Are Mudhoney still grunge? Were they ever? Because there's no accepted definition of the "g"-word, it's not possible to say. What is clear from "....Translucent", though, is that Mark Arm and his partners in grime still like it wild, raw, heavy, distorted and psychedelic. This is not the wall of fuzz that was "Superfuzz, Big Muff" or the punked-up "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge": even Mudhoney have to evolve. This time around the pace is a bit slower, the songs are a bit bluesier, and the arrangements a soupcon cleverer. There is even a dash of soul. The big surprise is the eight-minute opening track, a spaced-out, acid-jazz, Hawkwindish monster that collapses amid a cacophony of parping horns and squalling guitars, taking the band's psychedelic leanings further than ever before. It was disconcerting at first, but it's grown on me. For the rest, the terrain is largely familiar: Mark Arm adopts his "desperate" persona ("I'm a winner 'cos I've got nothing left to lose"); Steve Turner ladles out the sloppy, warm, distorted, fuzz; Guy Maddison steps effortlessly into the bassist role vacated by Matt Lukin and Dan Peters does what drummers do. In other words, Mudhoney are still having a laugh, still parodying all and sundry. Above all, they are keeping it energetic and visceral. Though this album recalls The Rolling Stones in places (albeit with added thud and rawness) and though Mark Arm deserves a light rap on the knuckles for the blatant similarities between "Inside Job" (track 7)and the song "From Now On", which he wrote for his side-project The Monkey Wrench (a wild band in a Johnny Cash-gone-punk vein, well worth checking out), Mudhoney remain the non plus ultra of garage bands.
