Classic Masters [Original recording remastered]

The opening word to the 'introduction' inside the booklet to Blind Melon's 'Classic Masters' album provided by one of Blind Melon's guitarists, Roger Stevens, two years ago. It seems to say a lot in a few short sentences. When you hear Blind Melon you would never even think that they were the sort of band who would even raise their voices because they just sound so relaxed. But you can understand as with all other humans, that these songs were their babies. They were their creative outlets, they were their meanings and ultimately they were their lives. And what a life it was.

Spanning 3 albums and over 4 years, 'Classic Masters' captures some fine moments. Moments of total highs, searing summers, and chilled autumn's and contemplative thoughts. Blind Melon, and particularly dearly missed vocalist Shannon Hoon, has something for everyone, but were a band surely born in the wrong era, and unfortunately meant so much to so few. Hoon's delicate vocals could be vulnerable and utterly vicious in the same song, and the two-guitar force right behind him was always powerful and always fulfilled that rock and roll need. When Hoon himself died on a tour-bus, back in the mid-nineties he left a daughter, an adoring wife and too few adoring fans that to him sounded to be far too many.

One listen to the likes of the acoustic beauty of 'Change', and the home-sick 'Tones Of Home', showed the vulnerability of one man and his band who became too big for his own good. Indeed 'Change' and so many of Blind Melon's other songs sound so personal and yet have this overwhelming ability to be related to by just about anyone. 'Change' itself as the title obviously suggests, is about growing and changing, for Hoon because of his new found fame, and for everyone else for however they wish to use it. I've certainly used it a few times... 'Tones Of Home' opens, and is an upbeat song with a much more hurtful meaning behind it, involving homesickness and the need to return to how things should be. So many could relate and so many still will.

Melon's biggest achievement was of course, their one and only big hit, 'No Rain'. An absolutely irresistible little tune, written about a girl who certainly had her problems, was embraced by a worldwide audience and turned a tiny band from a tiny town into a phenomenon. The shameful thing is that as irresistible and powerfully compelling this song is it's not necessarily the best, as so-called 'one-hit wonders' always have a few hidden beauties. The likes of the more rockier 'Galaxie' and the peculiar 'Soup', certainly grab your attention and hold it, where the last two song on the album, 'Pull' and 'Soul One', are both from an oddities and rarities collection, are both terrific listens, particularly the latter. Recorded on a 9-track and never mastered in quality, a heart-broken, needing track, it's defiantly one of Blind Melon's finer moments that will unfortunately be very scarcely heard.

In the end, Blind Melon's startlingly simplistic songs, impress immensely, that would surely have taken off and made them one of the worlds biggest bands had they been around, say 20 years earlier. Ultimately this is music, and it's music that is wonderful, it croons magic, sensitivity, and for the entire world is thoughtful and thought provoking and yet feels so free. The rockier numbers break a resoundingly relaxed atmosphere but there was an almost desperate peace around Blind Melon that is scarcely heard, and as Roger rightfully says, after 6 years of there being no Blind Melon he badly misses it. So does their fans and so will their future fans. He was also proud to have played with the guys and any BM fan will tell you that it was a pleasure to have heard them.

But Blind Melon, and their charismatic, tragic front man Shannon Hoon, did leave their mark; the words on Hoon's final resting place say it all:

"I know we can't all stay here forever, so I want to write my words on the face of today, and they'll paint it"

Blind Melon was a great band that achieved so much and yet so little, which in the end was just too much.

5 Stars.