Screaming Trees Album: “Clairvoyance”

There is only one other person who reviewed this album. If you are a Trees fan get this album NOW! You can hear the most obvious infuence on their debut. Doorsy guitar playing rages all over and splashes of keyboards crash through a few tracks. It is nearly perfect the whole way through. Here's the tracks in respect to their rating.

1. Orange Airplane - Nice opening! raw psychedelic punk rocker. 7/10

2. You Tell Me All These Things - Ultracatchy doorsy rocker with fast paced keyboards. This songs won't stick right away. After a few listens you're hooked! 8/10

3. Standing on the Edge - A bluesy rocker with Mark Lanegan's soulful vocals. The Drumming by Mark Pickerel is awesome here proving that he was not slouch before Barrett Martin. Probably the best track! 10/10

4. Forever - A prelude of what the Trees would start doing on their later releases. 7/10

5. Seeing is Believing - Unbelievable guitar playing and has an Doorsy feel yet 80's also. 10/10

6. I See Stars - A very nice blend of jangly guitars and harmony. This is another prelude to their later releases! 9/10

7. Lonely Girl - If the Animals and Doors were a punk outfit. Songs like this would have resulted. Excellent! 10/10

8. Strange Out There - A hypnotic early doorsy tune, not the most exciting song, but well done. Otherwise skippable! 6/10

9. The Turning - Probably my least favorite track on this album. Nice keyboards and has an almost retro feel. The song still works pretty well even though it really never takes off. 6/10

10. Clairvoyance - Almost a grunge song. Slow sludgy guitar into a raw unrelentless chorus. Solid song, great way to close the record. 8/10

Great record to start out with and gives a taste of what they would do in the future.

Three reasons why I would recommend this album to any Lanegan or Trees fan:

1) It foresees the musical tendecies of the following decade in a very clear way. Even though it was released in 1986, the album sounds as a blueprint of everything coming from Seattle in the early to mid 90's. Therefore, it should be classified as an essential classic together with other releases from the same era that aimed at the same style (simple, straight guitar-oriented music).

2) The production is amazing when you compare it to the average albums being produced in the same year. I mean, come on.. 1986? All I could think of is tons of reverb, drums that sound like your mother's pan set and guitars soaked in tones of controversial taste. What happens is exactly the opposite. Clean, crisp, no-frills sound.

3) The songs are pretty cool. I believe Clairvoyance is not an obvious pick by anyone pointing out the best Trees/Lanegan albums, but that doesn't mean it's a bad choice. If you like the other titles from their catalogue, this one might come up as a pleasant surprise. Even though it is classified as an average respectful effort by many people, let's face it: how often can you enjoy a song about an orange airplane while a kid screams out like a maniac in the background? Pure fun!

I bought this album today, after nagging the sales assistant into ordering it daily for several weeks. At first listen, when I simply skipped each track after the first one or two minutes, the album didn`t seem too impressive, but I felt obliged to buy it.

I have listened to this album several times over now, and even though this album doesn`t have the maturity and quality of Sweet Oblivion and Dust, it has several other pros that make it worth a listen. For one thing, Mark Lanegan is more lively here than on the last two albums. He seems a lot more "into" it, more spontaneous. The songs also take lots of interesting turns along the way, so that, for instance, the 3rd track, Standing On the Edge, begins in a pretty laidback, bluesy manner, but ends in grunge reminiscent of songs off Mudhoney`s Superfuzz Bigmuff album. Another song that is definitely worth your listen, is the last track, called Clairvoyance, where Mark sounds a lot like John Lennon at his best. In other tracks, like the opening track, you can hear a clear Doors` influence, something like the Doors updated to the style of a Seattle garage band. As a whole, the album sounds like the late 60`s meet punk meets garage rock.

All in all, this album is worth a listen for any fan of Screaming Trees and Mudhoney. But I think the casual listener should buy one of the Trees` later albums first. For one thing, Lanegan`s voice hasn`t yet reached its prime on this one, neither is Mark Pickerel quite as capable of carrying the groove as his later replacement Barret Martin was.