Fair or unfair,
Mother Love Bone is destined to be described as "the band Jeff Ament and
Stone Gossard were in before
Pearl Jam." But in fact,
Apple is a solid offering that can stand on its own merits. Even if
Pearl Jam had never come about,
Apple would be well worth obtaining. Though
MLB proudly declared its allegiance to Seattle in a 1990 interview with Cash Box,
Apple really doesn't fall into the alternative rock category or inspire comparisons to bands like
Nirvana,
Alice in Chains, or
Soundgarden. Rather,
MLB were clearly
Led Zeppelin and
Aerosmith devotees, and it's hard to miss the influence of
Zep's
Robert Plant and
Aerosmith's
Steven Tyler when lead singer Andrew Wood tears into such intense yet melodic hard rock boogie as "Capricorn Sister," "Stardog Champion," and "Captain Hi-Top." This was a band with great potential, but sadly, one can only speculate on what would have happened had it had a chance to develop. ~ Alex Henderson