Kim Shattuck spent five years playing bass with
the Pandoras before she left and formed a band of her own, and as a result the 1993 debut album from
the Muffs is a bit like
Shattuck's pop-punk version of
George Harrison's
All Things Must Pass -- having spent years piling up demos for worthwhile songs that didn't have a home,
Shattuck and her bandmates had plenty of winners to choose from, and though
the Muffs could more than deliver the goods, it's the consistent quality of the tunes that really made this album click. The punky, downstroked guitars of
Shattuck and
Melanie Vammen and the crash-and-bash rhythms of bassist
Ronnie Barnett and drummer
Criss Crass were the perfect vehicle for
Shattuck's songs, but it's the irresistible melodic hooks of "Eye to Eye," "Lucky Guy," "From Your Girl," and "Every Single Thing" that elevated
The Muffs from good pop-centric punk (or punk-centric pop) to something that truly stood out.
Shattuck also proved to be an astute and skillful lyricist, with a strong witty streak and a punk gal's snarky sensibility, but her take on relationships on
The Muffs is significantly more articulate and heartfelt than nearly any of her peers -- it's hard to imagine someone delivering two breakup songs that hit their target as well as "Saying Goodbye" and "All for Nothing" while taking such strikingly different approaches, and it takes courage to wrap a song about stalking around a melody and guitar hook as addictive as "Everywhere I Go." The production by
Rob Cavallo and
David Katznelson is just a bit indulgent -- the album could have played better without the
Korla Pandit organ interlude, the goofy wind effects track, or the 31-second
Angry Samoans cover -- but they get the sound of this band down beautifully, and given how closely
Cavallo would follow the template of these sessions on
Green Day's
Dookie the following year, one wonders if a few of these tunes could have been radio hits if
Billie Joe and his pals had gotten there first and greased the wheels for an album of similarly hooky punk tunes. Time has been kind to
The Muffs, and more than 20 years after its initial release, it sounds like one of the best and brightest albums to emerge from the '90s pop-punk explosion. [In 2015,
Omnivore Records gave
The Muffs an expanded and remastered reissue that included alternate versions of "Lucky Guy" and "Everywhere I Go" as well as eight unreleased solo demos recorded by
Shattuck. The new master gives the album a more full-bodied sound, and the liner notes by
Barnett and
Shattuck lend a valuable perspective on how the album (and the band) came to be. While the demos are also available as a digital EP, the improved audio does make this a worthy purchase for those who still dig physical product.] ~ Mark Deming
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