GF music review club

[Guest]

[TheHowieLama]

[Kidder Bukowski]

[Boss]

[Carvalho Diablo]

[VladimirIlyich]

Still a couple of days until Skids posts his AOW, plenty of time for some more reviews of the 2 records so far.

 

Vlad, check your pm.

Thanks mate. Will check link properly when on laptop.

[TheHowieLama]

[Captain Turdseye]

Remember that time Skids kept calling out Woo for not posting a review on time?

[Guest]

Is it worth swapping the list around just in case Skids isn't able to post his album?

[Carvalho Diablo]

I'm sur he'll be along soon.

 

[TheHowieLama]

[Guest]

[Bjornebye]

[Carvalho Diablo]

[Guest]

Forget album of the week, this had better be album of the decade.

 

No pressure, like.

[TheHowieLama]

Skids may have misunderstood. He is probably in the studio as we speak bangin out his record.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Skids may have misunderstood. He is probably in the studio as we speak bangin out his record.

Made me laugh. Although it would be nice to have a new AOW before lunch time tomorrow, gives us all the weekend plus to listen and review. Hopefully Skids is well and still posts his selection by then, but if not maybe we should swap the order and Boss can post his selection this week instead, Skids dropping back by a week?

 

Boss, would you be ready to do that (if still no sight of Skids' AOW by tomorrow at 12:00)?

[Boss]

Yeah sound. I need some time to think of an album first. I'll try and have one in mind by midday tomorrow if Skids can't upload his recreation of The White album played with wine glasses in time. 

[Mook]

Yeah sound. I need some time to think of an album first. I'll try and have one in mind by midday tomorrow if Skids can't upload his recreation of The White album played with wine glasses in time. 

 

'Number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9, number 9,'

[Skidfingers McGonical]

First off, I am really sorry about the delay. Been a mad one. 
 
Secondly, I'm actually slowly in the process of making a record.
 
Thirdly, let's go. 
 
So, my album of the week. 
 
Soundgarden - Superunknown. 
 
This for me is one of the darkest albums I have ever heard. I was introduced to this album by a girl I met when I moved away with my Mum and became a wool/OOT for a couple of years. This girl was into alternative music and she made me a mix tape of Faith No More's Angel Dust and this album. She opened my eyes and my mind was fucking blown by this TDK C90 with a handwritten playlist. As I was like Stig and proper shit taste in music. Only messing mate, not all of it is shite. 
 
Anyway back to Superunkown. 
 
This is in my top 3 albums this one. And I don't feel it gets the recognition it deserves when compared to Badmotorfinger. For me it's the best album from the Seattle 'Grunge' Era, I know TK will turn up and claim them not to be proper grunge. I know what he means by that though. 
 
So, great album, dark lyrics and dark guitar. I love this type of stuff. I discovered a band called Virus earlier this week. 
 
15 tracks clocking in at 70 minutes.
 
There is a sort of bleak upbeat ness in some of the tunes. Let Me Down, My Wave, Fell On Black Days (one of the standout tracks) for  the opening 4 songs, but then it gets dark with Mailman. A sludgy, filthy Sabbath type riff. 
 
Then it brings you back in with one of my all time upbeat tunes, the title track 'Superunknown' If you don't groove to this, then I question your soul.  A dark jangly, with Cornell hitting his range with absolute swagger. That is then followed by the redneck, moody, horror movie soundtrack contender, Head Down. I remember finding this song very unnerving when I first heard it as a 15 year old. 
 
We arrive at the song that really smashed these gents in to the mainstream. Black Hole Sun. A Beatlesesque view from a dark, very dark place. For me, this was the song that was the pinnacle of that Seattle (mainstream) sound.  
 
Spoonman is next, with real spoons player on it. Heavy riffle with Chris sounding like it is no effort at all. 
 
The darkness of Limo Wreck is beautiful to listen to when you have some headphones on and the volume just at the right level so you can hear all Thayill's haunting playing on this one. 
 
The Day I Tried To Live, another of their well known ones, and rightly so. So much power from everyone playing on this record. 
 
Kickstand, a good old fashioned punky effort. 
 
Fresh Tendrils, a dark, groovy effort with a tease of being epic. 
 
"Shower in the dark day, clean sparks diving down. 
Cool In the waterway, where the baptised drown. 
Naked in the cold sun, breathing life like fire. 
Thought I was the only one, but that was just a lie." 
 
At the time of hearing that opening first verse, I took a different outlook and what I wanted to discover in life. I don't know why but all the happy go lucky bullshit I was being fed now had an alternative. I got a taste of what the world was really like, I got into dystopian films and imagery like Blade Runner based on that first verse. it's the dark ones that stand out on this album like 4th of July and Like Suicide.
 
Half, is a mad IndianStonerFolkMetal number. I still find this one of the maddest tunes I have ever heard. 
 
The dark, moody, slow, haunting, groovy, tight 'Like Suicide' the finale to the album. 
 
Cornell was inspired by the writings of Sylvia Plath at the time. I like how Kim Thayil (guitarist) said that "a lot of Superunknown seems to me to be about life, not death. Maybe not affirming it, but rejoicing—like the Druids [put it]: 'Life is good, but death's gonna be even better!" 
 
Have a listen here

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFk9YduSKWw

[Skidfingers McGonical]

I see you're all still cunts. 

 

Which is just how it should be. 

[Carvalho Diablo]

The prodigal McGonical returns.

 

I haven't listened to Superunknown in years and when I saw that you'd chosen it, it filled me with joy.

