Soundgarden

“Putting the ‘cock rock’ back in ‘alcockternatrockive.’” – Mark Prindle

“What ever happened to them anyway? They had that one album, and then they became superunknown.” – A guy from my freshman entryway I don’t think I’ve seen in a year. And no, don’t ask me why I remember this quote.

“There's millions and millions of people in their 40s who think they're so fucking special. They're this ultimate white-bread, suburban, upper-middle-class group that were spoiled little fuckers as kids 'cause they were all children of Dr. Spock, and then they were stupid, stinky hippies, and then they were spoiled little yuppie materialists.” – Kim Thayil

Albums Reviewed:

Out of the “big 4” Seattle bands (Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden), Soundgarden is the only one that I can say comes close to Nirvana in terms of my admiration for them. Nowadays Pearl Jam (mainly because they broke HUGE at about the same time Nirvana did, while Soundgarden had to wait until 1994, plus the fact that they’re actually still going) gets pegged as the other big, huge, groundbreaking Seattle band in all those VH1 specials that feel they need to mention two bands to emphasize how “groundbreaking” the Seattle scene was, and I guess the fact that 9 out of every 10 bands on the radio today have singers that spend EVERY SECOND OF EVERY SONG doing their best Eddie Vedder impression contributes to this too, but, dagnabbit, apart from Eddie Vedder’s voice, I’ve never found anything awe-inspiring about Pearl Jam. I like them fine, sure, but are they as good as Soundgarden? No. Not even CLOSE. I like all of Soundgarden’s last three albums (after they stopped mucking around in sub-Sabbath heavy sludge on their first two records) more than Ten, in fact. Even Down on the Upside! Why do I dig Soundgarden so much? Well, it’s their intelligence. Their first two albums don’t display this so much, but once they changed bassists (whether this is crucial or a coincidence, I have no idea) they became one of the best, most creative, most consistent, most intelligent mainstream rock bands of the nineties. They strike me as a rare case of a band that sets out to be the second coming of Black Sabbath, but then actually pulls it off. In fact, in their best moments, they even momentarily surpassed their idols, and at their peak (Superunknown), they displayed more diversity and hook-writing skills than Sabbath ever possessed. But Paranoid is still better than anything this band put out. That is an ALBUM.

Now onto the lineup, whose instrumental skills are sadly underrated and often swallowed up by the ultimate banshee classic rock wail voice (not to be confused with Geddy Lee’s ultimate castrated elf nasal torture voice) of their omnipresent frontman, Chris Cornell, who’s up front petting the dog there. On the left is drummer Matt Cameron, who, while no Dave Grohl, is better than anyone Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam ever ran out there, at least until he joined Pearl Jam himself a little while ago (what is he, drummer #5? #6? I’ve lost count. That band’s like Spinal Tap). On the far right is bassist Ben Shepherd, who joined in between the band’s second and third albums, and with whom their “great artistic leap” took place. I’m not much of a bass-o-phile, but I can tell he is definitely superior to early bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Therefore, either Hiro is terrible or Ben is superb. One or the other. Or probably somewhere in between. Anyhoo, the final member of the band (and one of the coolest-looking people on the PLANET), sitting in the back there, is SUPREMELY underrated guitarist Kim Thayil. Like the rest of the band, he mucked around in unspectacular sludge for their first two records, but the variety of his tones and textures, his masterful riffs, and his neat-ass soloing on the band’s last three records are superb. Plus he has a cool beard. Good band, this one is. Better than Audioslave, in any case.

And, onto the reviews!

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Chris Cornell looks WAY too tan now? Does he sleep in a tanning booth? This bothers me.

Ultramega OK (1988)

Rating: 7

Best Song: “Flower”

The main problem I have with this record, Soundgarden’s first full-length after a few EP’s I don’t have because they’re EP’s and who gives a fuck, is the god-awful indie Seattle production. I’d almost say it sounds worse than Nirvana’s Bleach, though that’s pretty damn tough to do. Maybe it’s because the crappy-ass production sorta kinda fit with the indie-punk vibe on Bleach. Here, though, Soundgarden is basically trying to be Black Sabbath, not trying to merge Sabbath-esque riffs with punk speed and attitude in a new-and-exciting form of music called “grunge.” And Black Sabbath records sound better than this. I mean, they don’t have late-eighties indie Seattle crap bullshit production. This one, however, does. That’s a problem.

