Mudhoney: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge Album Review

By Shack Khoza
Music Journalist

Underrated Grunge Music are the words to describe this discrete garage rock album/project titled Every Good Boy Deserves Food by Mudhoney. This album is dedicated to those who love alternative and punk rock. It also fits outdoor activities, such as skateboarding or bike riding, since the album gives a certain sense of ferocious, aggressive, and daring characteristics!

Some would describe this kind of genre as alternative rock music, but others would identify it as “Grunge” music, known as “Seattle Sound”.

To go more into depth, grunge rock is a subculture that emerged around the Pacific Northwest regions. It’s characterized as ‘filthy’ or ‘impure’ songs that consist of microphone feedback, nasty guitar riffs, vulgar language, and heavy distortion. Most of the tracks in Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge feature all those grunge rock characteristics, but not in a negative way. The music is so fast-paced and swift that the audience would pay attention more to the style of the music rather than the lyrics.

For example, “Who You Driving Now?” and “Into The Drink,” has a brisk tempo that emits high adrenaline that makes people excited to listen and would mindlessly make them exhilarated and electrified. If you are in need of more head-banging music that would help you jumpstart your day, right below is a list of what to listen to since this album is quite vast:

“Thorn”

“Shoot The Moon”

“Fuzzgun ‘91”

“Poking around”

“March From Fuzz” 

There really isn’t a ‘best song’ in this album because it prioritizes the quantity of tracks and sacrifices the quality.

However, “Something So Clear” stands out in that the song has a repeating, harmonic melody that captures the audience’s ears and establishes a big buildup that makes it so satisfying when the drummer crashes on the drop. The bridge of the song presents a descending, scalar, guitar solo that decrescendos into silence, then crescendos into more lyrical screaming and effective guitar distortion.

A question that comes into mind would be, “Why was Mudhoney not as popular or adored just like the other famous rock bands of the 1980s?”

Well, there were so many bands to choose from in that era that some are chosen just because of a certain type of sound and image that are put in people’s minds. Possibly, Mudhoney didn’t display a memorable image in the competitive music industry. The good news is that their grunge music did inspire other artists and musicians to perform other types of alternative rock, especially now as they tour internationally in different countries, such as Great Britain, France, and Spain.