Soundgarden

Down on the Upside (A&M)
by Ryk McIntyre

The funny story starts like this: the Powers That Be Sitting There at Lollipop Music Editor Heaven, those who change the course of mighty rivers, decided that giving the new Soundgarden CD to “the Old Guy writer,” the one who remembers back when there were no Saturday morning cartoons (and yet young enough that he doesn’t remember a time before TV), might give, as Josh put it, “a fresh perspective on it.” Yeah, right Josh, you mean this whooole bridge is really yours to sell? Wowzer!!

Do they think I’m stupid? (Am I stupid…?) Anyway, I approached this CD as an outsider would (I know, what a stretch), and it really wasn’t that bad. It was good. I’ll admit I was put off at first by Chris Cornell’s vocals ’til I realized that that was his high range. He’s much better when he’s not screeching like David Coverdale. Soundgarden has some nice, complex rhythms and fresh arrangements, and while the lyrics often lean toward the obtuse, they still beat the shit out of clowns like Stone Temple Pilots. At a generous 16 tracks, Down On The Upside offers up a fairly wide variety of music idioms, though most songs at some point meander towards chord-heavy rock. “Blow Up The Outside World,” “Applebite,” and “Overfloater” struck me as the best cuts, but that may be because Chris, again, sings in mostly a lower register.

So, yeah, the old bastard kinda likes the band, and just wants to hint that, while he could do a similar sort of effort for Soul Asylum, he’s just not gonna ever like Pearl Necklace, or whatever their name is. Or those Stolen Tupperware Pieplates guys. …hey! That was a funny story. Go on, go home now. Sheesh… you kids these days…