The album’s not too shabby, though. Definitely the worst Soundgarden LP, but, once you get past the ox testicle (Sure you don’t want a coconut? They’re delicious.) production, you realize that this band knows how to 1) imitate Black Sabbath a lot 2) write a good riff or three and 3) be funny when they want to. I fully endorse the first two tracks here, “Flower” and “All Your Lies,” both with very nice riffs, despite their lack of power due to the record’s aforementioned ox testicle (No, I’m good.) production, and I like the pseudo-psychedelic intro to “Flower” that opens the record a good bit. Hell, everything through track 6 is good, at least, even if none of it is ever gonna make me jerk myself off to a naked picture of Bea Arthur (Outstanding!). Two little weird slightly funny feedback instrumentals called “665” and “667” surround the ploddiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, slooooooooow “Beyond the Wheel,” and I like the whole three-track sequence, despite the instrumental things being about as interesting as vintage Sabbath yawnfests like “FX” or “E5150.” “Beyond the Wheel” is a DAMN good song, and the best example on this record of the type of tune the band tries to re-write on EVERY SINGLE SONG on their next album. The acoustic intro to “Mood for Trouble” always fools me into thinking the song might NOT be a slow, Sabbath-y riff dirge, but it is! A slow, Sabbath-y riff dirge, I mean. And Sabbath liked to use acoustic intros! Like on “Symptom of the Universe!” Man, that song KICKS ASS!!!!!!! It’s a lot better than any song here.

After “Mood for Trouble,” the rest of the record is a bit spotty. “Circle of Power” is a goofy throwaway speed punk tune that, along with the bullshit wah-wah Howlin’ Wolf cover “Smokestack Lightning,” represents one of only two instances where the band doesn’t sound like their entire goal in making this record is to, like, be Black Sabbath. I dig it, even if it sucks. Because it’s FUNNY! Bassist-at-the-time Hiro Yamamoto sounds either possessed or overdosed on happy pills as he yells “OUR BIG BAD-ASS CIRCLE OF POWER IS COMING TO GET YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and the song is a hoot. If you don’t think it’s funny, though, you’ll probably think it’s a bunch of bullshit. “He Didn’t” has a middle-eastern sounding riff in it, but that’s about all I can remember from it, which, nevertheless, is more than I can remember about “Head Injury.” You know why? Because, except for the one line “Head injuryyyyyyy!!!” repeated twenty or thirty times, it’s so UNMEMORABLE! “Nazi Driver” is better, like a speed-punk song that ISN’T bullshit, unlike “Circle of Power.” Not funny, though, despite the hilarious title. It has “NAZI” in it! Is there any word funnier than the word “Nazi?” NO! THERE ISN’T!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Kidding.

The last two tracks here are nothing to shout about either. “Incessant Mace” is incessantly boring. While “Beyond the Wheel” is an example of a good really slow riff dirge thing, “Incessant Mace” is a perfect example of what happens when such a song BLOWS ASS, however, and then it goes on for six minutes! NO! BRAD NO LIKEY! BRAD NO LIKEY AT ALL! Then the last track is a cover of John Lennon’s “One Minute of Silence,” which is just a minute of silence interrupted by someone’s microphone feeding back for a second because the production on this record is really, really cheap and they didn’t have enough money to go and fix that. Apparently, they think this is funny. That’s good, because SO DO I!

There are little bits and pieces here to suggest what this band would become, but not enough to make this record all that worthwhile. And the production blows goats, as well, which is kind of a kick in the scrotum. Still a nice album, though, and a worthy addition to the collection of anyone who already has all of Soundgarden’s other albums.

