Mother Love Bone – ‘On Earth As It Is – The Complete Works’

Collections and compilations are a funny business. Most of the time they are purely a cash cow with the same content you already know; repackaged, reissued, and released only to liberate the contents of your wallet under the guise of being “new”. You could argue that ‘On Earth As It Is – The Complete Works’ is much of the same, and you would be forgiven for thinking so, yet this isn’t just a compilation of few tracks from Mother Love Bone, that’s been done; this is everything.

Between 1988 and 1990, before Stone Goddard and Jeff Ament were selling out arenas with Pearl Jam, there was Mother Love Bone. While the burgeoning grunge scene of Washington was on a mission to kill hair metal and pompous rock music, some of that sound filtered into Mother Love Bone. They bridged the gap between the two. Sadly, their career was all too short due to the untimely passing of vocalist Andrew Wood, just before release of their debut album, ‘Apple’.

Then how, we hear you cry, do you put together a complete collection from a band that only released one EP and one LP in their two year existence? Simple: include everything the band recorded to create a document of one of the most under appreciated bands of their time. ‘On Earth As It Is’ is 40 songs deep, starting with the ‘Shine’ EP, straight into the aforementioned ‘Apple’, then 23 outtakes, unreleased demos, b-sides, and live recordings.

Those familiar with Mother Love Bone will know much of the material from their catalogue. Even now, the alternative metal stomp of ‘Stardog Champion’ feels ahead of its time, ‘Capricorn Sister’ still has the same swagger you remember, and you can hear the countless bands that were inspired by power ballad meets rock ‘n’ roll decadence of ‘Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns’.

When you start to drink in the lesser-known tracks on the latter half of ‘On Earth As It Is’, you can see why they didn’t make the cut on ‘Shine’ or ‘Apple’. While they are far from bad, because Mother Love Bone didn’t really make band music, it’s more that they are weaker than what you expect from them. ‘Lady Godiva Blues’ is nothing more than an OK track, and ‘Lubricated Muscle Drive’ crosses the line into a cliché 80s rock mess.

There is a lot to get your teeth into with ‘On Earth As It Is’, but it serves its purpose well. Unless you are a diehard record collector, looking to find that original pressing of ‘Apple’ we have all lusted after, this is everything you will ever need. Fans who know the work of Mother Love Bone will respect the effort put in; those who might only know of them from the soundtrack to (Cameron Crowe movie) Singles can enjoy everything at once. Either way, it’s the perfect chance to relive the back catalogue of one of the finest bands Seattle ever produced.

GLEN BUSHELL