[music] Soundgarden, Down On The Upside (1996)

A&M Records
Total Running Time - 65:58

Personnel
Chris Cornell - Guitar, Vocals; Kim Thayll - Guitar; Ben Shephard - Bass; Matt Cameron - Drums

1. Pretty Noose
2. Rhinosaur
3. Zero Chance
4. Dusty
5. Ty Cobb
6. Blow up the Outside World
7. Burden in My Hand
8. Never Named
9. Applebite
10. Never the Machine Forever
11. Tighter & Tighter
12. No Attention
13. Switch Opens
14. Overfloater
15. An Unkind
16. Boot Camp


There's something to be said about the whole being different from the sum of the parts, and with Soundgarden's latest effort, the sum actually seems to lose out in the deal. That's not to say that this isn't a good record, it is. It's just not as good as Superunknown. Hell, I wish I could make an album that could even be compared to the Seattle quartet's 1994 breakthrough. I'll keep you posted on that, but in the meantime, Chris Cornell is clearly establishing that he's the best songwriter in this band. His contributions, especially "Blow Up the Outside World," "Tighter & Tighter," and the first single, "Pretty Noose," are all solid, with a real sense of cohesion throughout each song. This stands out as soon as the second cut on the disk, "Rhinosaur," kicks in. The problem I have with some of the songs on this album is that they seem very disjointed, almost pasted together. Kim Thayll's "Never The Machine Forever" contains a bunch of really interesting parts, but they just don't fit together very well. The same goes for the aforementioned "Rhinosaur," written by drummer Matt Cameron. Bassist Ben Shepherd proves to be both the exception and the rule, with the pretty "Zero Chance" and the chugging "Dusty" sounding very complete, while "Switch Opens" bounces from a kind of hard to follow verse and chorus into a bridge that is one of the high points of the album.

Soundgarden is also wearing its influences on its sleeve here more than ever before. With Thayll's non-traditional guitar tuning, Cornell's wailing, and Cameron's ultra-solid grooves, I sometimes think I'm listening to a Led Zeppelin record. Then there are Cornell's Beatle-esque leanings adding to the mix. Overall, it makes for a pretty engaging sound. This album definitely picks up where Superunknown left off, only it tries to move away from the heart of what that album accomplished in different directions at the same time, with mixed results. It's still a lot better than pretty much any of that crap that gets passed of as "alternative rock."