Louder Than Love (1990)

Rating: 7

Best Song: “Big Dumb Sex”

Soundgarden moves to a major label! Cool. No more bullshit Seattle indie crap ox testicle production here! So that’s good. Better riffs, too! And better songwriting! Definitely a higher 7 than Ultramega OK, but still a 7, since this record is even slower, dirgier, and LESS diverse than that one, somehow. Just one song that sounds like “Beyond the Wheel” after another. Most of these are pretty good, y’know, but a 7 is a 7 is a 7. And this is a 7.

If you aren’t paying attention to this record, it really does sound like one really slow and heavy 50-minute song. “Full on Kevin’s Mom” is pseudo-speed-punk and HILARIOUS (“Full on Kevin’s mom!!!!!! Full on Kevin’s mom!!!!!!!) and “Big Dumb Sex” is midtempo instead of slow and HILARIOUS (The chorus is ironic, people. “Hey I know what to do! I’m gonna FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!” It’s a JOKE!!!! Best song on the album, too. Great riff!), but the rest, again, all sounds like the same goddamn song over and over again if you aren’t paying attention, and sometimes it sounds like that if you ARE paying attention, too.

A handful of these tunes are standouts, though, thank god. For instance, “Ugly Truth,” “Hands All Over,” “Loud Love,” and “Uncovered” are better than the other five songs that all sound the same (Oh yeah, the closing “Full On (Reprise)” is basically two minutes of Chris going “Full OOOOOOOONNNNNN!!” over music that sounds like a power ballad and HILARIOUS! Let’s see, 12-3=9. 9-4=5. Yeah, there are five others. Marvel at my simple arithmetical skills!), essentially because they just seem more focused than the rest. Like, I can look at the track listing, know exactly what they sound like, and remember a good bit about their structure. I think my two favorites (besides “Big Dumb Sex,” ofcourse) are “Hands All Over” and “Loud Love,” because they seem like the two tunes here (again, besides “Big Dumb Sex”) where Soundgarden is starting to develop the soaring vocal hook choruses that would eventually make Superunknown one of the best albums of the nineties. I mean, both basically consist of the title of the song screamed out a bunch of times in Chris Cornell’s banshee yell, but they’re cool! “HANDS ALL OVEEEEEEER!!!” “LOUD LOVE!!! LOUD LOVE!!!!! LOUD LOVE!!!” Nice.

The remaining five tracks are all just slow sludge of varying quality. This is still just early Soundgarden, and there really hasn’t been any sort of “artistic progression” from the last album. The record just has better production, a few killer songs, and the band is going even slower. They still want to be Black Sabbath. In their repeated attempts at being that fine band, however, they sometimes sink into “Incessant Mace”-esque primeval sludge mediocrity, like on “Power Trip,” which is just four minutes of slow, sludgy nothing. Parts of “Gun” are cool, but it’s too unfocused and messy a song to be called “good” by someone as nitpicky as yours truly. “Get on the Snake” is OK. I don’t remember a damn thing about “I Awake” and “No Wrong, No Right.” And now, like a good little web reviewer, I’ve mentioned all the songs at one point or another in this review. Go me!

There are still a few moments here where you can see the future glory of this group shining through, but the glory is still struggling to make itself heard through the mountains of monotonous sludge Kim Thayil’s guitar is spitting out left and right. Still a good album, but, like Ultramega OK, essential only for fans. Nothing special here. That would come soon enough, though.

Badmotorfinger (1991)

Rating: 9

Best Song: “Jesus Christ Pose”

I don’t know if it had anything to do with Ben Shepherd’s replacing Hiro Yamamoto as bassist (With Jason Everman briefly in between for a tour…hey, how much does it suck to be him? I mean, he left both Nirvana AND Soundgarden before either one broke through commercially! That’s like if Pete Best had joined the Rolling Stones for a month or two after leaving the Beatles. Sucks. To. Be. Him.), but, with their third record, it seems like Soundgarden suddenly took “instant artistic maturity” pills or something. This is just a HUUUUGE step up artistically from Louder Than Love it’s not even worth discussing. As a point of comparison, let’s say Radiohead never released The Bends, and instead just jumped straight from Pablo Honey to OK Computer. THAT’S the size of this leap.

