Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023

Album review

Bush are nothing if not survivors. Back in the 1990s, when critiques of being a Nirvana rip-off clouded a lot of the critical assessment surround the band, they still managed to pump out solid tunes and sell millions of records, adding a handful of stone-cold classics to the '90s rock/grunge canon. At the turn of the millennium, their fortunes shifted quite rapidly, and Gavin Rossdale and company entered into workhorse mode for the next few decades, pumping out reliably rocking output that hardened a dedicated fan base and kept them on the headlining tour circuit well into 2023, when this compilation was released. Finally giving due recognition to that "late"-era (more like "post-peak") part of the catalog -- which at this juncture outnumbered their classic '90s period -- Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 plays like a long-overdue celebration of the songs that kept them on the radar, bringing in fans of their early days and locking them in with worthy gems that they may not have heard before. Naturally, most of this collection is packed with the unimpeachable quintet of singles from their debut breakthrough, 1994's Sixteen Stone. The underrated sophomore "slump" Razorblade Suitcase gets the requisite "Swallowed" and the epic "Greedy Fly," the latter being one of their greatest (and heaviest) moments that time forgot. The well-intentioned remix set Deconstructed gets the sleeper hit "Mouth (The Stingray Mix)" (the "Everything Zen" and "Swallowed" versions on the near-identical The Best of '94-'99 do not appear here), while 1999's excellent The Science of Things is represented by "The Chemicals Between Us" and "Letting the Cables Sleep" (the third difference with '94-'99 being the exclusion of this LP's "Warm Machine"). From here, it's a post-Y2K avalanche of songs that make this the most representative Bush hits collection outside of a personalized playlist. Starting with a pair from 2001's Golden State, a criminally overlooked album that was effectively snuffed by unfortunate timing and world events, and one slot each from The Sea of Memories, Man on the Run, Black and White Rainbows, and 2022's resurgent The Art of Survival. Buried in between are a trio of U.S. Top 20 Rock chart hits from 2020's The Kingdom, which, if you're keeping track, is the album with the second-most inclusions after Sixteen Stone. For good measure, Loaded closes with the crunchy throwback sound of the previously unreleased "Nowhere to Go But Everywhere" and a studio cover of the Beatles' "Come Together." Altogether, Loaded makes a strong case for Bush's decades-spanning career and their place in the modern rock pantheon, showcasing the band's staying power and Rossdale's unwavering dedication to his loyal fan base.

© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo