Don't Take Me for a Loser
Always Gonna Love You
Wishing Well
Gonna Break My Heart Again
Falling in Love with You
End of the World
Rockin' Every Night
Cold Hearted
I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow
The Screaming Trees’ swansong arrived four years after 1992's Sweet Oblivion, in the wake of scrapped sessions with producer Don Fleming, and actually turned out to be more of a signpost to Mark Lanegan’s solo career than the guns-blazing final huzzah that fans may have envisioned.
It was supposed to be the album that made the band mainstream stars – a big ask even without their stone-faced antipathy to the notion of rock stardom. But then the Trees never fitted in with prevailing trends anyway – Dust was less goatee’d angst, more classic rock in flannel-shirted drag.
There’s a haunting blues quality to much of the album, though it’s undoubtedly the razor-backed product of a band with a steady grip on rock dynamics, the Eastern flavours of the outstanding Halo Of Ashes and the ringing Dying Days being undeniable proof. The Screaming Trees didn’t officially call it quits until 2000, but Dust proved to be a worthy send-off.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in Jun 1996
- Supershitty To The Max! - The Hellacopters
- Romeo's Heart - John Farnham
- 18 Til I Die - Bryan Adams
- Copperopolis - Grant Lee Buffalo
- Load - Metallica
- Swansong - Carcass
- Placebo - Placebo
- Book Of Shadows - Zakk Wylde
- Gone Again - Patti Smith
- High/Low - Nada Surf
- Live From Neon Park - Little Feat
- Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request - The Brian Jonestown Massacre
- Morningrise - Opeth
What they said...
"Dust is the band's strongest album. Sure, the rough edges that fueled albums like Uncle Anesthesia are gone, but in its place is a rustic hard rock, equally informed by heavy metal and folk. The influence of Mark Lanegan's haunting solo albums is apparent in both the sound and emotional tone of the record, but this is hardly a solo project – the rest of the band has added a gritty weight to Lanegan's spare prose." (AllMusic)
"Sweet Oblivion's follow-up recording was eventually scrapped in the fallout of rushed touring and tales of drunken inter-band fistfights. Four years after the fact, Dust is as worthy as could be expected, a dose of fresh, near-mythical rock wallop for first-time listeners, and a likeable return for anticipatory fans." (CMJ)
"Dust, the group’s seventh full-length release, is its lushest, most full-bodied production job, with the core four-piece lineup abetted by acoustic guitars, sitars, strings, loads of exotic percussion and keyboards (by Benmont Tench of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers). With the fuller sound has come a more developed sense of arranging and writing, with the group sprinkling a little sugar on its murky guitar swirl, particularly on the raga-rock of Halo of Ashes and Gospel Plow and the addictive All I Know. (Chicago Tribune)
What you said...
Greg Schwepe: Wow. So, Screaming Trees' Dust album kind of surprised me. Or wait, maybe it didn’t? Now I’m not sure. Let me explain.
My first experience with Screaming Trees was back in 1990. The new local alternative station was promoting a show at a local club. Social Distortion was the headliner and Screaming Trees was the opener. Since they were promoting the show, the station had a couple of songs from each band in steady rotation on the air.
Went to the show knowing at least a few songs from each band. Show was kick-ass and both bands were loud as hell. Somehow my head was in a direct line with the Marshall amps blazing out on stage. The next day I had a Noise Hangover, my ears were still ringing and I had this stunned feeling about me. But then again, who doesn’t like a loud show?
On Monday I told a girl who worked in the same building as me, who was also a music nut, that I went to the show. She told me she had a Screaming Trees cassette (not sure which one) I could borrow. So, I copied the cassette, gave it back, then proceeded to listen. After 2-3 songs I thought to myself; “Wait, was this the right cassette? Is this the same band?”
What I heard was good, but did not sound like the same wailing band I heard on stage that night. I could hear maybe the same songs… but at like, 50% less volume and distortion. I literally fast-forwarded through the cassette waiting for something really loud and ripping. Liked what I heard, but that cassette ended up long gone at some point and had not listened to anything by the band until this week’s review.
Which brings me to Dust. After that live introduction to the band, then the somewhat muted band I heard on that cassette, will the real Screaming Trees please stand up for me? Halo of Ashes opens this album, and again, kind of expecting some raging song… but strong, calm vocals kick in with an almost sitar-like guitar sound. I liked it, but Screaming Trees confused me right off the bat.
I'm not going to do a song-by-song review of Dust, but it is a decent, rocking album. Listened all the way through initially and started a second time right afterwards. If I hit "Play" again right away, that's a good thing. Mark Lanegan’s vocals keep you engaged and the band provides a punky, almost grungy feel to the songs. Make My Mind is probably the most memorable song on the album, with different distinct feels in different sections.
