4 Non Blondes - Bigger, Better, Faster, More!

31 years and my life is still, 

Wondering what's up with the only album 4 Non Blondes had a chance to make. 

Meter's a little off, but when has that ever stopped me? Better late than never, let's open up this here copy of Bigger, Better, Faster, More! and find out. 

1992 was a crazy year in music, coming off the heels of 1991's monsterous triumverate of Nevermind, Use Your Illusion I&II, and the Black Album. In hindsight it was clearly nothing more than the corporate commodification of kookiness, but what a time to be 12 among teenagers; Alternative anything crashing through the gate and unignorably camping out on the front lawn for lack of anything better to do. 

As these things tend to happen, it wasn't until mid 1993 that the second single What's Up really became a perennial radio/coffee shop cover staple, and by that point the band was already in the process of unraveling during the recording of their second album, but that's the standard story for pretty much everyone; it's rare to have any sort of lasting career on the recording side of things. 

Let's be brutally honest, in the early 90s it didn't help having an openly gay frontwoman with a "Dyke" T-shirt as your frontwoman. Thankfully i don't have any delusional bigotry to spend on that kind of gender-stereotyping nonsense, so i can just move right along to "HOLY HELL THIS ALBUM IS FANTASTIC." 

Bigger, Better, Faster, More! is a Random Crap album if i've ever seen one with my own earballs, so i expect a bit of all over the place in the same tone of voice that says "i'm feeling a little peculiar," and damned if i'm not completely satisfied. 

Train sounds, harmonica, and dirty electric blues gives way to a totally Heart worthy opening track, called Train. Let that sink in, it's so simple practically everyone could screw it up. 

Total Funk for Superfly. Good Funk, not frat Funk. 

I don't think i need to say much about What's Up, do i? A ridiculously big single that doesn't actually disturb the flow of the album? That fact alone is so preposterous i can't help but point it out. Nobody's out of nowhere smash hit sticks in like an unsore thumb, and you can quote me on that 'cause it's a thing i'd say. 

Pleasantly Blue. You do realize no one else has ever titled a song with those words, right? If i were going to give a masterclass on sarcasm, this would be at the top of the list of examples. Linda Perry just wrote that song and then followed it up with "Morphine & Chocolate are my substitutes" to close out Side A. What the imaginable anguish did Linda not like about this album? It's awesome, it didn't go platinum in under 2 years because it's generic fluff, i can tell you that. I get that the process of making an album for Interscope was probably exactly no fun as any other band was having at the time, and i totally understand that you might not be jaded enough to recognize how much of a joke it was like Pearl Jam and STP did, but not a single one of the albums the majors produced at the time is bad. Holy moly, Old Mr. Heffer is straight up Psychobilly, as good as the best of Reverend Horton Heat without question. 

And right back to the Hard Funk Rock for Calling All The People. You all know i'm a fan of Spin Doctors, but 4 Non Blondes could have eviscerated the entire jam scene if they'd actually wanted to. 

Dear Mr. President is tough, because you have to remember dad Bush was still president at the time. I think we can all agree he was comparatively tame. At least he acknowledged Reagan's economic ideals were total day old mashed potatoes. Didn't do crap about it, but at least he sometimes said moderately sensible words. 

And then we end with forgetting what it was we were talking about, like i like to do for comedic effect. Not this time though, this time i stayed totally on topic; criminally underrated album from an amazing band that got totally lost in the shuffle and never got a third at bat when they should have in the later innings. 

4 Non Blondes, if all you know is What's Up or you believe it's a C album like they told you, then you're missing the other ten 11ths of awesome. I guess if you're predisposed to hate it then you can, but i certainly don't. If nothing else, it's truth in advertising.