| To the Center | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Nebula |
| Cover: | nebulatothecenter.jpg |
| Recorded: | April 1999 |
| Studio: | Hanszek Audio, Seattle, Washington |
| Length: | 47:51 |
| Prev Title: | Nebula/Lowrider |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Next Title: | Charged |
| Next Year: | 2001 |
To the Center is the debut studio album by the American stoner rock band Nebula.[1] [2] It was released on August 24, 1999, on Sub Pop.[3] The album was later reissued in 2018 by the band's current label, Heavy Psych Sounds Records.[4] [5]
Recorded in Seattle, the album was produced with Jack Endino.[6] Guitar player Eddie Glass employed a Gibson SG.
Mark Arm sang on the band's cover of the Stooges' "I Need Somebody".[7]
Exclaim! wrote that Glass "transformed himself into a veritable guitar god almost overnight in an era wherein the slightest six-string noodling is waved off the road, considered indulgent."[3] The Chicago Tribune thought that "acoustic guitars, sitar, [and] synthesizer give this Hendrix-like trio added texture."[8] OC Weekly decided that "the band also gets a little groovy, pulling out the aural incense to jam on the Fugazi-like 'Freedom' and synthesizer-laced, Jefferson Airplane-ish 'Synthetic Dream'."[9]
The Province determined that "this power trio seems to have blotted up its churn and burn from ancient Frisco acid rock band, Blue Cheer."[10] Tucson Weekly deemed To the Center "an album which undeniably pushes the band to the forefront of its genre, whether or not you've got a bong in front of you."[11]
Houston Press wrote: "On a song such as 'Come Down', Nebula actually does what few '90s bands have ever done, chemically enhanced or not: It achieves true heaviness. After the song's simple three-note syncopated intro doubles back on itself, Glass scratches his guitar pick down his strings before singing the hurried lyrics. And it's during those one and a half seconds, the time it takes for Glass's pick to travel a few inches, that Nebula is the heaviest band on earth. Not since Ritchie Blackmore's days with Deep Purple has the simple gesture of pick scratching been used so perfectly."[12]
AllMusic called the album a "retro-psychedelic heavy rock platter, long on stripped-down riff muscle and surprisingly technically adept guitar jams."
Additional personnel