A few days ago, a friend of mine got in touch to declare that Let Me Drown, the crunching introduction to Soundgarden’s masterful Superunknown, has to be up there as one of the all-time great grunge openers. A heated back-and-forth followed – hey, we’re a couple of guys in our mid-40s who own more than one flannel shirt, this is how we converse – and I decided the only way to properly win this argument was to take full advantage of being a music journalist and publish the definitive, no-comebacks-allowed top ten grunge openers. Yeah, that’s how petty I am: my list is on Loudersound.com, Joel, so I win. Here it is, from ten down to one, with the rules (that I made up) being only one entry per band. I also reserve the right to come back and rearrange the order if I change my mind in future, ie tomorrow. OK, Let’s get to it…
10. L7 – Wargasm
No grunge band had a greater balance of cool and commotion as L7, as demonstrated on the ferociously excellent Wargasm. The opener on their breakthrough 1992 record Bricks Are Heavy, it’s a snarling, riff-heavy gem.
9. Mother Love Bone - This Is Shangrila
This list could be filled with Pearl Jam-affiliated bands from Temple Of The Dog to Brad to Mad Season, but I've kept it to one. It’s impossible to listen to Mother Love Bone and not wonder what might have been. The opening track to their one and only record Apple is one of their best, a grunge in its gladrags masterclass with Andrew Wood as mercurial ringleader.
8. Mudhoney - Touch Me I’m Sick
Speaking to this writer about their trailblazing debut release a few years ago, Mudhoney’s Mark Arm comically remarked, “We might have blown our wad on our first single!”. There were still plenty of excellent Mudhoney moments to come, but the first track on Superfuzz Bigmuff set out their stall stunningly, its Stooges-y menace undimmed in the near-four decades since.
7. Stone Temple Pilots - Meatplow
Scott Weiland & co. had hit huge success with their debut album but everything – the songs, the sound, the attitude – was a step up on follow-up Purple. From the off, Meatplow showed the quartet were a band seizing their moment in the spotlight, a scintillating combo of gnarly riffs and stop-what-you’re-doing-and-look-at-me vocals.
6. Hole – Violet
Given the chaos that Courtney Love’s personal life was mired in at the time – husband Kurt Cobain had very recently died by suicide and her drug addiction and personal life were constantly splattered across the news – there is a clean, crisp edge to Violet that showed Hole were a different beast to their peers. Rumoured to be about her ex Billy Corgan, it centres around the explosive, punky blast of its chorus but its indelible melodicism and sharp hooks were pop of the highest order.
5. Alice In Chains - Them Bones
No gently lulling you in on Alice In Chains’ imperial second record Dirt. Them Bones gets right up in your grill from the off with its blistering combo of Layne Staley’s guttural roar and a jagged Jerry Cantrell riff that sounds like its climbing up your spine. Monumental.
4. Soundgarden - Let Me Drown
My mate is right, of course, Let Me Drown has to be up there… in the top five. Sonically, Soundgarden always seemed to have something a little extra going on compared to other grunge bands, as if they had six guitarists and four drummers. This deftly layered classic begins like a little like you’ve walked in halfway through, a criss-cross of screeching riffs and beefy drums giving way to Chris Cornell’s impossibly cool vocal. An outrageously good opener.
3. Pearl Jam - Go
A very tough choice between this and Once (and Last Exit!) but Vs. opener Go just for how pummelling and impactful it is, a song that straps you in and rockets you along whether you want to join it or not. It introduced a band who sounded leaner and feistier than they did on Ten, as if they had taken the questioning of their punk credentials personally. Go is a tightly-wound blockbuster.
2. Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
Cherub Rock spends 25 seconds laying down the building blocks of Siamese Dream’s kaleidoscopic sonic world and then charges into one of the best and most forward-thinking anthems of the 90s. It’s a hard rock epic that sounds like Led Zeppelin in space.
1. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
It has to be really, doesn’t it? There’s probably a reader out there who says Serve The Servants is a better opener and maybe the In Utero cut is a stronger representation of who Nirvana were, but for sheer oomph, it has to be Teen Spirit. In the same way that you don’t stop and go, ‘Isn’t air great?!’, it’s a song that has become so embedded in the cultural landscape that you can easily forget what a jaw-droppingly, generationally great tune it is.
