ALBUM REVIEW: The Art Of Survival – Bush
BUSH have long been Brit-rock’s best-kept and worst-respected secret. Their mid-90s golden-era of post-grunge, alt-rock bangers hold their own against their American counterparts, despite a discography more akin to a yo-yo.
Building on The Kingdom’s ascent into electronica-led alt-rock, The Art Of Survival at its simplest is 12 slices of stadium-sized rock. But dig beneath it’s chassis and you’ll find an experiment of an engine, exploring how to be simultaneously minimalist and maximalist. More Than Machines and Shark Bite support maximalism, delivering choruses so crushingly catchy yet antagonistically angsty they wouldn’t be amiss on 1994’s Sixteen Stone, whilst the spectral, spaced-out jangle-pop jams that underpin Heavy Is The Ocean and Creatures Of The Fire are slow-burning world-builders all for minimalism.
Whichever side you support, you’re hard-pressed to find a single song to skip; something not seen on a BUSH album in over two decades. Sure, sprawling, synthetic slow burners like 1000 Years offset an album that’s otherwise speeding 100 miles per hour, but they’re still worthy entries that expand their sound. The Kingdom felt too close to the nostalgia of their 90s devotion, whilst The Art Of Survival breathes new life into their undeniably signature sound.
Guitarist Chris Traynor continues to sprinkle magic into every song, turning album tracks into standout moments. Shark Bite shapes a singular riff into a world-building explosion of noise that shakes your shoulders, a statement of urgency if ever there was one. Human Sand sends out a riff so disgustingly dirty and undeniably sexy it should be illegal, a bluesy bolt-on to give THE BLACK KEYS’ Gold On The Ceiling a run for its money. And Judas Is A Riot is a deep dish of dark alt-rock, driven by the chunkiest chugging industrial riff you’ll hear this year.
An album celebrating humanity’s ability to survive what should topple all great societies, The Art Of Survival constantly questions its own concept. Every other song wages war with the morality of mortality, with a handful of lyrics saying something or other about “everything wrong should be right” and so on.
At times, The Art Of Survival tries to be a social commentary; it tries to say a lot but falls into all-too familiar traps of cringeworthy lyrics, something that’s plagued frontman Gavin Rossdale since the 90s. Identity tries to make a statement on our need for individuality in an age of societal norms and social media addiction with lines like “Come colour the rainbow with identity / We used to be someone, now we’re nobody” but bruise the fruit of their labour with vomit-emoji-inducing throwaways like “Who is the angel? / Who is the whore?”
If 2020’s The Kingdom served as course correction for 2017’s Black And White Rainbows‘ reckless missteps into monochromic banality, The Art Of Survival is not only a stadium-shaking shockwave of a statement, but BUSH’s best album in over two decades.
Rating: 8/10
The Art Of Survival is set for release on October 7th via BMG.
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