Blind Melon's Self-Titled Debut - Classic 90's Music Review

I can't help but feel a little old when music from the 90's is referred to as classic, but I guess it's inevitable when many of the pioneers from that decade have already died. Although musicians like Nirvana's Kurt Cobain or Alice in Chains' Layne Staley made bigger headlines when they left this world, I felt a much greater loss from the drug overdose death of Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon.

Blind Melon's first album was a killer non-stop set of 13 songs that included their smash hit single, No Rain. It's the song with the very famous music video featuring the bee girl trying to find her place in the world. The band had released a couple of singles prior to No Rain, but none of them took off until MTV got hold of that video and played it over and over again.

While many fans of the band still cherish No Rain and it may be the only song that Blind Melon is really known by, I felt like this album featured a bunch of solid singles that were actually better in terms of music and lyrics. I have always thought the band sounded like Led Zeppelin would have sounded had they been from the southern United States instead of the UK. Three of the five members of Blind Melon were from Mississippi.

This album opens up with a wallop and climbs until it hits No Rain, which is in the middle of the track listing. From there it smoothes itself out, like somebody winding down from a high, and the last track is an extended one that winds up nicely. Each song flows very well into the other, thus making Blind Melon's debut album one that you can listen to from beginning to end without any weird filler tracks or anything sounding like it is out of place.

In the past couple of years, Blind Melon briefly resurfaced with a new singer and even managed to put out an excellent new album, called For My Friends, before the new singer left the band. According to Blind Melon's MySpace Page, the bickering between the band and the singer had been going on for a while. I don't pretend to know the whole story but do find it unfortunate that they couldn't make things work. For My Friends is truly a great album.

If you want a taste of some great early 90's guitar rock, you should check out Blind Melon's self-titled first album. It was all about southern funk rock that still held its own while so many people were getting into the grunge era.