For their first full-length album (well, assuming you consider 29 minutes to be full-length),
Green River
went into a 24-track recording studio for the first time, and 1988's
Rehab Doll
was the result. This was easily the band's most polished piece of record making, though polish was not necessarily a good thing. Producer
Bruce Calder
may have given
a sharper and tighter recording than
had experienced in the past, but it also flattened out a bit of the guitar attack from
Stone Gossard
and
Bruce Fairweather
, and drummer
Alex Vincent
was subjected to a gated snare sound that didn't suit this material at all. The performances were also tighter and sleeker than ever before, but where the 1987
Dry as a Bone
EP sounded like
's punk, hard rock, and metal influences were bouncing off one another in a chaotic bid for domination, here hard rock clearly wins out, and while it's a taut and well-executed variety of hard rock (with
Gossard
Fairweather
locked in with admirable precision), it wasn't quite as exciting as much of their earlier work. However,
Mark Arm
's vocals and lyrics are great, pointing to the raw snarl he would perfect in
Mudhoney
, and if the recording doesn't always put him as far forward as it should, his sheer presence is the best and strongest thing about this album.
would prove to be
's swan song, and they would call it a day shortly after its release, but if this doesn't capture them at their best, it not only helped define what was coming to be known as grunge, but also provided a clear map to the stronger bands these musicians would form later on. ~ Mark Deming