Down On The Upside
by Soundgarden

Down On The Upside by Soundgarden
Year: 1996
Release date: 1996-05-21
Overall rank: 2,107th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 311 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1996 (37th)
Award Top albums of the 1990s (367th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,107th)

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Soundgarden bestography

Down On The Upside is ranked 3rd best out of 14 albums by Soundgarden on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Soundgarden is Superunknown which is ranked number 173 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 8,436.

Soundgarden album bestography « Higher ranked (663rd)
Badmotorfinger
This album (2,107th)
Down On The Upside
Lower ranked (3,490th) »
Louder Than Love

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Down On The Upside track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Down On The Upside rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,107th | 1990s rank: 367th | 1996 rank: 37th

Down On The Upside collection

Down On The Upside ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 311 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 311 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 
05/27/2026 03:27 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  11,41370/100
 
90/100
 
05/10/2026 12:08 Adhura  Ratings distribution  1,67177/100
 
65/100
 
04/04/2026 13:10 AAL2014  Ratings distribution  3,89875/100
 
70/100
 
03/31/2026 18:34 Juneof44  Ratings distribution  2,60769/100
 
25/100
 
03/06/2026 03:22 Proto  Ratings distribution  4,16133/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 6% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.5/100, a mean average of 74.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.6.

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Down On The Upside comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 16 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
90/100
From 12/19/2020 18:24 | #262941
A bit bloated, but still great. Lots of fantastic cuts on this one, Pretty Noose, Zero Chance, Blow Up the Outside World, Ty Cobb, Burden in My Hand, Applebite, Overfloater.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 09/17/2020 19:03 | #258330
More Up on the Downside for me. Rating (75.94)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 03/11/2020 02:49 | #248645
This album had the difficult task of following up Superunknown and got a bad wrap for not being as good. Taken on its own merits this is great. Often dismissed as more of the same if anything the band continued to experiment with different sounds. With perspective on their career people should dust this one off.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 08/15/2019 00:46 | #241183
For me, I listened to this albums 100s of times. I absolutely love it. Blow Up The Outside World was overplayed on the radio so it's really the only song I skip. Disclaimer, I was a huge Soundgarden fan. One of the biggest regrets in my life was not being able to see them live.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 02/14/2019 00:28 | #231896
A lot of great songs on this album but it's a little long
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 01/02/2017 00:07 | #181441
Probably too long, but there are still brilliant songs like Pretty Noose, Ty Cobb and Blow Up the Outside World. A couple of less inspired tracks contribute to build the gap with Badmotorfinger and Superunknown.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
From 02/28/2016 17:55 | #160965
Some very good songs on DotU is *far* too long. By the middle of this record I am normally put into a state of sadness because of the drab production and depressing songs. I enjoy tracks like Burden in my Hand, Blow Up the Outside World, Pretty Noose, and Ty Cobb on their own, but I can't sit through this album as a whole. It's honestly a daunting task.

This is the worst Soundgarden record.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (2 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 05/10/2015 18:07 | #141254
The first seven songs, plus "Tighter & Tighter" and "Switch Opens" are overall amazing, while the rest are average.
The top 3 here are "Pretty Noose", "Blow Up The Outside World", and "Burden In My Hand".
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 01/21/2015 22:21 | #132157
What happened? The secon half of the album is just a WTF. The first half has its moments, but even those feel not only too polished, but creatively spent. Take "Burden in My Hand", for instance. It starts out well, but then just gets boring and repetitive- like, the bridge? Overall pretty disappointing.

Nevertheless, two standouts: "Rhinosaur" and "Ty Cobb"
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 11/03/2012 19:13 | #54127
there are some amazing tracks. the thing is, is that there are SIXTEEN of them. you can't have a perfect album like "superunknown" when you have a few mediocre tracks bringing down what could have been soundgarden's masterpiece
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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