SWEET OBLIVION

Screaming Trees: Mark Lanegan (vocals); Gary Lee Conner (guitar); Van Conner (bass); Barrett Martin (drums). Recorded at Baby Monster and Sear Sound, New York. The commercial breakthrough for this Seattle foursome came with their song "Nearly Lost You" from the soundtrack to the 1992 Cameron Crowe film SINGLES. That song, included here, is a powerful slice of dramatic rock that's only vaguely related to the grunge scene into which the Screaming Trees were unfairly lumped. While the group's major-label debut, 1991's UNCLE ANESTHESIA, had its metallic elements, the band mostly favored a '70s-style brand of neo-psychedelia more indebted to TOMMY-era Who and other FM radio stalwarts than to punkier grunge forebears. Mark Lanegan's classic-rock voice and Gary Connor's thunderous guitar give this album a much more commercially viable sound than the group's earlier albums. SWEET OBLIVION is a minor classic of grunge-era commercial alternative music.

• Genre: Pop
• RSD Date: n/a
• Format: CD
• Released: 02/01/2008