SOUNDGARDEN "LOUDER THAN LOVE"
I’ve used to be a huge early Soundgarden fan, so when I heard about the possibility of a long overdue reunion, I couldn’t help but dig out all their albums for old time sake. And the one that still stands up the best for me is “Louder than Love”. Big, slow, and full of raw energy, this is Soundgarden at their very best. Once this one is in, it doesn’t come out for at least a few hours. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for their subsequent albums.
I never completely got into “Badmotorfinger”, “Superunknown” was overlong with too many filler tracks (“Spoonman”? Really?) and the less said about “Down on the Upside” the better. The steady decline in quality makes their eventual break-up seem like the right thing in retrospect... though, besides his brief stint with the guys from Rage Against the Machine, Cornell would not fair much better on his own. I really hope the reunion is a return to form and not just a nostalgic cash in.
STANDOUT TRACKS: “Loud Love”, “The Ugly Truth” & “No Wrong No Right”
