Sometimes I feel like I enjoy the bands that are playing now and are inspired by '90s grunge, more than the actual grunge acts of that era. Looking back and listening to bands like Paw or Skin Yard (good as they were for their time), now just leave me feeling depressed. They were just trying way too hard to prove to people how angry and alienated they were. It was a little cringe if we're being honest. I much prefer acts that are able to have a little bit of fun with the down and dirty, ugly and untidy palette of sound that grunge provides. Take NYC's Superbloom for instance. While there are definite forceful suggestions of denim-clad, post-blues, punk-chunks and dissident semi-psyche Gish dished up on their LP Pollen, the muscular thrust of these songs isn't the point. These tracks are hooky as hell. And the hook is the point. Everything about these songs serves it. Superbloom aims to impress you with the deftness of their melodies rather than stagger you with a display of aggression. I could see a version of this record where the nimble, buzzy, backward tilt of the Bush-y "Leash" simply felt like it was hitting you in the forehead with each lap of the groove, but instead, the band exhibits the wherewithal to pull back just short of impact so that you get the adrenaline rush without the hamfisted stunner on the end. Similarly, the rough powerpop of "Spill" benefits from the leavening effect of a little downtempo Local H-esque, dirgey-ness which helps to consistently rachet up the tension for each prescribed release. The biting whir of "Mary on a Chain" stays on its feet despite its frantic posture by staying impeccably true to a dense acuity for toe-tapping rhythm and opener "1994" has all the backwoods rust and clatter of a Toadies track, but sharpened, polished, and buffed to a sheen as if it were meant to appear on There Is Nothing Left to Lose. I get the sense that part of why Pollen is the way that it is, is because Superbloom translates these sounds through their appreciation of contemporary melodic hardcore acts who have experimented with grunge aesthetics in recent memory like Title Fight and Citizen. However, that's just my conjecture-inclined mentality getting ahead of itself. I actually don't need to dive down any rabbit holes while Pollen is on. I just get to enjoy the fuck out of the ride.
