Review Summary: Soundgarden finally show their true talent.
1991 was considered an amazing year for music. We've had phenomenal albums such as Nirvana's Nevermind, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Massive Attack's Blue Lines, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Temple Of The Dog's eponymous LP, Pearl Jam's Ten, and the album which I am reviewing,
Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger.
1991 was also known as the year where grunge was propelled into mainstream success due to songs such as Smells Like Teen Spirit (by Nirvana), Outshined, Rusty Cage (by Soundgarden), Alive and Jeremy (by Pearl Jam) being able to find an audience on various radios. Not only did those albums popularize grunge, but it symbolized a new era of rock music where glam and heavy metal had reigned before.
After Ultramega OK & Louder Than Love, Soundgarden had parted ways with bassist Hiro Yamamoto who was replaced by a new and now permanent bassist, Ben Shepherd, who had admitted Soundgarden was his favorite band before he joined them. Soundgarden had wanted a new, fresh start, to take a more collaborative approach. In my opinion, to be truthfully honest, I wasn't really impressed with their previous releases. Both albums had a very messy production, with Louder Than Love stripping most of Soundgarden's nature. A closer listen can define Soundgarden weren't really ambitious as on their 90s-present releases, which is quite a shame though, as I thought they had a lot of confidence in them.
Badmotorfinger shows a more mature and sprawling side of Soundgarden like nobody has seen before. Chris, at long last, showcases his full talent here, developing a new voice - not only as a singer, but also as a marvelous songwriter, while guitarsts Ben Shepherd and Kim Thayil take stage centre. Soundgarden finally sounds like a band in their full prime, completely focused, eclectic and ready for anything.
What I like most about the LP is that there is more depth and variety, whereas their previous efforts were too straight-forward and, also at most points, awkward. That, however, is not the case here. There are fast songs, punkish moments, interesting moments, pure songwriting, but I also dislike how there are a few odd songs. Some of the songs come off as either too slow or whiny, albeit the lyrics being at most, meaningful. This happens to songs such as Slaves & Bulldozers (which is almost nearly 7 minues long) and New Damage.
Honorable mentions:
Rusty Cage - For a first song, incredible. The song starts with an exploding guitar intro until a Black Sabbath-esque breakdown just a minute before the end of the song and the song starts to slow down, while Chris provides incredible faint screams. Many bands tend to start an album with a very slow-paced song.
Outshined - The song which showcases Cornell's real voice talent. Just like Rusty Cage, a booming guitar from the start until Tim Khayil switches into a more cleaner guitar sound. After the chorus done by the whole band, Chris whines "Outshined, outshined, outshined, outshined!", but it's actually a great whine with some powerful shrieks after the second time. His best performance? You betcha.
Jesus Christ Pose - Probably the most blistering, underrated and well-executed song on the album. No weak or uninspiring moments, phenomenal riffs, incredible vocal delivery done by Chris and great drumming from Matt Cameron. This song literally blows me away every time.
Face Pollution - Another very fast-paced song. Although it's the shortest track out of the 12, the song kicks off with a shriek by Chris and then going into a very punkish fashion. This one is really fun to listen to.
Worst songs:
Slaves & Bulldozers - At 6:55, you guessed it: It's the slowest/worst song off the album. While the guitar is great, there is practically nothing significant that happens on the song. But the guitar still saves it.
New Damage - A very bad ultimate track. Chris's vocals are too whiny and it's the only song where I am sure the band sounded uninspried. For a final track, it's not really suitable.
To sum up, aside from a few dull moments, Badmotorfinger is considered, at least by me, the first excellent Soundgarden album and one of the best of 1991. While Badmotorfinger would not receive the universal praise as Superunknown would, Soundgarden have taken a massive step in the right direction in their musicianship and have continued to go down this path with their next albums. They sound more like a team now, haivng various ideas, rather than just being chaotic and uninspired.
4.1/5
