SOUNDGARDEN –
BADMOTORFINGER (A&M RECORDS)
Whenever things go
wrong in my life (or they are about to) often I will get a song in my head and
that is “New Damage” by Soundgarden.
For me this track is a towering achievement as it captures the full
essence of a scenario falling apart and the dank scramble that occurs as
survival instincts cut in. The line
“the wreck is going down, get out before you drown” is a super effective mantra
that comes accompanied by the kind of dry score that will pad any dark time. And what more does a person need from the
records in their life?
This is one beast of
an album. For me it is the best
Soundgarden record by a long mile, the one where they still just about seemed
part of the local grunge scene while remaining unabashed and defiant as
worldwide fame ascended. This was not
punk rock; this was a brand of metal in the best way. The invention on this record is astounding, something that is easily
forgotten when considering the material on their next record that saw their
meteoric rise, when dare I suggest they sought a slightly and subtly more
accessible route.
I bought this record
from Time Records in Colchester when it was a tiny shop stuck next to the
gnarly nightclub that was The Hippodrome.
I paid £11.20. That was a store
that attached random prices to things I guess in view to remain the cheapest
prices in town while still making a profit.
It was a Saturday where my friends were so much cooler than me because
despite being in darkest Essex they wore flannel shirts and DMs. I just had a tatty jumper and rubbish
jeans. That day I also bought a
Mudhoney t-shirt on import from America with a wrestler on the front. To this day it was coolest band shirt I ever
bought. And unfortunately the one I was
wearing when I was beaten up at a birthday party by some gatecrashers from
Brightlingsea a few months later on the second ever time that I got drunk (and
the first not in front of my parents).
The grunge years certainly left their scars.
Like the majority of
people I was introduced to this record with the video for “Jesus Christ
Pose”. Listened to now the song remains
astounding, still powerful and very effective.
The playing is immense, taking hard rock to a whole new level. Soundgarden was never really an indie proposition
but to lump them in with metal does not seem quite right either. The guitars on this track sound like
something Sonic
Youth would have been proud to achieve and the drum beats tribal. With this after the initial hive of activity
occurs, even before the vocals kick in, Kim Thayil is taking things off in a
different route. Indeed it is almost a
minute and a half before Cornell opens his voice. Then the rest is history.
The album opens with
two singles in the form of “Rusty
Cage” and “Outshined”. The former works as a first track for being
sprinkled with energy while the latter excels being a dense slab of work that
solidifies the record on the stereo.
There are some really
lengthy, borderline overblown numbers present here. Indeed half the songs on the album go past the five-minute mark,
which naturally suggests grunge bands weren’t too concerned about retaining
their punk credentials. The best
example of this came be found in the floating “Searching With My Good Eye
Closed” that chugs along in the manner of swimming through a song as it builds
to a great refrain in the sky. That and
one fat as fuck solo in addition to a touch of Stooges-esqe saxophone.
For me it is “Mind
Riot” that hints most at what was to come on Superunknown. It is a more subdued take on their method of
rock that climaxes with an incredible hook at the vital point. Indeed this song could easily have
comfortably on what would later become their most popular work.
Towards the end there
is one final spurt of punk rock energy in the form of “Drawing Flies” which
would later also be the title for one of Kevin Smith’s lesser known works. It is phenomenal charge that impressively
squeezes Cornell’s lengthy lungs into a biting, barely two minute punk
song. Anything to alleviate the
boredom.
Finally it all closes
on the aforementioned “New Damage”. The
use of the term “damage done” feels like a nod to Neil Young although the music
(the sound) hardly suggests so. This is
however the way to close a mighty album.
They made it look
easy.
Thesaurus moment:
monstrous.
No comments:
Post a Comment