Album of the day (#3025): Superunknown by Soundgarden

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Superunknown by Soundgarden (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1994.
Country:
Overall rank: 185
Average rating: 80/100 (from 931 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Let Me Drown
2. My Wave
3. Fell On Black Days
4. Mailman
5. Superunknown
6. Head Down
7. Black Hole Sun
8. Spoonman
9. Limo Wreck
10. The Day I Tried To Live
11. Kickstand
12. Fresh Tendrils
13. 4th Of July
14. Half
15. Like Suicide
16. She Likes Surprises

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[CA Dreamin]

Hell yes! Outstanding album. Although the track-listing is wrong, . Like Suicide is the closer, a perfect one at that. She Likes Surprises is a bonus track...duh.
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on such a winter's day

[DommeDamian]

My description of this on my chart (currently at #78th).

"Holy shit, I did not expect Superunknown to make me drop my jar. Soundgarden's prime album is not only one of my favorite grunge albums , but also one of the darkest, rawest, most relatable, emotionally draining pieces of work, in history. It hasn't been spinning in the player of mine, as much as its contemporaries on this list, but for good reason; only bumping it while my greatest fears have come true. Everything about this LP is topnotch superb.:
The cover-art; two worlds are shown, the black and the white world. But the black (dark/depressing) world fills the cover more than the other, and to be exact, it looks like it's fulfilling the white world - just look at the conversely grey cloud. That's a massive sign of the darker days taking over. Then you have Chris Cornell (I think) being trapped in the black world, screaming in pain, while both his hands illustrates a shimmering picture of being crucified - which means he is being tortured by the dark world, but is simultaneously trapped (as said).
Superunknown is also one of the all-time best unvaried albums where production and lyrics matches through the perfect songs. You don't need to go longer than 4 songs to get my point, fx find another instrumental/melody that fits the tones of Mailman or My Wave on the album. Plus at the same time, I do not find one single flaw on any song. But if I did, it would actually make sense, because on such an apocalyptic album like this one, we want to make mistakes so we can feel even more sad to back up our courage to self-murder. Either way, it won't effect the appealing and loneliness. It becomes apparent when Chris Cornell delivers “Stretch marks over my eyes, burn the candles deep inside,” in the album’s first track that this will be a ultimatively gloomy record. Superunknown is subject to heavily distorted and dropped tuning guitars and soaring and blunt vocals that give it sheer brutality. The slow burning Limo Wreck directly reflects this, its self-hating lyrics and bruised atmosphere represents the record very well. Trippy single Black Hole Sun is responsible for a great deal of Superunknown’s success (and also in my top 25 favorite tracks of all time), it’s disturbing and absurd music video says everything about the song. Don’t get me wrong, this record does have its lighter moments, but even the more upbeat nature of The Day I Tried to Live is misleading (my heart start beating everytime I think of the title). In the opening verse, Cornell’s lyrics are distressing. Still, the track blissfully carries on, Cornell utilizing his distinct yell, Cameron beating his drums to a pulp, and Thayil wailing on his guitar. Spoonman features disturbing lyrics of its own; “And all my friends are skeletons, they beat the rhythm with their bones, Spoonman.” (shoutout to Mike Allen).
It's also really scary to look at the booklet covers, I'm getting a clearer and clearer picture of Cornell's lyrics when he sings them right from the bruised heart of his. One last thing I want to write about is the album title. Superunknown is quite possibly the most intelligent album title in grunge history, simply because of its accuracy. I still don't (really) know what this album is or what it represents. It seems to have an undeniable sense of unity in that no track off this album could be removed without the quality being sorely affected as a result. However, the album is so jumpy and scatterbrained that it works in the most unpredictable way. Certain things about this album still catch me off guard, like the faint sound of silverware hitting a surface in Spoonman or the stomach-churning bass line of 4th of July (plus Jack Mancuso). That's pretty much all - fantastic record, definitely the best and most ambitious suicidal album of its time."

PS: Sorry to add the She Likes Surprises song on here. Was convinced it was the real closer, since I didn't know my CD had a bonus track.
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[Fischman]

Soundgarden's biggest, most popular, and most acclaimed album... and in my mind and ears, a significant step down from the rawer and more musically interesting Badmotorfinger that preceded it.

[CA Dreamin]

Great summary, raad

[Villain]

My favorite album of all time. I'll never get tired of it.
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Check out some of my other interest on my own review site. Scum N' Villainy

http://www.scumnvillainy.com/