GF music review club

[Boss]

 

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.

 

[Pureblood]

Whoa, what did I do?  Call it what you want.  If you want to call it grunge that's fine by me.  I can't stand the "G" word anyway!

 

Superunknown is a fantastic record showcasing Soundgarden's trademark fuckaboutery with time signatures, Kim Thayil's virtuoso guitar skills and Matt Cameron's talent for holding the rhythm together with all those time changes.  

 

A lot of people had Kurt Cobain down as a miserable tortured soul filled with suicidal thoughts.  Personally I found a lot of his music uplifting (e.g. Sliver, Dive, Lithium).  If you want to hear a genuinely tortured creative genius struggling to live each day and putting their experience into music then listen to Superunknown.  The lyrical/literal aspect of this record is absolutely haunting following Cornell's death.  

[Carvalho Diablo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alive in the Superunknown...WHOOOOOSH

[Carvalho Diablo]

Whoa, what did I do?  Call it what you want.  If you want to call it grunge that's fine by me.  I can't stand the "G" word anyway!

 

Superunknown is a fantastic record showcasing Soundgarden's trademark fuckaboutery with time signatures, Kim Thayil's virtuoso guitar skills and Matt Cameron's talent for holding the rhythm together with all those time changes.  

 

A lot of people had Kurt Cobain down as a miserable tortured soul filled with suicidal thoughts.  Personally I found a lot of his music uplifting (e.g. Sliver, Dive, Lithium).  If you want to hear a genuinely tortured creative genius struggling to live each day and putting their experience into music then listen to Superunknown.  The lyrical/literal aspect of this record is absolutely haunting following Cornell's death.  

 

Hey TK, if you've got the time do you fancy joining in and writing some reviews of the albums so far ? Can be as long or short as you like, but always interesting to see how other people interpret the albums selected.

[Guest]

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

Good choice, surprisingly I have a number of Soundgarden and Audioslave albums but have not so far listened to an entire album. So this is a chance for me to listen to one.

 

I will definitely post a review when I have listened and I'm looking forward to it as I love Black Hole Sun.

[Pureblood]

Hey TK, if you've got the time do you fancy joining in and writing some reviews of the albums so far ? Can be as long or short as you like, but always interesting to see how other people interpret the albums selected.

 

Cheers for the offer but I will just observe and chip in when Skidders accuses me of grunge snobbery. 

[moof]

Can honestly say I’ve never listened to Superunknown all the way through. Gonna blast it on the journey home, it’ll sound absolutely boss through the Meridian sound system. Looking forward to it.

 

Nice one skids.

[Chairman Meow]

I'll review it properly tomorrow but I've had it on in the car on the way to college and back. Much easier when it's something I already own and can chuck in the changer., First time I've listened to it in ages. 

 

Fresh Tendrils is still absolutely fucking boss! That and 4th of July always used to be two of my favourites, probably highly linked to being massively prone to depression and a teenager when it came out. 

 

Will do my Zac Brown and Steven Wilson reviews as well when I am all done with my coursework tomorrow. Since September my time seems pretty much non existent 

[TheHowieLama]

I always thought Cameron made Soundgarden unique amongst that mob - we will see.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Whoa, what did I do? Call it what you want. If you want to call it grunge that's fine by me. I can't stand the "G" word anyway!

 

Superunknown is a fantastic record showcasing Soundgarden's trademark fuckaboutery with time signatures, Kim Thayil's virtuoso guitar skills and Matt Cameron's talent for holding the rhythm together with all those time changes.

 

A lot of people had Kurt Cobain down as a miserable tortured soul filled with suicidal thoughts. Personally I found a lot of his music uplifting (e.g. Sliver, Dive, Lithium). If you want to hear a genuinely tortured creative genius struggling to live each day and putting their experience into music then listen to Superunknown. The lyrical/literal aspect of this record is absolutely haunting following Cornell's death.

I was only pulling your leg old bean. We’ve debated “Grunge” over Alice In Chains, that’s where it was picking up, so to speak, from.

 

I totally agree about what your saying about Cornell being more tortured than Cobain.

 

Since Cornell passed, I have found it extremely hard to listen to anything with him on. He really did grab me like no other lyricist has got me before. And he started it all on this album. This week was the first time I’d listened to anything since that fateful news.

 

And as you say, it’s even more haunting listening to this after his death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheHowieLama]

Ok - so I will go.

 

Love the band - but if I had to I wouldn't put this record up as their best work. There is an unevenness to the production that makes some of it sound like it is being played through a garden hose. 

 

Very little of it stands up to the best of BadMotorfinger - play Slaves and Bulldozers back to back against any of these tracks. For me that is SOUNDGARDEN. 

