Mother Love Bone Gets Reissued

Remastered versions of Shine and Apple out now

September 26, 2025September 26, 2025 Ron Hart 0 Comments Alice in Chains, Andrew Wood, Badlands, Bruce Fairweather, Greg Gilmore, Jeff Ament, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Seattle, Soundgarden, Stone Gossard, UMe

Mother Love Bone 1989 press photo. (Image: Polygram Records)

Seattle’s Mother Love Bone were the ultimate bridge connecting the glitz of ‘80s hard rock and the grit of ‘90s alternative rock.

And today, UMe is celebrating the band’s legacy with standalone reissues of their 1989 debut EP Shine and its majestic full-length follow-up Apple. Both titles are available on CD, standard black vinyl or limited-edition color vinyl variants. A limited-edition, newly remastered Japan-exclusive Mini-LP/SHM-CD that includes both Shine and Apple, will also be available on Oct. 10.

The CD version of the Shine EP includes “Capricorn Sister (Album Version)” as a bonus track, not included on the LP. The Shine vinyl formats feature a 4-song track list repeated on both sides, and it is available in three options: a standard black vinyl, a limited-edition “Purple Haze” vinyl, and a limited-edition “Skyblue” vinyl LP.

Mother Love Bone Shine EP, UMe 1989/2025

Fully remastered for the 35th anniversary, Apple is officially being released as a standalone piece for the first time since 1990. The CD version includes two bonus tracks not included on the vinyl format: “Gentle Groove” and “Mr. Danny Boy.” At the same time, the vinyl formats will be available in standard black vinyl, a limited-edition “Red Alert” color vinyl, or a limited-edition “Apple Habanero” color vinyl.

When Apple was originally released on Aug. 14, 1990, it was five months after the unexpected passing of the group’s frontman Andrew Wood, who succumbed to a heroin overdose at only 24. For his bandmates, rounded out by future Pearl Jam members Jeff Ament on bass and Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, as well as lead guitarist Bruce Fairweather and drummer Greg Gilmore, along with their friends across Seattle, his death hit the city like an atom bomb.

“He was so funny and he had such humility, it’s really — I just think back, that we missed the opportunity to really elevate him and take care of him in a way that I wish we were able to do,” Gossard said in 2020 on the Appetite for Distortion podcast. “But at that time we were just all hungry and trying to prove ourselves, and I think we spent too much time trying to prove ourselves and not enough time trying to really listen to somebody who’s had a lot of wisdom at that time. So it’s a mixed feeling I have. I’m not sure that we really cared for Andy as well as we should’ve.”

“I was thinking a lot about Andrew Wood at the time,” wrote Jerry Cantrell in the liner notes to the 1999 Alice in Chains box set Music Bank in reference to the band’s 1992 song “Would?,” which they wrote for the singer. They also dedicated their 1990 debut LP Facelift to Wood. “We always had a great time when we did hang out, much like Chris Cornell and I do. There was never really a serious moment or conversation, it was all fun. Andy was a hilarious guy, full of life and it was really sad to lose him. But I always hate people who judge the decisions others make. So it was also directed towards people who pass judgments.”

“I felt really alone when Andy died,” Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell told RIP Magazine in 1992, shortly after he and members of Pearl Jam formed Temple of the Dog in honor of Wood. “I spent a lot of time with him and tried to work out his pain creatively. Most of the time I really didn’t know Andy was using. I offered to have him live with me, because he had just gotten out of treatment. He was going to live on the island with his parents, where he grew up. I thought that would be harder for him. Most of the time it was me watching him struggle not to shoot up, not to drink. It wasn’t like observing Andy’s high; it was more like experiencing him squirming.”

To have both these titles back out on the buyers market is a blessing for both longtime fans and the new generation of old school rock kids digging through their parents’ crates. And if you are one of those folks who were just as excited for the release of Badlands’ Voodoo Highway as you were for Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, you already know how essential MLB were to the fabric of modern rock.

SHINE CD TRACKLISTING (**with one bonus track)

Capricorn Sister (Album Version)**

Chloe Dancer / Crown Of Thorns

Half Ass Monkey Boy

Mindshaker Meltdown

Thru Fade Away

SHINE LP TRACKLISTING

Side A

Thru Fade Away

Mindshaker Meltdown

Half Ass Monkey Boy

Chloe Dancer/ Crown Of Thorns