3 out of 5

Label: Zuma Rock Records

Produced by: Gavin Rossdale

This is valid.

It wasn’t, upon first listen, after which I would’ve said that Bush’s Black and White Rainbows was irrevocably invalid, and preceded to spit criticisms I’ll still spit, but I think I’m now doing so with less fluvial-flinging ire.

Because of course subsequent spins helped to lessen perceived negatives and bring out positives; consideration of where this fit in Bush’s evolution and Rossdale’s life merited some second glances; and, maybe most importantly… I started to like some of the songs.

Bush’s career has had ups and downs, and swings into and out of grunge and hard rock and arena rock; every other album or so seems to be a reflection on the previous ones, with Rossdale pushing and pulling those tonal levers.

Black and White Rainbow’s production is pretty damn tepid. I think that’s the first thing that struck me. I’d want to celebrate this as a swan song for original drummer Robin Goodrich, this being his final outing with the band, but the drums are as processed as can be on this, to the extent they might as well be digital. It’s indicative of the album’s sound approach in general, which is geared towards an almost AOR, edgeless mix, or, at its most relatively “aggressive” points, adult-friendly stadium rock – just punchy enough to instinctually bob some heads, but not much more.

This feels like a moderate redirect from the group’s attempt to still sound loud on the last few releases, working with big ol’ rock producers Dave Sardy, Bob Rock, and Nick Rasculinecz; then again, Gavin hasn’t given up the ghost of trying to force electronic fiddlings into his music, and even though they fall flat here as well (almost embarrassingly so on tracks like opener Mad Love, where they’re so milquetoast in the mix as to be objectively pointless), it feels like an opposite tack of making everything kind of smooth a glossy was the goal – meaning the whole project sits on the same rather middling layer as the electronics. Roundabout, I’m trying to explain that Bush has been struggling, since Science of Things perhaps, to reconcile their kind of dated grunge ethics with mainstream polish, and this is the first album to solve that by just dropping the grunge. It’s not the most interesting solve, but accepting it as the direction… it’s valid. This is a consistent album. I’d also shove in here the note that Rossdale is acting as producer, and the last time he did that was with Institute and, yeah, Science of Things.

Second main criticism: the lyrics are also pretty tepid. This has forever been a sticking point for Gavin, who I feel like has often subbed in vagueness or nonsense for a lack of stuff to say, but he’ll still (maybe accidentally…) stumble across an interesting turn of phrase or image. That’s gone here. This is, again, a mainstreaming: almost all of the tracks are pretty generic “love ya babe” tunes (which is interesting contextually, as Gavin had just gone through a divorce), with precisely zero layers to these thoughts. And where it’s not about that, it’s some pretty “wild” concepts like stop war, and don’t pollute. Yeah, alright.

…But, again, the flipside of this is that it’s like a total lack of pretense. I might roll my eyes, but no moreso than at the relative genericness of any given mass-consumer single. So it’s kind of oddly more sincere in that sense. (Although there are still a handful of dumb Rossdale-isms, where Gavin chooses a phrasing that’s almost childlike just because it fits the patter better; he’s done this since Sixteen Stone and it made me cringe even then.)

These are pretty big things to take on a first pass, qualifying a longtime listener to say things like “this doesn’t really sound like Bush anymore.”

And then with some patience, it’s maybe more that this is what Bush has been trying to avoid sounding like, and fully embracing an arena rock sound is actually pretty comfortable. For example, when we totally ditch any sniff of rock for pure pop – – it’s one of the best tunes on the disc! But in addition, there are still some solid rockers, even if watered down.

With such a seeming shift in sound, I’m the type who’d probably argue that Bush should change their band name – that they are now a different band. And maybe if you’re setting this next to Razorblade Suitcase, sure. Following along, though, it’s clear that the roots of an adult contemporary Bush have always been there, and ironically, perhaps it took something life changing in Gavin’s personal world to make him comfortable enough to finally embrace that.