keepers 3
keeper avg .231
Whether an cultural anachronism or a simple cashing-in on the 20th anniversary grunge nostalgia, there was no good reason for this album to exist. Pulling features from all 3 of the last studio albums it seems to pick up right where Down On The Upside left off but something is rotten in Seattle, and the slimy cheese is right on top. "Been Away Too Long" is lousy from note one and just invites the jabs. It's mad libs for music criticism, insert punch line here. To me it's 'been away too long to remember how to write a chorus.' More on that to come. Many songs do start with killer riffs, Cornell comes in with his shrieking, and the band deftly handles changes in rhythm or time signatures like the Soundgarden I know and love. "Non-State Actor" features all the excessively complex riffs that the guitar geek in me still enjoys before an arena rock schlock "We'll settle for a little bit more than everything" chorus comes out of nowhere. "Eyelid's Mouth" similarly goes from familiar but cool to cheesy in 2 seconds flat. But others simply fart out. "Attrition" kicks butt right from its Hawkwind / space rock intro until a random key change and some line about getting the punchline right signifies that there was a chorus and was quickly forgotten. "A Thousand Days Before" is merely another forgettable exercise in drone-y Indian raga, but what really completes the fail it is Cornell searching around in vain for a melody to hang his pointless "I'll be on my own side, you know where to find me" chorus on before settling on 'good enough-job done'. Not that it's all bad news. "By Crooked Steps"**** kicks out time changes like only Soundgarden can and doesn't let up except for a bridge that sounds forced. "Blood On The Valley Floor"**** sounds familiar enough to fit comfortably on to Badmotorfinger, but that kind of Black Sabbath stuck in tar riff is what I come to Soundgarden for, and "Taree"**** strikes the right balance between guitar noodling and chorus hook. "Black Saturday" is a strange cross between a Badmotorfinger rocker and Incubus, and "Worse Dreams" has all the features of your garden variety Soundgarden album track. That's not really a bad thing, but considering there are only 3 really good songs here, and the beginning and ending of the album ("Rowing" is 5 minutes of the worst of grunge) are so crappy, it's still disappointing considering how much I loved this band in its heyday.
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