Uncle Anesthesia

A prelude to the breakout success of Sweet Oblivion, Screaming Trees’ major-label debut has all the elements of the band’s sound and produced several of the Trees' most beloved songs. Though they remained deeply ensconced in the psychedelic influences that had formed them, the band members had begun to write big, classic rock songs rather than genre pieces. “Bed of Roses” is one of the most soaring and bittersweet things the Trees ever made, while “Story of Her Fate” shows they could write a pop song without sacrificing the rough edges. Released a few months before Nirvana’s Nevermind took the Seattle scene nationwide, songs like “Beyond This Horizon” and “Time for Light” got a lot of credit for precipitating grunge: credit the Trees tried to duck before it even started to surface. Some of the best material on Uncle Aesthesia completely subverts grunge norms, not only in the sweetly bleak balladry of “Closer” and “Before We Arise” but in the gentle “Disappearing,” which blends trumpets into its haze of Stooges-inspired guitar.