Down on the Upside
Occupation
- Chris Cornell - Vocals
- Ben Shepherd - Bass
- Kim Thayil - Guitar
- Matt Cameron - drums
Production
- Soundgarden
- Adam Kasper
Down on the Upside is the fifth studio album by the grunge band Soundgarden. It was released by A & M Records in May 1996. It was for many years - until the release of King Animal 2012 - the last studio album of the band. Although it gained platinum status in the U.S., but overall it did not approach the success of its predecessor Superunknown.
Style
Musically fell Down on the Upside of the part a little slower and more experimental than the previous albums. The songs have different tempos and instrumentations, from mid-tempo groove (Pretty Noose ) überakustisch played ballads ( Blow Up the Outside World) to fast, more punk -inspired pieces like Ty Cobb or Never Named. Some psychedelic influences ( approximately zero chance ) and partly something ungeschliffenere sound reminiscent of Louder Than Love, singer Chris Cornell, however, said in an interview that the band is " far more subtle " to work would than seven years earlier. It reminded the mood more like Ultra Mega OK. The last song Bootcamp brought Cornell himself with Pink Floyd in conjunction. Applebite was originally conceived as a purely instrumental piece. Also used on this album the band again unusual time signatures such as a 9/8-Takt at Never the Machine Forever and different tunings.
Genesis
In July 1995, the preparatory work for the album, which was then taken up in Seattle from November 1995 began in Stone Gossard Studio Litho and Bad Animals Studio. For the first time the band produced an album on their own, Adam Kasper served as co-producer and sound engineer. The band explained this with the fact that a producer in addition to the band 's own interests are often pursued, wanted to prove about record companies against. Soundgarden had reached a " certain maturity " and now want to give it up. The album reached number two on the Billboard 200, in Germany 15th place, but could not reach the total sales of Superunknown. Pretty Noose nominated performance in 1997 for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock. The album was followed by appearances at the Lollapalooza Festival, among others Metallica on tour with Moby, in which the audience reactions for Soundgarden failed behavior, which contributed to the breakup of the band in 1997. The band also announced that they wanted to get away from stardom, a theme that already broached Cornell in Blow Up the Outside World.
Reception
The album was recorded differently. In Rock Hard Magazine copper Thomas spoke of a "Masterpiece" and awarded the maximum score of ten. He honored among other things, that Soundgarden would not have chosen the easy way out by Superunknown, though sounds the plate thus first " bulky ", but then deploying a " hypnotic effect ". In Rolling Stone, David Fricke rated the album three out of five stars. The album was missing moments of catharsis, the band " GREETINGS rather her heels a " disturbing than dirt.
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