Afternoon Baseball

Institute is the new band fronted by Gavin Rossdale, the lead singer/guitarist of Bush. For all intents and purposes, the sound is closest to Bush on Sixteen Stone ("Glycerine," "Machinehead," "Little Things" etc.) rather than the sparser, dark Razorblade Suitcase. But it's still more hard rock and more of a wall of sound than any Bush album, albeit with the same Rossdale vocals and occasionally insightful, often meaningless lyrics. So...if you like Bush, you'll like Institute. If not, probably not, but you might still find some things to enjoy.

Rossdale's very distinctive voice actually sounds better here, though, and it's a cool voice. It's as if he's realized he can only sing his way, and he's refined his voice to best do that.

What made me interested in this album was two late-night appearances they made. On one, they played "Ambulances," which is "Letting The Cables Sleep" slightly up-tempo with more guitar. It's a little too serious for its own good, but is excellent live. The second was "Bullet Proof Skin," which may be the best example of this harder-edged Rossdale. Beyond the electronic-sounding opening that belongs on a Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park album, there's scorching guitars, take-no-prisoners vocals (combining on a fantastic chorus) and some great interplay between the drums and bass.

The rest of the songs? Some hits and misses, especially with the odd combinations of styles, sometimes within the same song. "Come on Over" begins with a riff right off of "I Never Came" by Queens of the Stone Age, but has Foo Fighters power-ballad choruses with classic Bush verses.
"Information Age" is a solid song (better suited for 1995) with the main riffs that sound most like a late-1990s Metallica without the annoying trying-to-groove riffs.
"Wasteland" is made straight-for-radio, but not in a bad way. Typical soft-loud dynamic.
The rest are standard hard-rock fare that just happen to have a grunge-type of vocals.

Overall? Solid album, but not breaking any new ground. But it's been too long without a Bush album, and if that can't happen, this is a good substitute.