984. Soundgarden / Superunknown. 1994. 4/5

Soundgarden hit the big time, in a fan way rather than a commercial way, with their album “Badmotorfinger”, that caught the attention of metal heads and alternative grunge lovers alike. Its style was one that garnered attention through the bombastic music and amazing vocals of Chris Cornell and set the band on the path to greater things. After touring behind the album, and then coming off the Lollapalooza tour, the band took a short break before beginning the process of writing for their next album. In reading about the way the album came together, it was interesting that the band members themselves found that the way they were going about the process had begun to change. It was noted that during the writing process, all of the members of the band gave each more freedom than they had in the past, both in the creating of the songs and allowing a more collaborative effort. It was also felt that while the band spent the same amount of time writing and arranging the songs for the new album, there was more time spent when it came to the actual recording, and making sure the songs got the finishing polish that they deserved.
Having changed producers for this new album, the band came in looking for a new perspective to their music, and that does become noticeably obvious very quickly, that sonically at least this is a different beast from their previous album. Whereas the previous album feels louder, this feels bigger, wider, deeper. The last few years had seen a massive change in the way music was being written and recorded in the age of the expanded grunge movement, and while Soundgarden was parcelled into this sound, they never really fit nor conformed to it. Parts of their make-up certainly had an element of grunge to it, but they drew their inspiration from other sources. Coming from Seattle didn’t make a band grunge, and Soundgarden were especially of this mould. There is as much Led Zeppelin about Soundgarden as there is Nirvana or Pearl Jam, and those influences come through on “Superunknown” more than anything they had produced prior to this album being released.

“Superunknown” is a refinement to what the band had released in the past. For the most part the tendrils of heavy metal have been sifted into the mists of time, and while there are some great songs on this album that utilise the heavier side of the band, there are few songs here that come close to some of the material that was written and recorded on “Badmotorfinger”. There are some good hard rock songs, and some good alternative songs, and some songs that continue to fly the flag for the grunge scene, which was quickly moving away from its peak by the time this album was released. Perhaps it was a more commercial record, or perhaps in essence it is just that two of the singles here went gangbusters both on the music video shows as well as commercial radio.
“Let Me Drown” is a strong opening song in a classic hard rock way with hard drums and solid rhythm followed up with vocals that are forthright and at the forefront of the song. “My Wave” comes from the same production line, with Cameron’s hard hitting drums bursting out of the speakers at you followed by Cornell’s wonderful vocal lines. Songs like this, when Cornell is on song and being the driving force of the song are my favourites because everything works together and there is a force behind it, a driving desire. That still makes songs like the following track, “Fell on Black Days”, terrific in their own right, but it is a different style of song, for which there is more melancholy in both music and vocals. That this band is capable of writing and performing these two styles of songs without skipping a beat is one of their great strengths.
Whatever the process, this almost acts like Soundgarden’s vision of a Led Zeppelin inspired Sgt Peppers, and while that may appear far-fetched, just stay with me for a moment. It contains songs that have almost psychedelic connotations with songs such as the grunge inspired “Mailman”, the Ben Shepherd composed “Head Down” and the change of intensity throughout in “The Day I Tried to Live”, that really hold themselves back and spin out the drama. Sitting between these songs is the title track “Superunknown” which is the hard rock alternative to those tracks, while “Limo Wreck” is a real indulgence, a long dragged out affair that combined with “The Day I Tried to Live” combine the thoughtful slow smouldering rhythm within the tonal areas where each song has its own break out point, where the music and vocals both explode for a time. Mixed within the middle of this are the mega-singles, “Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman”. “Black Hole Sun” disguises its intent within the clear guitar and smooth vocals before the heavier guitar comes into play, while “Spoonman” is the closest to metal this album comes in regards to drum beat and guitar, which along with that higher range vocal from Cornell initiates some blood pumping through the veins.
It will always be the upbeat songs such as “Spoonman” and “Kickstand” that I remember most fondly, because they are the ones that for me make Soundgarden the band that I enjoy. You can have your melancholy songs and your reflective tunes and those types of songs, because they have their place within the framework. But the faster upbeat songs are the ones that grab your attention and hold it for longer, because that is how they are designed. The back half of the album reigns in these songs to a degree, with the songs “Fresh Tendrils”, “4th of July”, “Half” and “Like Suicide” but that doesn’t make them any less entertaining. In fact, they fit the framework of the album as it is written and performed extremely well. It perhaps just muddies up how the album finishes, from a personal perspective, given what songs are the ones that draw me in.

As will become a common theme of albums released in 1994, for those of you who listen in on a regular basis, I didn't automatically get this on its release, due to a great shortfall of cash from being unemployed and living poor in a new city. And whereas tape sharing had been massive back in high school a decade earlier, that didn’t always occur in the 1990’s with friends now far flung around the cosmos. The singles on the radio had to keep me amused until such time as I could get around to buying the album, which came much later on.
I often wonder why this album for me didn’t quite match up to the previous album, and indeed how that occurred again with the following album. More than anything else, the music the band produced here was an evolving beast, and while I was on board with a lot of it, some of it... bored me And by the time I first got this album I wanted angry music, because I was angry at the world at that time, and this album isn’t angry music. That was why “Spoonman” and “Kickstand” were (and are) my favourite songs from the album, because they have the heaviest sound and the fastest pace, which was what I was looking for. I could appreciate the album, the musicianship. Chris Cornell’s vocals are sublime, truly amazing in both respects on this album, whether it is reaching those screams that pierce through the speakers or the honey smooth lower range croon that emote more than most lead vocalists could ever dream to do. But other albums at the time provided me more of what I needed.
Flash forward to 2024, and the replaying of the album over recent weeks has shown me in a much better frame of mind, and more mellow in the outset. And I still think the ban and the production of this album is spectacular. And the conclusion I have come to is this - I do like “Superunknown”, but I don’t love it. In many ways I could draw the same comparison to Soundgarden as a whole. It’s a band I truly enjoy listening to, but not one I guess that I would ever concede that I love. So, in many ways, this album mirrors how I feel about the band. There is so much to like about band and album, and I do. I just don’t emphatically love everything about it.