Down on the Upside
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| Down on the Upside | ||
 |
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| Studio album by Soundgarden | ||
| Released | May 21, 1996 | |
| Recorded | November 1995 - February 1996 at Studio Litho and Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington | |
| Genre | Grunge Alternative Rock |
|
| Length | 65:55 | |
| Label | A&M | |
| Producer(s) | Soundgarden, Adam Kasper | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Soundgarden chronology | ||
| Songs from the Superunknown (1995) |
Down on the Upside (1996) |
A-Sides (1997) |
Down on the Upside is the fifth and final studio album by Soundgarden. It was released on May 21, 1996 through A&M Records. Although the album received strong reviews and sent two singles to the top of the Mainstream Rock charts, sales quickly waned and it failed to match the popularity of predecessor Superunknown. Likewise in 1996, fellow Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains released their final studio album with no major tour, the Screaming Trees released what would become their final album, Dust, Kurt Cobain's suicide 2 years earlier marked the end of Nirvana, and Pearl Jam's popularity suffered from the release of No Code, marking what many call 'the end' of grunge music.
The album was notably less heavy than Soundgarden's previous albums, and marked a further departure from their grunge roots. The band explained at the time that they wanted to experiment with other sounds (for example, the song "Ty Cobb" features Ben Shepherd and Chris Cornell playing mandolin and mandola). This experimentation can be heard to a lesser degree on their previous album Superunknown. However, tensions within the group arose during the recording sessions, with Thayil and Cornell reportedly clashing over Cornell's desire to shift away from the heavy guitar riffing that had become their trademark.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
| # | Song | Length | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | "Pretty Noose" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 02 | "Rhinosaur" |
|
Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell |
| 03 | "Zero Chance" |
|
Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd |
| 04 | "Dusty" |
|
Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd |
| 05 | "Ty Cobb" |
|
Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd |
| 06 | "Blow Up the Outside World" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 07 | "Burden in My Hand" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 08 | "Never Named" |
|
Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd |
| 09 | "Applebite" |
|
Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell |
| 10 | "Never the Machine Forever" |
|
Kim Thayil |
| 11 | "Tighter & Tighter" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 12 | "No Attention" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 13 | "Switch Opens" |
|
Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd |
| 14 | "Overfloater" |
|
Chris Cornell |
| 15 | "An Unkind" |
|
Ben Shepherd |
| 16 | "Boot Camp" |
|
Chris Cornell |
[edit] Personnel
- Chris Cornell - Vocals, guitar, mandolin, piano, mandola, Fender Rhodes
- Kim Thayil - Guitar
- Ben Shepherd - Bass guitar, mandolin, mandola, photography
- Matt Cameron - Drums, percussion, Moog synthesizer
- Adam Kasper - Piano, producer, engineer, mixing
- Tom Smurdon - Assistant engineer, tracking assistant
- John Burton - Assistant engineer, tracking Assistant
- Sam Hofstedt - Assistant engineer
- Matt Bayles - Assistant engineer
- Dave Collins - Mastering
- Kevin Westenberg - Photography
[edit] Chart positions
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Billboard Top 200 | 2 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | "Pretty Noose" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 4 |
| 1996 | "Pretty Noose" | Modern Rock Tracks | 2 |
| 1996 | "Burden In My Hand" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 |
| 1996 | "Burden In My Hand" | Modern Rock Tracks | 2 |
| 1996 | "Blow Up The Outside World" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 |
| 1996 | "Blow Up The Outside World" | Modern Rock Tracks | 8 |
| 1997 | "Rhinosaur" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 19 |
[edit] Editorial Reviews
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since September 2006. |
Ranked #25 in the Village Voice's 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. Village Voice (02/25/1997)
3 Stars (out of 5) - ...[eschews] innovation for the simpler payoff of just rocking out....While there are plenty of genuinely enjoyable moments throughout the album, their cumulative effect is undercut by the strict adherence to hard-rock form....The outlook remains bleak throughout... Rolling Stone Magazine (05/30/1996)
8 (out of 10) - ...as sprawling and generous-spirited as SUPERUNKNOWN, but...is a looser and live-er-sounding affair, not seeking the same level of aural precision....There's a new rhythmic tilt in a few songs that suggests the influence of the unjustly maligned '70s boogie tradition... Spin (06/01/1996)
...[Cornell's] not a happy camper--and the sadder he gets, the nastier Soundgarden sounds....his bandmates revitalize him with odd instruments..., weird new mixes..., and skewed tempos and dune-shifting melodies that unfold and enfold over repeated spins... Musician (07/01/1996)
Recommended - ...[they are] never again going to be the band they used to be....Soundgarden were the band in whose honour Sub Pop were formed, but their roots don't matter now. All I care for now is the immediacy of their pop moments. You're Oasis fans. You understand... Melody Maker (05/18/1996)
...When the band does latch onto a hook,...[Soundgarden] seems to instantly tire of it and contort its melody and tempo. Deviant, yes, but at least Soundgarden are on their musical toes... - Rating: B+ Entertainment Weekly (05/24/1996)
3 (out of 5) - ...they're now fully capable of penning some damned spiffy pop songs....this is a raw, warm....sounding record, high-tech for 1975 and having more to do with tubes than transistors....they sound more human here, like they're playing in your living room... Alternative Press (08/01/1996)
[edit] Additional notes
The album was also released in a limited edition with the Into the Upside interview disc. The interview among other things is available at: [1] .
Catalogue: (LP) A&M 540526, (CD) A&M 314540526
| Soundgarden |
| Chris Cornell | Kim Thayil | Matt Cameron | Ben Shepherd |
| Scott Sundquist | Hiro Yamamoto | Jason Everman |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums and extended plays: Screaming Life | Fopp | Ultramega OK | Flower | Louder than Love | Screaming Life/Fopp | Badmotorfinger | Superunknown | Songs from the Superunknown | Down on the Upside | A-Sides |
| Singles: "Hunted Down" | "Flower" | "Loud Love" | "Hands All Over" | "Room a Thousand Years Wide" | "Jesus Christ Pose" | "Outshined" | "Rusty Cage" | "Spoonman" | "Black Hole Sun" | "Fell on Black Days" | "My Wave" | "The Day I Tried to Live" | "Superunknown" | "Pretty Noose" | "Burden in My Hand" | "Blow Up the Outside World" | "Ty Cobb" | "Bleed Together" |
| Related Articles |
| Temple of the Dog | Singles | Grunge music | Audioslave | Pearl Jam | Alice Mudgarden | Hater | Wellwater Conspiracy |
