Outshined (Soundgarden) (LP 3836 - 3841)

Soundgarden  Badmotorfinger (CD, A&M Records, 1991) ***** 

Soundgarden  Superunknown (CD, A&M Records, 1994) *****

Soundgarden  Live on I-5 (CD, A&M Records, 2011) ***

Soundgarden  King Animal (CD, Vertigo Records, 2012) ****

Soundgarden  Live from the Artist's Den (2CD, Universal Records, 2019) *** 

Soundgarden  A-Sides (CD, A&M Records, 1997) ***** 

Genre: Grunge, rock, Heavy Metal

Places I remember: Music shop in Nelson, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Outshined (Badmotorfinger)

Gear costume: Holy Water (Badmotorfinger), Jesus Christ Pose (Live on I-5), Attrition (King Animal)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: This is another band that I first heard thanks to my neighbour in Nelson - Sam Sivak! Go you good thing! I fell for Soundgarden the moment I heard Outshined and then Jesus Christ Pose on a compilation he had. I immediately got the Heavy Metal/ Black Sabbath riffarama vibe.

I especially remember Badmotorfinger forming the soundtrack as I worked on the Waimean magazine with Peter Joyce and Sam's sister - Leda at Waimea College in the early nineties. I played it a lot!

As well as the two mentioned above, there are so many other great songs on it: Rusty Cage, Holy Water, Searching with My Good Eye Closed, Drawing Flies...A nineties classic!

They retained the heaviness for the follow-up - Superunknown, but there is also a tendency to introduce some variety in approach. Fell on Black Days, Black Hole Sun, and Spoonman are almost pop! Those songs helped make this their breakthrough album. 

For me those two albums form the peak of their achievement.

It's no surprise, then, that my favourite bits of Live on I-5 (released in 2011 but recorded on a tour in 1996) come from those two albums. Thankfully they also make up much of the set!

Versions of Helter Skelter and Search and Destroy are also highlights, but the album feels just a tad sluggish - even though Chris Cornell is in fine form (when was he not?).

King Animal (2012) was their sixth studio effort and their last. Sadly, Chris Cornell died in 2016 and the band was dissolved in 2018. King Animal is a fitting tribute to his powers. It's not an immediately stunning set of songs like Badmotorfinger/ Superunknown, but it is a consistently good set of songs. It's certainly way better than Down on the Upside.

Live from the Artist's Den is a sprawling double CD set that is waaay too long (29 songs!). I get it that it's a nice memento of Chris Cornell's later years in Soundgarden (this is from 2013 so post King Animal), but I struggle to listen to this in one setting.

A better bet is the best of compilation of studio 'hits' - A-Sides (great title). In fact, the band was a great singles band - so many classic moments are on this compilation that takes in all their efforts before the band called it a day after Down on the Upside.

As AllMusic put it: Almost every one of the group's best-known songs are here, including "Hands All Over," "Loud Love," "Jesus Christ Pose," "Outshined," "Rusty Cage," "Black Hole Sun," "The Day I Tried to Live," "Spoonman," "Fell on Black Days," "Pretty Noose," "Burden in My Hand," and "Blow Up the Outside World," resulting in a near-definitive summary of one of the most important and influential bands of the '90s.

Where do they all belong? I used to have their follow up to Superunknown - Down on the Upside but I was disappointed with it, so sold it off. No regrets with that decision.