L7: Smell The Magic [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This Sub Pop reissue is remastered. Rolling Stone placed it at No. 37 on its 50 Greatest Grunge Albums, and it's widely cited as an inspiration by the punk and riot grrrl bands that followed.

This edition

• Remastered

About the album

Sub Pop was a Seattle label and L7 were from Los Angeles, which gives you some idea how loud they must have been. The band grew out of the LA metal scene, worked as a crossover act between punk and metal, and Smell The Magic first came out in 1990 as a six-song 12" before a 1991 expansion added three more songs and turned it into a full album, the version here.

Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner and Jennifer Finch share the lead vocals while Demetra Plakas pounds the drums, and some of it was cut at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, with Jack Endino producing. "Shove," the band's first single, is a snarling kickoff, "Fast And Frightening" lives up to its name, and "Deathwish" and "'Til The Wheels Fall Off" grind along in the sludgier end of the pool. The added "Packin' A Rod," "Just Like Me" and "American Society" keep the pace up, and Mike Patton turns up as a guest vocalist. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music called it a raucous, grunge-flavored blast, and Trouser Press heard more melody than on the first album.

Rolling Stone also described the album as an electric shock in a sea of grey, which is roughly how our Queen St staff describe putting it on first thing on a Monday.

Also at Kops: more L7 on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP 1379), a reissue of the 1990 album.