Mad Season
Above

THE REVIEW

We are in 1995, and while grunge was slowly dying, a bang once more (for the last time?) brought light to the genre: we are talking about "Above" by Mad Season. A very particular album perhaps truly understood by few, but which is certainly (without exaggeration) a gem of the entire musical world.

Mad Season was a supergroup formed by Layne Staley (from Alice in Chains), Mike McCready (from Pearl Jam), John Baker Saunders (from the Walkabouts), and Barrett Martin (from Screaming Trees).

Having met in a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, the four formed a band and recorded just this album: 56 minutes in a world that, contrary to what a soft title like "Above" might suggest, is immersed in the persecution of one's guilt, abandonment, pain, solitude... this is an anthem to death. Death, however, is not addressed directly, but is the logical consequence of every track. The atmosphere is not heavy, in fact, it almost seems fantastic, you can hear the sun in the distance, a sun that we will never see. There is nothing positive, only distrust in tomorrow and in everything that could save us, every note is as if a bullet fired to the heart.

The label "grunge group" quickly dissolves with the first song "Wake up", 7.38 minutes of very slow, sick, resigned blues, with the sweet voice of Layne Staley guiding us in an atmosphere of freedom tinged with drugs, but damn honest! An atmosphere that will accompany us throughout the journey. The highlights of the album are definitely the wonderful and introspective "River of deceit" (definitely one of the most beautiful songs written by Staley), "I'm above" with its so depressed aura, the dramatic "Long gone day" (where, as in the already mentioned "I'm above", we also find Screaming Trees' singer Mark Lanegan) and the closing "All alone", a rarefied resignation to pain with a four-word text that perhaps represents the emblem of the album: "We're all alone..." The rock side is well represented by "X-ray mind" and the hit "I don't know anything" (the only grunge episode on the record). Also memorable is the highly inspired "November hotel", 7 minutes of pure music.

In short, this is not an easy album to understand, it is not the typical album to listen to and hum along to while you are in the shower: it is an album that makes you reflect!

Unfortunately, in recent years, interest in such profound works has waned, favoring the catchy nature of pop... making "Above" almost forgotten, I always hope that there is at least someone else who continues to love this masterpiece, and that one day everyone will recognize its beauty.

"Above" is an unrepeatable work, it has something tremendously magical, it enters your soul making you experience many unique emotions, and leaves causing a profound change in you, it is something that makes you grow, it is an intimate and deep lesson in life.

Try it to believe it... for me, it was like that...