Review by Ken
3½ stars out of 4
After the raw metal fury of 'Badmotorfinger' and the subsequent commercial
success of 1994's 'Superunknown', Soundgarden surprised everyone by
treading a far murkier and gloomier path on their 1996 follow-up, 'Down
On The Upside'. The millions of fans who purchased Superunknown on the
strength of radio hits like 'Spoonman' and 'Black Hole Sun' didn't find
much to like on the new album, so they didn't bother to look for it at
their record stores. As a result, 'Down…' wasn't the monster seller it
should have been, and its possible that this could have led the band to
believe that their songwriting days were being numbered. Soundgarden
disbanded a year later.
Which is all really shocking and sad, because Down On The Upside
is actually one of the best albums they've ever done. While I personally
wished that Chris Cornell and Co. would go back to the hard grunge sound
they pioneered with earlier albums like Louder Than Love and Badmotorfinger,
it's become apparent that the band have since preferred to indulge
themselves in a quieter landscape of sounds and vibes. That doesn't mean
that the album doubles as a sleep-inducer; because new tracks like 'No
Attention' still rock out with fearsome anger and confidence, while others
like 'Pretty Noose' and 'Tighter and Tighter' echo some of the more
sinister-tinged, driving guitar riffs of the Badmotorfinger era. But it's
on the mellower and musically experimental tracks like 'Never The Machine
Forever' and 'Zero Chance' that Soundgarden show hints of the new direction
they were generally headed towards.
Although the album proves a difficult listen the first time, you have to
listen to it a few more times to really capture the beauty of sound and
weird noise that Soundgarden perfected as an art form. Though this album
may not have been the most fitting of epitaphs to the band's career, it
is enough to remind us of the loss the music world suffered when Soundgarden
decided to just call it a day.
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