Mother Love Bone: Apple [HIP-O RECORDS (UME)]

Why you'll love it

Fully remastered for the 35th anniversary and pressed on 180g eco-vinyl, this puts Apple properly back in print. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 18 among the 40 greatest one-album wonders, and Pitchfork named it one of the best grunge albums of the '90s.

This edition

• 35th anniversary remaster
• 180g eco-vinyl
• Pressed in the Netherlands

About the album

Before Seattle took over the world, it had Andrew Wood: a singer with a glam-sized voice, a piano and charisma to spare. Wood, guitarists Stone Gossard and Bruce Fairweather, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Greg Gilmore cut Apple in late 1989, between The Plant in Sausalito and London Bridge in Seattle, with Terry Date among the producers and Tim Palmer mixing. Wood died days before its planned arrival, and the album came out on Stardog/Mercury in August 1990 without him there to see it.

What survived is a big-hearted hard rock record with Wood's lyrics and flamboyant croon all over it: "This Is Shangrila," "Stardog Champion," "Stargazer," "Holy Roller" and the slow-blooming "Crown of Thorns." Gossard wrote the music for much of it, while every lyric is Wood's. The New York Times' David Browne wrote that Apple may be one of the first great hard-rock records of the '90s.

Gossard and Ament went on to co-found Pearl Jam, so this record sits right at the root of the Seattle family tree. If you've been filing Ten as the start of the story, the archive department would like a quiet word.

Also at Kops: more Mother Love Bone on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Stardog / Mercury / UMe, a reissue of the 1990 album.