 

Can't wait to listen to this again mate, and good luck with your own new record.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Link to The GF Music Collective playlist (including Skids' AOW, Superunknown by Soundgarden):

 

https://open.spotify.com/user/carvalho666/playlist/3k64dON6XvCI1W9GFNH8Gr

[TheHowieLama]

I see you're all still cunts. 

 

Which is just how it should be. 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Album of the week : Soundgarden, Superunknown

 

It's fucking freezing cold outside but inside I'm feeling warm and happy. Just listened to Superunknown for the first time in probably a decade, cold and blunt and oppressively heavy, or at least superficially so, because this is a record that has sold millions and brought joy to countless more.

 

Is there anyone in our little collective who can honestly say that they haven't listened right through Superunknown before now ? If so, I both pity you and envy you, because you're in for a definite treat.

 

True story, but the first time I ever listened to Superunknown I was getting chased by police in my car along the A689 ! Had the album on cassette and I was blasting the fucker whilst doing well over 100mph. I remember my clueless mate Coco was in the car with me, he thought it was Oasis ! Then again, he did once mistake Ian Rush for David James.

 

Anyway, the police didn't catch me but Soundgarden did. I made quick notes as I played through the album (now, not then)...

 

Let Me Drown. A blunt grinding dirty opening riff announces Superunknown in a pretty understated manner, but this quickly gives way to a soaring Cornell vocal and sing a long chorus. It's very obvious that this is a far better sounding record than their previous Bad Motorfinger, rounder, fuller, more polish and energy. The tunings and the timings on this record are seriously all over the place, the drum sound is immense and hasn't dated at all.

 

Yup, listening to LMD, I'm sat here with a big smile, wave after wave of nostalgia. Fantastic choice as your AOW Skids.

 

My Wave. I love Ben Shepherd's moogy bass breaks in this one, the ending, a joyous crescendo.

 

Fell On Black Days. For a long time this was my favourite song from the album, a far better song than Black Hole Sun imo, absolutely love the melancholy bass and vocals. The guitars sound magic, slightly overdriven. Cornell's great lyric carrying greater gravitas following his own tragic death, but for all it's sadness FOBD is a triumph. Wonderful.

 

Mailman. Another heavy as fuck, killer riff. Nice dischordant guitars.

 

Superunknown. Wonderful bouncy rolling guitar riff, again joyous and infectious. I defy you not to sing along to that chorus! The percussion goes mad in the midsection, how Beatlesy does that sound ? And how fucking great does Matt Cameron's drum kit sound. Bonzo BIG.

 

Head Down. Now this IS my favourite song on Superunknown. Playing this again after so long departed just gave me huge goosebumps (actually got them now as I type this). Shepherd and Cornell's twin vocal is immense in this one, so too is Ben Shepherd's bass.

Cameron's drum break right at the death just screams out, "This is OUR record. Don't like it? Well FUCK YOU!"

Awesome.

 

Black Hole Sun. Oh come on! You know, for the longest time I wasn't overly fond of this song, finding it overrated, couldn't understand why it put FOBD in the shade. These days, who cares. It's undoubtably the song that casual fans and my mate Coco know the best, not Soundgarden's best but still a belter.

Man, listening to BHS for the first time in a long time, it's like going home and getting a cuddle from your nana. Love it. Iconic.

Sing along with another awesome Chris Cornell vocal, lighters aloft. Just be careful if you're sat next to your Christmas decorations.

 

Spoonman. The single. Not my fave. My old nan used to pronounce this one Sp-moon Man! Man, that memory has just brought a tear to my eye.

The Spoonman himself (a degenerate Seattle spoon playing jakey) looks like a total blert, but these are his condensed 15 minutes of fame.

Again, I remember back in the day, getting down on the Gemini dancefloor, I was like a tye-dyed fanny magnet.

 

Limo Wreck. A nice big Sabbathy riff, nice harmonies, another powerful Cornell vocal. Yeh, one of my faves on the record this one.

 

The Day I Tried To Live. Haunting intro, goosebumps again, I love Cameron's use of the bell on his ride cymbal, a great drum track, again with some Beatlesy guitar lines. "One More Time Around", sing along to that chorus motherfuckers. A cracker.

 

Kickstand. Kim Thayll's punky head swinger actually sounds far fresher and far better than I remember!

 

Fresh Tendrils. Lovely jangly guitar riff, plenty of space in this mix and that snare drum sounds mint, like the reverb on Cornell's latest knockout vocal track.

 

4th Of July. Was this opening riff borrowed from Obituary ?! This is probably the heaviest song on the record, it is oppressive and just crushers you out of your hifi speakers. Nice vocal harmony, 4th Of July is dark and dirty and a bit brutal.

 

Half. Quirky, Beatlesy, Half brings some much needed levity to lighten the load following 4th Of July. Just what the doctor ordered. I love the dreamy closing sequence.

 

Like Suicide. What a way to finish. The longest song on the record ? Cornell claimed that Like Suicide was actually written about a dying Robin, not anything more prophetic, but you'd be a very very hard man not to be reminded of and be saddened by the lad's death.

I love the dry snare (turned off) sound at the start, no reverb, very interesting spectral analysis and sonics on this song, but despite the obvious inference Like Suicide is a resounding and overwhelming triumph of a song, just like the album itself.

 

Left with the opinion of how well this album has aged over the past 24 years since it's release (I wish I had!), the songs still stand up, Superunknown still jolts and rocks hard. Really looking forward to the other reviews of this album, especially from those who've perhaps never heard it before (crazy).

 

Also, Skids, this has really thrown a spanner in the works. Was thinking of going with something newer when it's my turn, but now...not so sure. Shall I pick something that I've played to death and loved for years ? Might just.