What, you doubt the web reviewer? You DARE to doubt the web reviewer? You just went and listened to this record and Louder Than Love back to back and didn’t notice much of a difference? Well, then, YOU WEREN’T PAYING ATTENTION, DICKWAD. This album needs time to sink in before you realize its greatness. On the surface, and to one not fully schooled in the sludge guitar (having just reviewed Black Sabbath less than a month ago, I believe I’m enough of an authority on said sludge guitar), it’s just an hour more sludge from Soundgarden, Seattle’s favorite Black Sabbath wannabes. Upon repeated listens, though, the album is so much more than that, and eventually you are rewarded. The artistic value here has been stepped up ten-fold, or 100-fold, or whatever, and the REAL Soundgarden, the one I know and love, finally steps up.

See, this is artsy music. It’s not just unfocused, slow, grinding sludge like Louder Than Love. The songs here are well-thought-out, well-crafted, and intentionally complicated, difficult, and uncommercial. Now and then a big pop hook (“Somewhere”) or psychedelic exploration (“Mind Riot”) pops out of the madness, but they mostly leave it to their next record to explore that type of stuff (and BOY HOWDY, do they…), but this is easily the most artsy and challenging Soundgarden album. I don’t know what to call it (“art-metal” makes me think of Dream Theater, “art-rock” of Pink Floyd, and “art-grunge” of the Smashing Pumpkins, maybe “art-sludge” is the most accurate, but the diversity of guitar tones and quality of Kim Thayil’s playing is really too good to just call it “sludge.” Louder Than Love is sludge. This is great fucking stuff.), but, for instance, listen to the 30-second guitar break in the middle of the short “Face Pollution,” which a few years ago probably would have been a goofy throwaway speed-punk novelty like “Circle of Power.” Right there, in those 30 seconds, there are more time signature changes than the entire Nirvana catalog. I mean, I like Nirvana more than Soundgarden, but that’s fucking awesome. That is what I’m talking about.

It’s not just the artsiness that makes this album great, though. The riffs are the best the band has come up with yet, and diversity is FINALLY starting to creep into the traditional Soundgarden salad. The first three tracks (“Rusty Cage,” “Outshined,” and “Slaves and Bulldozers”) do not just constitute fifteen minutes of old-school Soundgarden sludge. No, see, they’re SO MUCH MORE. “Rusty Cage” is ten times more complicated than anything on their first two albums…except for its second half, I guess (where it morphs into a completely different song and DOES sound like a bad Black Sabbath outtake). That light, unsludgy, quasi-psychedelic “so now you know…” break in “Outshined” is something the band would NEVER have thought to do on their previous albums. “Slaves and Bulldozers” is just seven minutes based around one riff, sure, but have you listened to the guitar solo in that song? The crazy feedback/atonal crap Kim Thayil is doing? AWESOME! And have you HEARD “Jesus Christ Pose?” Holy mother of dildoes, that’s a song. I have no term to describe it. It’s just cool. Sounds very, like, nervous and jagged. And the lyrics are phenomenal. “And you stare at meeeeee!!! In your Jesus Christ pose!!!!!” Surprisingly, not about Scott Fucking Stapp, but nevertheless superb. I’m gonna leave “Face Pollution” alone because I already mentioned it, but nevertheless talk about “Somewhere” some more even though I already mentioned it. This is the song Soundgarden built their next two albums around. The goofy-time-signatured riff with lightened, pseudo-psychedelic guitar tone and BOIIIIIG arena-rock buttsex vocal hook in the chorus. From it, “Fell On Black Days” and “The Day I Tried To Live” and “Pretty Noose” (my favorite Soundgarden song ever, by the way) sprang. It even has a fade-out/fade-in at the end like “Strawberry Fields Forever” or something. Superb song.