I have no background on the band’s other releases and don’t know if this falls in line with other albums or if this is the “outlier” album like many bands have. So maybe this is the “real” Screaming Trees? And the deafening beautiful noise I heard back in 1990 is their live alter ego? 8 out of 10 on this one for me. If this is what they're really about. I'm off to check out more.
Adam Ranger: Not familiar at all with this band, so it was great to hear something new to me. Not at all what I expected from my perception of their sound. and that was a good thing.
How to describe the sound? Perhaps the love child of REM and Pearl Jam that spent time with Uncle Steppenwolf as he grew up? Melodic and driving riffs, pleasant even if melancholy vocals , lots of great guitar lines.
Really loving this after the first listen and definitely need to listen again and investigate their music more.
John Davidson: Filled with great riffs and chunky psychedelic grooves this is an album that I can see myself returning to. I love the melancholy vibe.
Some of the songs might blend together a bit in the middle but there are enough standouts to grab the attention. 8/10
Mike Canoe: Not sure why, but I never bought a Screaming Trees CD in their heyday. Odds are that, if I had, I would have resold it within a month or so because that's what I did back then. The band is obviously more than competent, enough so that it's hard to single Mark Lanegan out as the breakout star.
I like Gary Lee Conner's use of sitar and the various percussion that Barrett Martin uses, plus cello and harmonium! Still less than half the album hits for me. Opener Halo of Ashes is my favorite, then Witness, Dime Western and "Gospel Plow from the back half. I guess for me, these Trees didn't do enough screaming.
Brian Hart: The Screaming Trees are a band that should’ve been huge. They had a minor hit with Nearly Lost You. That was the song that turned me onto them. Dust is a great album and a bit more mature than Sweet Oblivion. It’s a little darker too.
Apparently this album gave the band fits with a couple of false starts. It took four years for them to release Dust but the final product is gold. I highly recommend all their major label releases. I was always hoping they’d get back together as I saw them several times when they were touring to support Sweet Oblivion.
RIP Mark Lanegan and Van Connor.
Scott Parnell: Definitely more psychedelic than the heavier Sweet Oblivion, and this results in one of Lanegan’s best and most varied albums. The organ on Sworn And Broken could be dropped in from 1968, but the record still felt like it belonged with my more grungy gems from the 90s.
I missed them when they broke up and whilst I loved the solo Mark right until he left us, this is a stonewall classic and a fine ending for the Trees.
Adriano Gazza: Great, great album, a lost classic from the era. Halo Of Ashes, Dying Days, All I Know, Traveller. A great ‘album’ to get lost in, topped off by Mark’s whiskey-soaked vocals
Keith Jenkin: The record that turned out to be the last proper Screaming Trees album. I always found them to be the perfect marriage of grunge and rootsy psychedelia and this was a good way to bow out. No obvious earworms on first listen – except, perhaps, the single All I Know – but repeated plays reveal the record's charms.
I was lucky enough to see the tour to promote the album when it called in at London Astoria where they were joined by Kyuss/Queens Of The Stone Age man Josh Homme on second guitar. Still play this one regularly and can highly recommend it to anyone new to the band.
Robert-Averkios Antonsen: A great album and my introduction to Mark's amazing voice. After that, I followed his career until the end and went back to listen to the whole Screaming Trees catalogue.
Mike Fildes: Always the most underrated of the Seattle bands, and – along with Soundgarden – always the most psychedelic. This is 90's rock infused with the best of rock history without ever being retro, echoes of The Byrds, The Doors, Beefheart, Buffalo Springfield, REM, Television, and a healthy dose of Zeppelin.
Every bit as good as, if not better than Sweet Oblivion, more epic in scale, more complex in terms of arrangements, there's plenty going on here, and always something new to discover, new layers to peel back.
Mark Lanegan is on fire here, as ever, as is the whole band, and the choice of Chris Goss for backing vocals for All I Know and Make Your Mind is inspired, their two voices together always seem to transport you somewhere else, somewhere good.
An album out of time, instantly contemporary – it hasn't aged a bit – yet also could pass for a recently rediscovered gem from the late 60s/early 70s, all without sounding like anyone else but the Screaming Trees.
An all-time classic, 10/10. RIP Van & Mark.
Mark Herrington: Dust is a great album, drenched in melancholy, with Lanegan's distinct vocals, world-weary and thick as pitch.
I first heard Mark Lanegan through his work with Soulsavers. If you like this, I recommend their album Broken,which is also brooding and dark. His extensive solo output is also worth checking out.
Halo of Ashes kicks us off, a track that wouldn’t be out of place on an Echo and the Bunnymen album. Then track after track flows darkly along, for ‘Dust’ has many scattered influences throughout. It's hypnotic, meandering tunes with folk, rock, psychedelia and goth references.
Great stuff - high score.
Final score: 7.51 (43 votes cast, total score 323)
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