the band earned mixed reviews during their short career. in later years, critics have reappraised the band more warmly and tin machine have been found "unjustly" harshly reviewed. one critic suggested that part of the reason for its poor reception was that tin machine's music was somewhat ahead of its time, and that the band "explored alternative and grunge before the styles were even widely known to exist." another critic agreed, with yet another suggesting that tin machine and bowie were "merely ahead of the curve. a prophet, a voice in the desert predicting the coming of nirvana. at the time, nirvana was toiling in seattle obscurity, pushing its debut "bleach" on sub pop at every dive it played." tim palmer, after producing tin machine's two studio albums, would go on to mix pearl jam's grunge album "ten" in 1991, and later recalled to gabrels that he had come into the studio one day to find pearl jam listening to tin machine's "heaven's in here".