The second half of the album provides all sorts of nice artistically mature touches too. The “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” / “Room a Thousand Years Wide” double feature in the middle is just like the opening troika of tunes in that you have to pay attention to hear exactly what makes these tunes better than previous Soundgarden material. And “Room a Thousand Years Wide” has this atonal sax solo at the end! “Drawing Flies” also has weird, atonal saxophone lines going on throughout. Distorted, sludgy guitars, with out-of-place, atonal saxophone solos. You know what that sounds like to me? KING FUCKING CRIMSON! I hear ever-so-faint echoes of Red in those two songs (not much, I mean, but it’s there!). Pretty cool for a band that used to spend their entire lives trying to be Black Sabbath. “Mind Riot” is just as good as “Jesus Christ Pose” and “Somewhere” and provides the model for all the psychedelic (think “Head Down”) tunes the band would try on their next two records. “Holy Water” and “New Damage” are just two more tunes that prove my point that Soundgarden had their collective shit together in 1991, but I believe this review is getting a bit long for the short-attention-spanned MTV generation, so I will refrain from further discussion.

Great fucking album, this one is. Basically, Soundgarden perfects the themes they were going for on their first two records, gets all artsy and difficult and shit, AND begins to explore the themes that would carry them to modern rock radio glory in the mid-nineties. Damn fucking solid 9. I like it better than Purple and Dirt I think, two other seminal nineties records I slapped the 9 tag on. Get it today!

Superunknown (1994)

Rating: 10

Best Song: “The Day I Tried To Live”

But get this one, the pinnacle of all things Soundgarden and one of the best records of the nineties, first. On Badmotorfinger, Soundgarden made their grand artistic leap. On this record, they don’t hedge on any of their artistic ambitions (it’s over 70 minutes long!), but instead add to them such wonderful things as oodles of noodles of big, fat, radio-ready buttsex hooks, full-on embraces of psychedelia (“Black Hole Sun,” “Half,” the ending to “My Wave,” the break in the title track, and especially the mindblowing “Head Down”), even better and clearer production, and such an incredible amount of diversity you wouldn’t believe this is actually a nineties rock band we’re talking about, as this might be the most diverse hard rock record of the decade I can think of, at least off the top of my head.

But the best thing about the album is that it’s one of those rare 70-minute albums of the CD age that actually DESERVES to be 70 minutes. “Kickstand” is a 90-second throwaway punk tune, “Half” is a strange psychedelic instrumental, and “Fresh Tendrils” might be a little weak compared to the rest of the songs here, but none of those tunes are gonna elicit the pissed-off cries of “FILLER!!!!” from me that so many other bullshit overlong CD age releases will. The first two of those tunes are too short to make a difference, and “Fresh Tendrils” would STILL be one of the better songs on either one of the band’s first two albums, so I’m not gonna complain! There’s just too much fucking great material here to bother. It’s no use!

The fucking thing sounds like a greatest hits album half the goddamn time, but a greatest hits album that actually coheres together! “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell On Black Days,” “Spoonman,” and “The Day I Tried To Live” (My personal favorite here…love that spooky intro part!) were all big ol’ rock radio smashes back in the mid-nineties (and “Black Hole Sun” still is), and they all most definitely deserved to be, but the number of songs here that could have been big, fat radio smash hits ALSO is astounding. Yes, sir, Soundgarden had their collective shit together in 1994 better than anyone else I can think of (The Smashing Pumpkins’ twin masterpieces came out in 1993 and 1995!), and their startling artistic maturity combined with flabbergastingly catchy hooks was nearly unmatched in hard rock that great year. I mean, the non-single “My Wave” is actually the catchiest song on here. It starts off as the darn-tootin’ best power pop song Weezer wishes they could write before morphing into a very nice psychedelic freakout that never loses the song’s true catchiness.

