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Soundgarden

Superunknown

  • AMG Review of Superunknown

    Amg
    Steve Huey
    All Music Guide

    Soundgarden's finest hour, Superunknown is a sprawling, 70-minute magnum opus that pushes beyond any previous boundaries. Soundgarden had always loved replicating Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath riffs, but Superunknown's debt is more to mid-period Zep's layered arrangements and sweeping epics. Their earlier punk influences are rarely detectable, replaced by surprisingly effective appropriations of pop and psychedelia. Badmotorfinger boasted more than its fair share of indelible riffs, but here the main hooks reside mostly in Chris Cornell's vocals; accordingly, he's mixed right up front, floating over the band instead of cutting through it. The rest of the production is just as crisp, with the band achieving a huge, robust sound that makes even the heaviest songs sound deceptively bright. But the most important reason Superunknown is such a rich listen is twofold: the band's embrace of psychedelia, and their rapidly progressing mastery of songcraft. Soundgarden had always been a little mind-bending, but the full-on experiments with psychedelia give them a much wider sonic palette, paving the way for less metallic sounds and instruments, more detailed arrangements, and a bridge into pop (which made the eerie allad "Black Hole Sun" an inescapable hit). That blossoming melodic skill is apparent on most of the record, not just the poppier songs and Cornell-penned hits; though a couple of drummer Matt Cameron's contributions are pretty undistinguished, they're easy to overlook, given the overall consistency. The focused songwriting allows the band to stretch material out for grander effect, without sinking into the pointlessly drawn-out muck that cluttered their early records. The dissonance and odd time signatures are still in force, though not as jarring or immediately obvious, which means that the album reveals more subtleties with each listen. It's obvious that Superunknown was consciously styled as a masterwork, and it fulfills every ambition.

Chris Cornell...is that You? It's Me, Mogger
over 2 years ago

I finally got around to watching Casino Royale the other night and barring a wiggy-ass chase scene in the pre-theme song intro segment, it wasn't really anything to write home about...man, that franchise just doesn't have a place in the post-Cold War world...I should've known it was going to be a pointless exercise when I heard the movie's theme song ("You Know My Name"?) being performed by Chr...

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Money simply provides the illusion of security and superiority.
over 2 years ago

If you are under the age of 18, or if you are accessing this site from a location that prohibits the viewing of nudity, or consider content of a sexually explicit nature offensive, PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.Funny How You Can Play A Whole ViD Of A Song, But You Can't Upload a Song...

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stalled
over 2 years ago

I'm heading for the bottom ...Hits it on the head,things are stalled at work, and this felt about right,and i'm riding you all the way ...Sigh

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Down In A Hole..
over 3 years ago
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...Jesus tries to crack a smile.Holy shit my life just got saved.

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before i blow my fingers off...
about 1 year ago

its what the founding fathers would want.

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Money simply provides the illusion of security and superiority.
over 2 years ago

If you are under the age of 18, or if you are accessing this site from a location that prohibits the viewing of nudity, or consider content of a sexually explicit nature offensive, PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.Funny How You Can Play A Whole ViD Of A Song, But You Can't Upload a Song...

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Chris Cornell...is that You? It's Me, Mogger
over 2 years ago

I finally got around to watching Casino Royale the other night and barring a wiggy-ass chase scene in the pre-theme song intro segment, it wasn't really anything to write home about...man, that franchise just doesn't have a place in the post-Cold War world...I should've known it was going to be a pointless exercise when I heard the movie's theme song ("You Know My Name"?) being performed by Chr...

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Down In A Hole..
over 3 years ago
Blog post image preview

...Jesus tries to crack a smile.Holy shit my life just got saved.

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I think my first post here was about Soundgarden
over 3 years ago

My last post was about Michel Legrand. About getting back in touch with my father and then him dying from cancer. I went on a major nosedive right after that.I had a roommate who was an obsessive compulsive neat-freak. Who was literally starting to drive me insane. I mean for real. Ever know someone who was always trying to drag you into their problems? Make their problems into your proble...

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In the night light we still shine bright
over 2 years ago

Just now, I was listening to Soundgarden's "Fell On Black Days," and bumped into Meaning. It's true that finding just the right song can be a wonderful experience, and I've found it the best when it happens accidentally. It's a song that I like just for its pacing. Heard a Chris Cornell acoustic version first thanks to animamusika, then the studio version with the band on one of the albums th...

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stalled
over 2 years ago

I'm heading for the bottom ...Hits it on the head,things are stalled at work, and this felt about right,and i'm riding you all the way ...Sigh

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Oh no...the first telltale sign of aging.
over 3 years ago

Man...if having a baby and having to reprioritize my discretionary spending wasn't enough ("What's the more sensible purchase...Lollapalooza tickets or 13 packs of diapers?"), this recent event was a (rude) wake-up call:You know when your listening to a mixtape (or "playlist" for you whippersnappers) and that Led Zeppelin tune pops up amongst the somewhat-more-current tunes, it's volume barely...

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Stuck in the past
about 1 year ago
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I dunno why but I fail to see anything interesting in contemporary music. Maybe its because:1. There are just too many artists to listen to.2. Genres have evolved radically to coalesces with other genres and then split again to form new different friggin genres.3. The "new" and "emerging" artists aren't dead yet. I know this would be a bummer for concert ticket sales but...I like listening to dead

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God bless the Onion
about 1 year ago

This seriously made my day.

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