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calm
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Music I know I haven't really written a meaningful blog entry in awhile. Well, I'll take that back, the last one was hands down the most meaningful. What I meant to say was a blog entry that didn't really have to do too much with my life changing events. So, now that I'm settled into KC for the most part I'd like to revisit an ongoing topic that I would like to continue with. Right now I'm actually writing this over at my fiance's apartment while she watches the Victoria Secret Fashion Show. Why am I not watching this program dedicated to generous amounts of T&A you ask? Because it seems to lose a bit of it's luster while your mate sits next to you, and I have a penchant for "snide comments" as she puts it. So rather than land square in the dog house, I think I'll put on the ol' iPod and rap about one of my favorite albums instead. See how smart I am?
In my formidable years the rock music trend was called "grunge." Now, most of you kids these days have "emo" which some of my friends who grew up in the early to mid ninties actually listen to. Strange to me, but in an attempt to stay young and cool, I guess I can't disagree on the spirit. However, I digress. There were a lot of gems that came out during this period that are sure to become classic rock staples when I get into my 30's and 40's and grunge is 25 years in the rear view mirror. Most of those albums go without saying. Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Pearl Jam's "Ten" for example. Those two being set aside, my favorite album from this period comes from a northwest band that went by the name of Soundgarden, and the album was their last which basically put an end to the era in my opinion. Of couse, the genre fell out of the mainstream much much earlier, but to me this was really the final album, along with Mad Season's "Above" which is a rarely heard but completely awesome album put out by Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready (sp?).
Anyway, the final nail in the coffin of grunge was an album that was met with little fanfare. They had a couple singles off this album that basically went nowhere, at least compared to the moster success of 1994's "Superunknown." You can even tell on the cover of the album that it was the signaling the end of it all as the silhouettes of each band member seem to be going in their own seperate direction. The album gets off to a normal Soundgarden start with a traditional tuned down opening riff, verse and chours, repeat. It's actually one of my favorite songs to date actually. I'm not going to go into detail too much on each individual song like I have on the other two albums, mainly because Soundgarden didn't have tracks you could seperate for the most part. That's not to say that the songs all sound the same, because they don't. You have full out rock songs such as the aforementioned "Pretty Noose", "Ty Cobb", or one of my fav's on the album "No Attention" that starts at a furious pace only to slow down and grind out the same beat, riff, and melody to cap it off. Those songs mixed in with some more melodic tunes like the acoustic yet heavy "Dusty" and "Switch Opens" really flexed the creativity muscle that the band used to a frightening extent on this album.
The album's strong points of course were showing the bands versatility in how they could pick up any instrument and make it sound like it had the band's fingerprints all over it. Not to mention that "Down on the Upside" has one of the spookiest middle sections to an album this side of Pink Floyd. The arcs that the album takes are almost second to none when compared to albums in it's genre. Not to mention that Chris Cornell's voice was the absolute best out of the misty Northwest. Sorry Alice In Chain's fans, while I admit to Staley having one of most recognizable voices in rock, he can't match the sheer velocity and range that Cornell can achieve, while not for everyone you have to admit that it's there.
All in all, if you were and are still a fan looking back you see that this was a "breakup" album. You knew with the climate of music at the time and the fact that pop was on the rise again that these bands who shunned the mainstream but thrived in it were on the way out.
I went to buy this album with one of my best friends at the time Matt, and he said I was an idiot for buying it and that I only bought it because I wanted to buy something. I'm glad I listened to my musical intuition and not the recommendation from someone who was really into bands like Deep Blue Something and the Bodeans. Even though from what I can gather now, his musical taste has taken a turn for the better, but it's more of sticking to what you know you like and not worrying what others think. Sure, you can take bands like Soundgarden and Nirvana and pigeonhole them to being "so 90's" and be dismissive, or you can take the music for what it's worth. No matter what you want to call it or how much you want to place it in a certain genre, it just boils down to being good rock music.
 | Currently listening :
Down on the Upside
By Soundgarden
Release date: By 21 May, 1996 |
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