You want more? Sure! There’s 70 minutes of music on this puppy! There’s no reason that “Let Me Drown” and the title track couldn’t have been hits, too, besides their bad luck to be on this record, because these two very good songs just don’t stand out much when surrounded by everything else on the album. The grindingly slow “Mailman” and “Limo Wreck” are nu-metal before nu-metal even existed, and are WITHOUT A DOUBT the two best nu-metal songs of all time. Even better than that song by that band with that guy with all the tattoos and scrotum piercings. Hell, Black Sabbath would be ecstatic to have written those tunes. “Head Down” finds the band at their psychedelic peak, just six minutes of moody fucking brilliance, and I don’t think any other band in 1994 could have written it. Tell me: who, in 1994, could have written “Head Down?” The Smashing Pumpkins were too busy trying to merge Boston with Yes and then make it angsty. Alice In Chains? They never much went for psychedelia. Neither did Nirvana, plus there’s the whole thing about Kurt being less than a year from shooting himself. The Flaming Lips were writing songs about giraffes and zoo animals who didn’t want to leave the zoo even though some nice people from PETA broke in on Christmas Eve and opened their cages. Pearl Jam? Nope. Stone Temple Pilots? Puh-LEEEEEEEZE. Anyone else? You’re quickly running out of bands, aren’t you? You’re probably digging down deep in your memory now, pulling out Collective Soul and Blind Melon and that other band with that guy who wore flannel and looked tortured but was really from a rich, privileged, white suburb of Tampa or something (which is something I hate, by the way. I’m perfectly happy to be a preppy douche from Wellesley. You don’t see me doing that. Or (god forbid) the new fad, pretending to be a hip-hop gangsta thug from the projects when you have three cellphones and drive a Range Rover in high school. Assplug, you’re a rich white boy. Go to the Gap, get some khakis, and be happy with it.). You see? No one else in 1994 could have written “Head Down.” It’s that good.

If you have any interest in nineties rock music, and somehow don’t already have this record, you need to get it RIGHT NOW. It even has the token epic-sounding closing track! “Like Suicide” is great and ends with a bunch of great guitar solos overdubbed on top of each other! Just like a good rock record should! It took Soundgarden a few more years to get that big, huge hit #1 record than their peers, but when they finally did it, BOY, did they do it. Simply awesome.

Mike Liva (eavyumble69@hotmail.com) writes:

It took a while to get into it, but Superunknown is the greatest of the
Soundgarden albums, and one of the great '90s rock records. Ostensibly a
metal band, the group integrates some left-of-center influences into a
brilliant whole. The fact that Shepherd's "Head Down" can recall Can's
"Paperhouse" and descend into a psychedlic morass of sound should illustrate
that we've progressed past incestuous metal aesthetics. What can I add to
what Brad said, really? There's the visceral chug of "Let Me Drown", the
transformation from heavy, yet funky, rock into melodic psychedlia of "My
Wave", and so much more. Even weaker songs such as "Fresh Tendrils" are
meritorious with the addition of Zeppy clavinet. "The Day..." is another
masterpiece combining pummeling riffage with brilliant songwriting. OK, I
know I'm repeating myself, but this record demands appraisal. Ultimately,
Soundgarden produced a masterwork via a combination of delicious, brilliant
hooks (every song has at least one melodic lick that will not escape from
your mind), colorful textures, and monstrous riffs.

P.S. I should give special mention to "4th of July". The guitar tone on that
track seems to attempt to replicate the roar of the nuclear holocaust
depicted in the lyrics. And as if I had to say it, the vocal melody is
stunning, as well.

Down On The Upside (1996)

Rating: 8

Best Song: “Pretty Noose”

Somewhat underrated, if you “axe” me. Yes, it’s not as good as Superunknown or Bodmotorfinger. Yes, it’s not really a “classic” by any means. Yes, it’s a bit overlong (65 minutes? Come on. Who needs some of these songs? Like “No Attention,” for instance? Not me!). It’s still a darn good record, though. About half of the songs fully accomplish the mature, hard-rocking, diverse, hooky bumfucking goodness of Superunknown. Half don’t, ofcourse, but only like half of that half isn’t that good. Plenty of good songs to be found here, and, despite the relative (compared to Superunknown) lack of diversity, the band hasn’t lost their artsy bent. It’s just not as obvious as the last two records. Take a listen to “Rhinosaur,” for starters! You think it’s like a normal, straight-ahead rock song, but it’s NOT! You’re trying to tap your foot to it, buy you CAN’T! Because whatever the fuck goofy time signature is going on there just won’t allow you to do it! But you still like it, don’t you? Yeah, you do. It still rocks, don’t it? It do! It’s one of the best songs on here! “Only happy when you huuuuuurt…” Dig it, baby.

