Sweet Oblivion

Village Voice - "...these Northwest veterans have started roiling and hooking and knocking 'em dead at the very moment they seemed ready to expire of corporate torpor..." - Rating: B+ Entertainment Weekly - "...Screaming Trees aren't just another grunge band. The Trees' deep roots suggest more a classic rock band, with traces of Neil Young, '70s Southern rock, psychedelic pop, and garage punk..." - Rating: B+ NME - 8 - Very Good - "...the sound of a spirit renewing itself...their big triumph...flows with the happy tension of a band that's corralled its scattered energies, shed a few skins and put to work the huge buzz that's come with their new lease on life..." Spin - Highly Recommended - "...Screaming Trees use tools forged in the heat of early-70s post-psychedelia to forge songs with new-sounding structures...powerful, poignant, and bittersweet..." Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...they recall the more belligerent outpourings of Deep Purple, Sabbath and even Blue Oyster Cult...there is glory in gargantuan sonic gestures..." Spin (10/92, p.106) - Highly Recommended - "...Screaming Trees use tools forged in the heat of early-70s post-psychedelia to forge songs with new-sounding structures...powerful, poignant, and bittersweet..." Village Voice (3/9/93, p.80) - "...these Northwest veterans have started roiling and hooking and knocking 'em dead at the very moment they seemed ready to expire of corporate torpor..." - Rating: B+ Q (10/92, p.90) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...they recall the more belligerent outpourings of Deep Purple, Sabbath and even Blue Oyster Cult...there is glory in gargantuan sonic gestures..." NME (10/3/92, p.37) - 8 - Very Good - "...the sound of a spirit renewing itself...their big triumph...flows with the happy tension of a band that's corralled its scattered energies, shed a few skins and put to work the huge buzz that's come with their new lease on life..." Entertainment Weekly (10/9/92, p.58) - "...Screaming Trees aren't just another grunge band. The Trees' deep roots suggest more a classic rock band, with traces of Neil Young, '70s Southern rock, psychedelic pop, and garage punk..." - Rating: B+

The commercial breakthrough for this Seattle foursome came with their song "Nearly Lost You" from the soundtrack to the 1992 Cameron Crowe film SINGLES. That song, included here, is a powerful slice of dramatic rock that's only vaguely related to the grunge scene into which the Screaming Trees were unfairly lumped.
While the group's major-label debut, 1991's UNCLE ANESTHESIA, had its metallic elements, the band mostly favoured a '70s-style brand of neo-psychedelia more indebted to TOMMY-era Who and other FM radio stalwarts than to punkier grunge forebears. Mark Lanegan's classic-rock voice and Gary Connor's thunderous guitar give this album a much more commercially viable sound than the group's earlier albums. SWEET OBLIVION is a minor classic of grunge-era commercial alternative music.|