Porcelain by Fuel

Porcelain was Fuel's third EP, a self-released CD the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, band put out in 1996, and it's the rough blueprint for their major-label debut. Carl Bell recorded, mixed and produced it with Randy Lane, and nearly every song here was later carried over to Sunburn; only "Nothing" and "Sunday Girl" missed the cut, and "Sunday Girl" lived on in the Sunburn tour's set lists and on the "Shimmer" single.

Bell's guitar and songs, Brett Scallions' voice, Jeff Abercrombie on bass and Jody Abbott on drums add up to grunge-bred crunch with a big melodic heart. "Shimmer" is the prize, a slow-building, bittersweet tune with a chorus that swells like a wave, and once 550 Music and Epic signed the band it became their first hit, reaching number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100. The homemade disc itself sold more than 5,000 copies.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.