But that, as well as everything else on this record, PALES in comparison to the orgasmic opener, “Pretty Noose,” which more or less summarizes all the good sides of late-period Soundgarden in one, neatly-digestable four-minute package. From the moody, pseudo-psychedelic intro, to the at-the-same-time-catchy-and-complicated-and-interesting verses, to the deceivingly tricky guitar work, to the BIG, FAT HOOK in the chorus (“And I don’t like what you got me hangin’ froooom…”), to the spooky bridge, to the sheer POWER and massive doses of CREATIVITY on display throughout. “Pretty Noose” is possibly the ultimate Soundgarden song, you see.

“Pretty Noose” and “Rhinosaur” (tracks one and two, by the way!) are probably the two best tunes here, but they have some STIFF (No, Mr. Garrison, not like that, put Mr. Hat away) competition. I’d say all of the first seven songs here outside of “Ty Cobb” (an underwritten punk tune with a banjo in it, of all things) stand up very closely to much of the material on Superunknown upon repeated aural exposure. “Zero Chance” and “Dusty” are sort of mellow and need time to sink in (perhaps that’s why they weren’t singles!), but “Blow Up the Outside World” and “Burden in My Hand” do not have this problem in any way, shape, or form (perhaps that’s why they were singles!). “Burden in My Hand” is probably the poppiest song they’ve ever done, actually, with that folky-acoustic guitar intro and whatnot. It deserved its big-hit-ness, as did “Blow Up The Outside World.”

The key thing you have to understand is that the days of slow, grinding, heavy-beyond-belief dirges of doom are over, and there will be no rewrites of “Mailman” or even much material as heavy as “The Day I Tried To Live” on this record. A lot of these songs take either “Somewhere” / “Fell On Black Days” / “Black Hole Sun”-type material as their model or just try to rewrite “Head Down.” For example, the singles are (obviously) of the first variety. “Applebite,” on the other hand, takes song type #2 to such a ridiculous conclusion that it ends up sounding like a five-minute, slowed-down, fleshed-out version of “Half” from the last album. Nevertheless, due to the superb talent of this band, five minutes of moody nothing with a neat, overly-simple guitar line manages to COOK! Good song. Then “Switch Opens” is probably the best “Head Down” rewrite here (to the point where it actually matches the original!). No other nineties band was as adept at making seemingly-unfocused psychedelic explorations as Soundgarden. “Mind Riot,” “Head Down,” and “Switch Opens” all came from this band. THAT, my friends, is talent.

In addition to the mediocrity of “Ty Cobb” that I mentioned like three paragraphs ago, a good chunk of the second half of this record just isn’t all that great. Now, not a single song here is BAD (actually, not a single song on any of these last three albums is BAD), but a bunch of songs are just average and unmemorable. “Never Named” is another throwaway punk tune (one is fine, two is too many!) about a dog or something. “No Attention” ain’t great shakes, and neither is “An Unkind,” about which I can remember absolutely nothing. I DIG the moody, psychedelic feel of “Overfloater,” though, and the closer, “Boot Camp,” is a nice little song as well. “Faaaar away!” Cool. This band knows how to end an album. You gotta give them that much. Even if you have terrible musical taste and think Good Charlotte isn’t the worst band in the world.

This ain’t your typical Soundgarden album (as I’ve bandied about the words “moody” and “psychedelic” to the point of a restraining order being necessary), but it’s still a very good record. Not up to the snuff of Badmotorfinger or Superunknown, for sure, but I like it more than Ten! Yup. And “Pretty Noose” is one of the best singles of the decade. So it’s got that goin’ for it, which is nice.

OUR BIG BAD-ASS CIRCLE OF POWER IS COMING TO GET YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!