Collective Soul "Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid"

With grunge hitting like a tidal wave in the early 90s – you know the roll call: Nevermind, Badmotorfinger, Ten – all eyes were on Seattle for the next nation-engulfing hit. If they’d just looked a bit further down, they’d have seen it happening right under their noses, in Atlanta, Georgia. But the joke is: when Collective Soul released their debut single, “Shine,” in March 1993, they weren’t even really a band. The songs that made up their debut album, Hints Allegations And Things Left Unsaid, were demos; all frontman Ed Roland wanted was a publishing deal as a songwriter. After college radio put “Shine” on heavy rotation, however, those demos were released as a full-blown album, issued by the local indie imprint Rising Storm, and Roland had to reconvene the group so they could make live appearances.

The New York Times called Collective Soul “Southern grunge” – a handy label at the time, but there’s a key word in their name: soul. If you’re recording in James Brown’s home state, you can’t avoid it. It’s there in the gentle organ that underpins the album’s third single, “Wasting Time;” you’ll catch it in Ed Roland’s impassioned, at times gospel-tinged vocals; feel it in “Shine”’s lyrics, described by Roland’s brother (and bandmate), Dean, as “a prayer.” If it’s not straight-up soul music, Hints Allegations And Things Left Unsaid is downright full of soul. And, to some, it was an antidote to the nihilism of grunge. What other band would be confident enough in themselves to include a two-minute orchestral interlude (“Pretty Donna”) midway through a demo recording?

As “Shine” headed to the top of Billboard’s “Album Rock Tracks” chart for eight weeks, on its way to becoming one of VH1’s “100 Greatest Songs Of The 90s,” the album was reissued by major label Atlantic Records. “We thought it would be great to sell 10-20,000 units,” Roland later recalled. When their debut album went gold, for sales of over 500,000, the group “were sitting there with our eyes wide open.” Going far beyond anyone’s expectations, Hints Allegations And Things Left Unsaid ensured Collective Soul were one of the most talked-about alt-rock bands of the year.