Roadmouth

Forever known as the first non-Seattle band to sign to Sub Pop, Denvers the Fluid smashed it out of the park for this citys best-known label with the 1989 full-lengthRoadmouthand its 1990 sister EP,Glue. Both recordswhich were release together on CDflaunted the Fluids savvy blend of grunge-y girth and power-pop melodiousness. They are perfect mergers of the MC5 and Cheap Trick.

Given how great these songs are, the Fluid should have been at least one-fourth as popular as Nirvana and one-third as popular as Soundgarden. Instead, theyve ended up more of a grunge footnote, mostly beloved by a small hardcore fan base and Sub Pop obsessives. Its yet another music-biz miscarriage of justice, butRoadmouthdeserves your undivided attention, even in the terrible year of 2020.

Twisted & Pissed famously begins with the lines, he was the oldest son of a drag-queen dope dealer/he woke up this morning with a headful of nightmare and it might beRoadmouths greatest example of an indelible earworm, thanks to the rowdy choruses sung with unison vocals. Most of the album consists of supremely catchy, hell-raising rock, such as Cop A Plea, which wouldnt sound out of place on Mudhoneys self-titled album. The Fluid really nailed this rugged-rock songsmithing thing; it didnt hurt that Jack Endino was producing.

Some sly homages appear, too. Fools Rule is a relatively slow and heavy bulldozer of a tune that explodes into aBillion Dollar Babies-like lighter-lifter during the choruses. What Man cops the strutting riff of Thems I Can Only Give You Everything while Ode To Miss Lodge sounds like a hit single in a world in which the Troggs Our Love Will Still Be Here was as big as You Really Got Me. And in perhaps the most surprising move here, the Fluid cover Rare Earths party-starting stadium-funk bomb Big Brother, and acquit themselves very well.

Roadmouthis one of those LPs in which you hear a different fave song every time you listen to it. Its much more special than its relative lack of recognition suggests. -Buckley Mayfield