September 16th, 2011 
James Shotwell 
Artist: Bush
Album: The Sea Of Memories
Genre: Grunge
Label: E1 Music
I would like to think that I’m a rather informed individual, it’s really hard not to be in the midst of the information age, I currently have three pieces of technology – my laptop, blackberry, and television – all within an arm’s length of me that could tell me breaking news, the weather, what time it is, and pretty much anything else I could want to know, and much more that I don’t want to know. It’s nearly impossible to miss out on anything important these days. Of course, it still happens; I was running into people well into April that still hadn’t heard about the earthquake in Japan. Of course, I’m guilty of missing out on a few very important pieces of information every once in awhile. I’m not quite sure how it happens, but I guess I can’t catch everything. For example, apparently Bush reformed over a year ago. I’m not quite sure where I was, but apparently I missed the entire thing, I never heard a peep about it, and as of today, they have a new album out. The Sea Of Memories is the first album we’ve seen from Bush in ten years, and their first release since their eight year hiatus. This may not seem all that important to some of our younger readers, but as a child of the 90’s, this is a monumental occasion, and frankly, I’m not quite sure how I didn’t hear anything about it until now, I sort of feel like I’ve let down my younger self. Not to say I was deeply touched by Bush as a band when I was younger, they just carried a gigantic presence for years, and I was definitely interested to see what they did with their reunion, if only for nostalgia’s sake. Bush was the right band for the time, but who’s to say whether they would as well received today, or if they even still had it in them at this point in their lives.
It really didn’t take long before I realized one very important detail; we’re not living in the 90’s anymore. And of course, this means two things; first off, grunge is most certainly dead and gone, and second, the guys in Bush aren’t as young as they used to be. The album shows a decent amount of promise, “All My Life” was a perfect re-interpretation of the old, signature Bush sound, and “The Sound Of Winter” was decently akin to their later, more electronically influenced songs, which is a good thing, that’s what fans that will be revisiting this band want, a new version of their old stuff, they don’t want Bush to try and reinvent themselves ten years after they broke up, they want the old band back. But unfortunately, they’re just that; old. And that isn’t just me being a little whipper-snapper, claiming that there is no point to anything after 40, quite the contrary, Motorhead can still bring it better than most bands around today, and even though Mick Mars is approximately 800 years old, Motley Crue can still manage to sound good. There is just something about The Sea Of Memories that gives me the feeling that the guys in Bush are just a bit tired.
What else can I say about a band that formed in 1992? They’re getting old. The same can be said of all the other 90’s-era rock bands that have reformed in the past few years; Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, they’re all sounding a bit tired at this point. Grunge works when the musicians are in their early-20’s, but when they’re in their 40’s, it just sounds like they’re slowing down. I guess that is why bands like AC/DC, Motorhead, and The Who; much older bands, manage to still sound like they’ve got some life left in them. I didn’t really expect a release that could compete with their early work, and in all honesty, The Sea Of Memories does a good job of keeping their old sound more or less alive. Just not as alive as it should be.
SCORE: 7/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan
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