This was unfortunately the final album for Soundgarden, who split following this tour. Their break-up signalled the beginning of the end for the Seattle scene as it had been for the past six or seven years.
Their final album is a mixture of brilliant and average. I've always thought that the first seven songs of this album represent the band's greatest work, while most of their hardcore fans see it as too commercialised and a sell-out.
I think Pretty Noose, Blow Up The Outside World, Burden In My Hand and Ty Cobb are just great songs, and the equal of anything else they released.
Take that with the second half of the album, which fails to excite me at any point. They are average songs without any fire. Did they run out of inspiration? Maybe. Perhaps that's why they went their separate ways. It is as if they only had enough for seven songs, so they put those at the front of the album, and put all the filler in the back half.
No matter. Though we were not to know that it was their final opus, the door certainly closed on a great band.
Rating : 1st half of the album 4.5/5. 2nd half of the album 3/5. Total 3.5/5.
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