal arrangements of their earlier work and simply let his voice go, and they get their wish at the 2:57 mark of this track, in an outro frought with years of pent-up frustration and anger that it took this long to finally be able to express himself as an artist.

This tracks segues effortlessly into the furious My Engine Is With You. It’s palpably audible that the band are having a heck of a lot of fun in the studio, and their energy is really quite intectious, on what’s a strong contender for the heaviest song Bush have ever made.

It’s followed the the haunting Out Of This World, which again has Rossdale in top lyrical form (“Are you drowning or waving?”), and the album rides off into the sunset with wonderful closing track Float, which features a pre-chorus key change that’ll make the hairs on your arms stand up straight!

Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends.

The USA was in the grips of the nu-metal uprising by late 2001, and no amount of positive reviews could save the album (nor it’s accompanying tour) from being met with disappointing sales figures, so despite the fact that Golden State is the finest album of Bush’s career it will ultimately be remembered as a commericial failure.

It limped to #22 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and although comeback single The People That We Love fared slightly better in reaching a respectable #10 on the Billboard Rock Chart, second single Inflatable failed to register at all, and that’s all she wrote for Bush.

Inner-band tensions soon rose to prominence, leading to axeman Nigel Pulsford quitting shortly after the LP was released. Despite the positive feedback the album received and the fact that the commerical failure was largely being credited to it being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Pulsford was reportedly unhappy thoughout the entire recording process about the “glossy” sound of this album compared to their earlier work.

Hs shock departure sent sent Bush spiralling into what would become a 10-year hiatus.

It’s a damn shame this happened during a period where they had finally reached the top of their game, but even though they struggled to find an audience for it, Golden State stands tall as the crowning achievement for one of the UK’s most successful exports of the 1990s, and it’s a record which still sounds absolutely great all these years later.

In summary:

Bush have finally been able to strike the balance between the irresistable singles of their debut LP and the consistency of their third LP. Golden State is a highly polished rock record which is loaded with great guitar hooks, and it’s one of the best albums of the year.

The Science Of Things receives 9/11.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★