Released December 6, 1994 Length 52:38 Release date 6 December 1994 | Recorded January 1994 Artist Bush | |
 | ||
Studio Westside Studios, London, England Producer Clive Langer
Alan Winstanley
Bush Sixteen Stone
(1994) Razorblade Suitcase
(1996) Label Insomniac/Interscope Records Genres Rock music, Grunge, Post-grunge, Hard rock Similar Bush albums, Grunge albums | ||
Sixteen Stone is the debut album of British rock band Bush, released on 6 December 1994, through Trauma Records. Widely regarded as the band's most popular album, it peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and boasted numerous successful singles. "Comedown" and "Glycerine" remain two of the band's biggest hits to date, each reaching number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. "Comedown", "Machinehead", and "Glycerine" were the three songs from the album to enter the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number thirty, number forty-three, and number twenty-eight, respectively. To mark its 20th anniversary, on 14 October 2014 a remastered edition of the album's original recordings was released.
Contents
Packaging
In the UK, a stone is a unit of weight that equals 14 pounds. Therefore, sixteen stone means 224 pounds or about 102 kilograms. When asked why lead singer Gavin Rossdale chose the name "Sixteen Stone" for the name of their album, he said: "Once upon a time there was a lonely man... my friend, who called a phone number advertising a '21-year old Scandinavian beauty, new in town.' When she arrived, she was forty years old and sixteen stone..." In the booklet of Sixteen Stone, there is a heart and a dedication to "Rupert and Julie", two of Gavin's friends who died in a boating accident along the Thames in England. The cover insert has a picture of what looks like a bush or mop head flying through the air. This is actually Gavin's dog named Winston. A Puli, a breed of dog with dreadlock-like cords, that has been tossed in the air or is jumping. Beck used the same effect in 1996 with a Komondor, another Hungarian dog breed that has similar fur to the Puli, on his album Odelay which looks like a mop jumping a hurdle.
Release
Sixteen Stone was released on 6 December 1994, through Trauma Records. Around the album's 20th anniversary, a remastered edition of its original recordings was released. When asked about also remixing the album for the anniversary edition, Rossdale stated "I did attempt to remix ... but it's really, like, you just can't do that. You can't mess with stuff. Those mixes, every single level of those songs is just ingrained in my DNA as it's probably in anybody's DNA who knows it. It just sounds really weird when you mess with it."
Critical reception
Sixteen Stone received mostly positive feedback from music critics. In a three out of five star review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic calls their sound impressive, but states that the band sounds too much like Seattle rockers Nirvana and Pearl Jam. In later years Bush would distance themselves from the familiar grunge sounds with experimental releases such as Deconstructed and The Science of Things.
Retrospectively, Sixteen Stone has received critical acclaim. In April 2014, Rolling Stone placed the album at number thirty-nine on their 1994: The 40 Best Records From Mainstream Alternative's Greatest Year list. A month later, Loudwire placed Sixteen Stone at number eight on its "10 Best Hard Rock Albums of 1994" list. In July 2014 Guitar World placed the album on its "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.
Track listing
All songs written by Gavin Rossdale.
Chart performance
Sixteen Stone first entered the Billboard 200 at number 187 for week ending 28 January 1995, and eventually peaked at number four. In 2010 the album's US sales passed the six million mark.
Singles
Billboard Music Charts (North America)
Songs
1Everything Zen4:38
2Swim4:56
3Bomb3:23