POLL it to hell and gone: DOWN ON THE UPSIDE

woah woah woah. i mean we can maybe have a reasoned discussion about cutting "half" or "head down" but... fresh tendrils?!

I like 'Half' and 'Head Down', though... they're kinda like the "psychedelic" moments on the record!

Head Down, Mailman and Limo Wreck are my favourite Superunknown tracks

When I was 12 and I bought Superunknown about half of it bored me - didn't have the attention span for getting into the slower album tracks, and with no ear for metal at the time, its unrelenting guitar churn wore on me over 70 minutes - I routinely skipped over "4th of July," which doom metallers adore, until revisiting the album a few years back. I had less trouble embracing Down on the Upside as an album when it came out a couple years later - it's punkier and lighter on its feet. It's also (even) more blatantly Zeppelinesque than its predecessor, which I guess no one else ever notices. I mean, at least three tracks on Down on the Upside channel Houses of the Holy directly (and pretty brilliantly): "The Ocean" for "Rhinosaur," "Over the Hills and Far Away" for "Zero Chance," and "No Quarter" for "Boot Camp."

These days I'd probably agree that Superunknown is the better record, but this -

DOTU exemplifies one of my favorite kinds of albums -- a band that's already had their big pop breakthrough and is at the top of their game, just jamming a record full of weird ideas and seemingly unconcerned with making sure it's the perfect follow-up, indulgent in the best way

strikes me as totally OTM. Also, you all are fucking nuts for even entertaining the possibility of dropping "Limo Wreck" from Superunknown - that's like the best track!

Superunknown is a bit too long too tbh, I'd ditch "Limo Wreck" and maybe "Fresh Tendrils"

― Simon H., Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:06 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fp

^otfm. Can we NOT excise tracks from Superunknown?

i even feel sorry for people in countries that don't get to have She Likes Suprises in their Superunknown

"Never the Machine Forever" sounds like a Torche precursor

everybody who shat on Limo Wreck upthread can get fucked

Hard headed fuck you all

why didnt i vote for Burden why

WE ARE NOT DROPPING LIMO WRECK

also 'i'm here to fuck you all' is better than 'hard-headed fuck you all'

cigarette hair, sock in the mouth, tell me what to say

but also with more texture maybe than Superunknown

it does have a lot more, thayil and cornell (assuming it's ever him) have a lot more wailing-out time, and the lines in general are just a lot more hairy, less streamlined than superunknown - but the production is really flat and hollow, does a disservice to the texturizing

'Never the Machine Forever' is still my favourite thing on this. Wish Thayil had written more stuff towards the back end of the original run. Shepherd's handprints are all over this record - not that this is a bad thing of course, but he seemed to be (by this stage) a dominant creative force in the band along with Cornell, whereas Thayil just kinda faded into the background songwriting wise.

I'm here to fuck you all
I'm here to fuck you all
I'm here to fuck you all

Man do I love the drumming in the chorus of "burden"

I'm relistening to my shortened version w/ "Bleed Together" and "Karaoke" swapped in and it sounds real good. and I stand by my Superunknown statements

fp

is there a reliable way to tell cornell and thayil's parts apart on record? i read something about 'tighter and tighter' that implied that cornell was the soloist through the end, which surprised me, so i guess aside from the more sonic youth string-disturbance bits that i usually attribute to thayil, i still have no idea what thayil's part playing sounds like, and not always soloing either

http://bravewords.com/news/trouble-s-bruce-franklin-pays-tribute-to-chris-cornell-with-cover-of-soundgarden-s-tighter-tighter-video

it's interesting to hear a slightly undercooked performance of this by a competent peer, it really highlights how important every single person's contributions were to their sound

it's a bit long but this is my favourite SG album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upC4NytWCLI

i read something about 'tighter and tighter' that implied that cornell was the soloist through the end, which surprised me

live at least - uploader sez 'first live tighter & tighter', tho cornell's stage banter suggests they played it live during the DOTU touring - thayil takes the theme the whole time he's not soloing, and he takes all the solos, and when he solos cornell usually covers the theme, but shakier than thayil does. which seems typical for all their performances i've seen, for other songs. thayil tends to shift back and forth depending on what the song needs to be covered by one main part, with cornell picking up slack.

I' M HERET OFUCK YOUALL

AS YOUR HEAD OF STATE! YEAH YEAHYEAH

YEAHYEAH YEAHH!!!!!

HARDHEADED FUCK YOU ALL