Ocean of Confusion - Songs of Screaming Trees 1990-1996

Ocean of Confusion tracks the period of Screaming Trees’ musical maturity, starting in 1989 with Buzz Factory and continuing to 1996, when the release of Dust confirmed the Trees' stature as the pre-eminent psychedelic band of the grunge era. Mark Lanegan—whose courage and vulnerability as a vocalist was the group's most defining trait—personally selected the songs. Aside from their biggest rock songs (“Ocean of Confusion,” “For Celebrations Past,” the still-magnificent hit “Nearly Lost You”), the compilation also shows how much the Trees did to subvert grunge conventions. Little touches like the brass section on “Disappearing” and the flutes of “Traveler” showed that their interests lay far outside the boundaries of hard rock. Lanegan was always a frontman more in the mold of Jim Morrison and Lee Hazlewood than Robert Plant, and the two unreleased songs here show him at his brooding best. “Watchpocket Blues” and “Paperback Bible” both start with deceptively slow passages before building to throttling choruses. Pop smarts, psychedelic inventiveness, and impassioned choruses: Screaming Trees had it all. This is the proof.