Issue #37: Soundgarden – Superunknown

Released:  March 8th, 1994

Recorded:  July – September 1993

Genre:  Grunge, Alternative Rock/Metal

Record Label:  A&M

Duration:  70:13

Producers:  Michael Beinhorn, Soundgarden

Personnel

Track Listing

Singles

Why Superunknown is One of My Favorites

Superunknown might be the least grungy album to come out of the grunge scene.  Granted, the year was 1994, and the movement was drawing to a close, and Soundgarden seemed to be making a conscious effort to distance themselves from the relatively simplicity of grunge, or at least an effort not to be trapped by it.  Superunknown pushes grunge to its heaviest and most experimental limits and acts as a rather fitting requiem for grunge in general.

For all the band’s talk about Superunknown being about life, it’s certainly a dark and dreary album, exploring concepts like suicide, depression, isolation, and, in the case of “Mailman,” killing your boss.  Guitars also take on more versatile roles in this record.  Instead of relegated to background rhythms, the full range of notes is used for both melodic and rhythmic effect.  The instrument also takes on multiple sounds and textures beyond “grind” and “squeal.”  Chris Cornell is like the Freddie Mercury of grunge, and his talents as an actual singer don’t go unnoticed.  Soundgarden also had 3 albums and a couple of EPs under their belt by the time they recorded Superunknown, whereas similar bands were only on their second or third record, giving the album a more mature sound.

As happens every few albums, upon refreshing myself with Superunknown I found it hard to make sweeping statements.  This is mostly due to the album’s diverse nature, which in and of itself is what helps to make it great.

“Let Me Drown” starts off the album with a marginally bleak acceptance of darker desires.  And as to address how this acceptance might turn away others, the speaker seems to be comfortable with the trade off, as with lines like, “give up to greed / you don’t have to feed me.”  Musically, it’s nearly a 50/50 mash-up of alt metal and grunge.  A catchy riff rides beneath the angsty vocals and a short but energetic solo caps off the track.  “My Wave” is the first of several songs to use unconventional timing.  It’s an angry song that encourages the listener to do whatever the need to do to feel better, but to keep it the hell away from him.  “Fell on Black Days” is where the album really starts to progress, starting with Cornell’s indifferent crooning and a bluesy guitar lick.  It’s also got an offbeat timing though it flows much more naturally than “My Wave.”

“Mailman” is a slow but noisy song, as Cornell laconically espouses his forthcoming dominance over an individual and a following downfall.  He’s remarked at concerts that this song is about killing your boss, which mostly makes sense, except for the subtle sexual undertones.  But sex is often used as a metaphor for power and dominance, as could be the case here.  “Superunknown” sounds like one of those nihilistic blues songs in a lonely bar that’s been mutated especially for Generations X and Y.  The guitar tune is straight from those blues-influenced 70’s rock song; moreover, the actual sound is decidedly twangy.  The drums and cymbals create an almost impenetrable wall of noise while Cornell sings an uplifting but potentially dangerous song about allowing yourself to feel however it is you feel and more or less rejecting social expectations.

“Head Down” seems to draw on Middle Eastern music as a dissonant tone slides from the guitar.  The entire song uses a strange chord progression that I can’t quite pinpoint, and although a little jarring at first, it quickly grew on me.  Multiple vocal tracks are used for an eerie choral effect.  “Black Hole Sun” creates an entire atmosphere with the watery guitar dancing in the background.  The chorus brings us back to typical grunge which contrasts well with the surreal verses.  Cornell’s has a gentle solemnity backed by an additional vocal track repeating “Black hole sun!” in a more distant, aggressive manner.  The song degenerates into solo-madness for a bit, but ultimately this seemingly harrowing tale is one of the album’s strongest tracks.  As it turns out, Cornell has said on several occasions that the lyrics aren’t really about anything.  I’d like to think there was some kind of doomsday thing happening, but hey, the songwriter is always right.

“Spoonman” sticks fairly close to the grunge formula as well, yet injects it with a bit of call and response and a riff that again lead back to more blues-oriented conventions.  The “musical spoons” as a percussive element add an interesting touch to a song that ends up being about a street performer known as Artis the Spoonman.  “Limo Wreck” is one of my favorites with its offbeat, clock-like rhythm.  The wailing, reverberated guitar makes me think Alice in Chains, and the slow but crushing guitars in the chorus mark it as one of the albums heavier songs.  The words imply an impending doom, though I can’t quite put a complete picture together.  “The Day I Tried to Live” is another highlight of the album and contains one of the album’s more compelling melodies.  It’s another oddly timed songs that kind of “clops” along, but I think it works for the most part.  Cornell has said that people take the word “live” too literally when trying to interpret this song, and that it’s actually a hopeful track; it’s about being reclusive and isolated yet making an attempt at being “normal.”

“Kickstand” pops up out of nowhere sounding a hell of a lot like a modern punk song.  The chords and structure are simple and fast, the song runs only a minute and a half, and it definitely has punk’s sense of immediacy.  The idea of needing a crutch (or a “kickstand”) to prop oneself up speaks to me as a song about drug addiction.  “Fresh Tendrils” is next, with a spastic start-stop rhythmic and a hypnotic guitar riff that borrows from “Head Down’s” exotic sound.  “4th of July” is a slow and dark song, held together with heavily distorted guitar and Cornell’s low-key vocals.  Cornell tells us that this song is about being on acid (LSD) as two police cars with their flashing lights pulled up next to him, and the lyrics are actually a little humorous when reading/hearing them with this in mind.

“Half” is a short song fully embracing a Middle Eastern/Indian sound.  There’s something vocal going on in the background, but I can’t really make it out.  “Half” is the manifestation of the album’s experimental side, but not much else.  “Like Suicide” finishes off Superunknown, dispersing the record’s energy with a slower, even draggy track about a bird.  As colorful as the title is, and as much as it seems set up for a brilliant comparison or metaphor, Cornell has confirmed that it is about a bird that flew into his window and broke its neck.  Chris discovered that it was still alive and euthanized it with a brick.  Then it devolves into a bunch of banging on drums and disparate guitar parts, but that’s par for the course when it comes to a lot of these sonically dense songs.

Overall I think Superunknown is a great work, but as an admittedly experimental piece, it has its ups and downs.  I don’t exactly want to knock it because it lands on largely uncharted territory between grunge and alt metal that sounds great, but as actual songs, I wish some of the songs were more focused and some of these musical ideas expressed more concisely.  It tends to wander at times (especially at the end of several tracks) and 70 minutes is pretty long for an album.  In the end there’s a lot of great stuff on Superunknown, I just fill like there’s some excess that could be trimmed.  If they could’ve cut several songs down to 3 or 4 minutes and done away with the noisy, disjointed outros, Superunknown could be pushed from “really good” to “masterpiece.”

Written by The Cubist

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Written by The Cubist

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I collect as much video gaming paraphernalia as I can get my hands on, especially when it comes to hardware. With over 40 systems including oldies like the ColecoVision and Intellivision, obscurities like the CD-i and 3DO, and the latest and greatest including the Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, and PS Vita, I get easily overwhelmed. Most of the time you can find me firmly nestled sometime between 1985 and 1995 when it comes to my games of choice, but I’m also having a great time seeing what the 8th generation has to offer.

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