 

I think there are tunes where the band hits it and the production is there - obviously tracks like Black Hole Sun and Superunknown stand up - I think 4th of July is incredibly good and Cameron holds alot of this record together (ie My Wave) in a way that the bands they have been lumped in with since then cannot compete - but for me it is an uneven effort. It may be that they were trying to branch out and I preferred the root. I am not one to try to read into the lyrical content 15 some odd years prior - not sure Cornell was that deep. He may have had the same issues everyone has throughout his life but I am not sure there was any foreshadowing, much less the level some want to hope for. That might be due to the fact that the track Like Suicide epitomizes the issues I have with the production - sounds choked, no pun intended.

[ZonkoVille77]

I've never been a 'Grunge' era fan, Nirvana excepted. So I didn't expect to enjoy this album, and I don't.

I can see why people would like it but to me it's just, well, boring. BHS is decent of course. I liked the riff in Superunkown. I found the 5/4 timing added interest to My Wave. Head Down is probably the track I enjoyed the most. That's it though. Opinions are like..... Not for me but I'm glad I listened to it.

[Pureblood]

I am not one to try to read into the lyrical content 15 some odd years prior - not sure Cornell was that deep. He may have had the same issues everyone has throughout his life but I am not sure there was any foreshadowing, much less the level some want to hope for. 

 

Holy sheet, I'm being trolled by the Lama on every thread.

 

Bad times  :(

[Mook]

I love Superunknown, especially Limo Wreck but I have to say I have no idea what any of the lyrics are about & it would've been a better album if they'd left that awful Kickstand off it, every other song on there is a belter.

 

My missus likes it too, which helps.

[Pureblood]

You can't read anything into the lyrics because the Lama will sneer at you if you try.

 

The day I tried to live

I wallowed in the blood and mud with all the other pigs, yeah

 

...

 

Whatsoever I've feared has come to life

Whatsoever I've fought off became my life
Just when everyday seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded and now I'm doing time
Now I'm doing time

 

...

 

He sounds overcome by joy, doesn't he?

[TheHowieLama]

Someone thinks they are WWAAYY too important.

 

Newsflash - you did not come up with that - at all. It has repeated many times in print, not hard to do for any sophomoric journalist as one of the tunes is titled Like Suicide huh?

 

Cornell himself told Rolling Stone that years later he realized this was his first bout with true depression.

 

So again, not much original insight from you on this.

[Pureblood]

What an utter cunt.

 

Even on a music thread you're an insufferable bellend.

 

See ya.

[Pureblood]

Just want to say that the point you seem to be spectacularly missing is that as the listener I get to decide what the lyrics mean to me. Listening to music is a subjective experience.

 

Anyway, you're a total fucking cunt so fuck you.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Wow. That took an unexpected turn.

[TheHowieLama]

Just want to say that the point you seem to be spectacularly missing is that as the listener I get to decide what the lyrics mean to me. Listening to music is a subjective experience.

 

Anyway, you're a total fucking cunt so fuck you.

 

As do I - which I did and was able to do without resorting to the childish insults you have. You may have some internet issues - people disagreeing with you seems to really wind you up.

 

Thanks for the input into the club (which you have regally not agreed to join), await your review.

[TheHowieLama]

Wow. That took an unexpected turn.

 

Yes, strange.

 

Interestingly, during Cornell's last performance (the mentioned Slaves and Bulldozers) there was a section that he sang the lyrics to In My Time of Dying. Which makes more sense in retrospect.

[Bjornebye]

I was enjoying this thread until that fucking hideous smiley. Completely unacceptable and I hope you get banned as fuck, bummed, hung, drawn and quartered. then punched in the nose. Then set on fire you fucking stumblebump. 

 

I'll review this over the weekend, quite looking forward too it because I dont mind Skids taste in Music. he isn't bad for a galactic Emo 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Yes, strange.

 

Interestingly, during Cornell's last performance (the mentioned Slaves and Bulldozers) there was a section that he sang the lyrics to In My Time of Dying. Which makes more sense in retrospect.

I do love Slaves and Bulldozers*, and really like Bad Motorfinger generally, got some cracking tunes on it, but I totally disagree with you on the respective production of it and Superunknown.

I've long felt that BMF suffered from that Terry Date signature sound of sharp gates and scooped guitars, a bit cold and clinical, too sterile for my tastes. I think Soundgarden righted this really well in Superunknown, the album feeling warmer and more alive to me.

 

Where perhaps I do think Superunknown loses a few points is in it's sheer length. At 70 minutes it's a L-O-N-G record, and at times it does suffer for it, some listening fatigue. Superunknown is determined, single minded and unrelenting. Perhaps trimming a couple of the weaker tracks might have concentrated the good stuff and left an even better record?

 

Who knows? All subjective anyway.

 

*My fave Soundgarden song is Tighter and Tighter from DOTU.

[TheHowieLama]

Thats cool - I think Louder than Love has the rawest sound - I just find some tracks on this record really compressed and for me the vocals dont sit in the track in some spots. 

[moof]

Been a bit of a stop/start weekend so I haven’t had chance to listen to it all, yet. Will sit down tonight or tomorrow and get the review done.

 

Chris Cornell’s voice is pure liquid gold. Absolute perfection. Greatest of that generation, for sure.