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Rating: If we open the book of memory and search for the file "grunge," among the names of the many heroes who composed its history, we will occasionally catch sight of some ad-hoc group, whose existence is usually closely tied to a specific urgency of the moment.
This was the case for Temple Of The Dog, born to say a final goodbye to their friend Andrew Wood, and so it was for these Mad Season.
The spark was ignited in 1994 at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic in Minneapolis, where Pearl Jam's guitarist, Mike McCready, met bassist John Saunders. Once back in Seattle, they joined Alice In Chains' singer, Layne Staley (also in an endless struggle against his own demons), and Screaming Trees' drummer, Barrett Martin.
The four began to jam, and the compositions emerged through a flow of ideas sometimes only hinted at, where the feeling of the individual members in the moment mattered more than the song structure at all costs. Thus, when listening to the album, it's no surprise to find oneself suspended in perpetually extended tracks, where the notes linger like the thoughts of those playing them.
Listening isn't easy; sometimes it's even exhausting, and realizing that you are witnessing a collective exorcism helps give the right weight to the long digressions and repetitions you often encounter on the journey. This time Layne Staley, for the first and last occasion, takes on all the lyrics, which are aligned with his poetics. The rhythm section follows him and carves out personal space in the instrumental, fluid, and infinite "November Hotel" and in the subsequent, final "All Alone," almost devoid of words. Meanwhile, McCready's guitar takes its time, crafting riffs and solos sparingly.
The effect doesn't always manage to evoke emotion, at least for me, but this does not strip the album of important moments where Staley's harrowing intimacy surfaces, managing to shape the pieces with his style and anguish. Across the entire tracklist stand the opening, gray-pulsating "Wake Up" and "Long Gone Day," the pinnacle of a landscape painted with religious melancholy thanks to the voice of their friend Mark Lanegan, an alien yet necessary saxophone, and Staley's words, which I have personally etched in my internal memory: "I see all of you from time to time, isn't it strange? How far away we are now... Am I the only one who remembers that summer? Oh, I remember... Every day, every time a safe place, the music we played, the wind took it all away..."
In the end, the album leads the willing listener to walk along paths rich in psychedelia, acid deserts, and slow blues like the protagonists' healing ("Artificial Red"). Roads that sometimes leave you in quicksand ready to swallow you as dictated by their rhythm (see "Lifeless Dead"), in a progression from which it seems one cannot escape alive. This, unfortunately, as many of you may know, was the reality of the situation for Staley and Saunders, victims of the same old script. Here we will remember them forever in one of their last attempts to survive.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 River of Deceit (05:04)
My pain is self-chosen
At least, so The Prophet says
I could either burn
Or cut off my pride and buy some time
A head full of lies is the weight, tied to my waist
The River of Deceit pulls down, oh oh
The only direction we flow is down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
My pain is self-chosen
At least I believe it to be
I could either drown
Or pull off my skin and swim to shore
Now I can grow a beautiful shell for all to see
The River of Deceit pulls down, yeah
The only direction we flow is down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
Down, oh down
The pain is self-chosen, yeah
Our pain is self-chosen
04 I'm Above (05:45)
For clear space and soundess of mind
I've let you play me for some time
One can only receive and retain
But the lies you recite for your gain
So you rely on my faith in your kind
Or rather continue to pretend that I'm blind
You say I made your life a living hell
And yet still let me pay you when I fell
How is it you're feeling so uneasy?
How is it that I feel fine?
Life reveals what is dealt through seasons
Circle comes around each time
I've been blessed with eyes to see this
Behind the unwhole truth you hide
Bite to remind the bitten, bigger
Mouth repaying tenfold wide
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
Try to keep bad blood in the past
Never thought a chance, a chance it would last
I have strength enough, enough to forgive
I desire peace where I live
I've been blessed with eyes to see this
Behind the unwhole truth you hide
Bite to remind the bitten, bigger
Mouth repaying tenfold wide
How is it you're feeling so uneasy?
How is it that I feel fine?
Life reveals what is dealt through seasons
Circle comes around each time
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
I'm above
Over you I'm standing above
Claiming unconditional love
Above
07 I Don't Know Anything (05:01)
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know, yeah
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who to be
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know
When the teacher put the ruler down on my hand
I laugh!
Cross my heart and hide reliever in trails of blood,
I love?!?
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who I am
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know anything
I don't know who to be
Why we have to live in so much hate everyday? Oh yeah
Why the fighting and the coming down, am I sane?
I don't know
When the teacher put the ruler down on my hand
I laugh!
Cross my heart and hide reliever in trails of blood,
I love?!?
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Other reviews
By Rooster
Staley’s raw and damned singing, the true protagonist, manages to express itself in all its natural essence.
The strong emotions that emerge are the true success of 'Above', one of the last masterpieces produced by Seattle’s brief, intense, and frenetic rock period.
By sausalito
This album is perhaps the artistic pinnacle of Seattle grunge, the result of a supergroup including the great Layne Staley.
Layne Staley expressed emotions and poetry in a much deeper way: something especially demonstrated in the eponymous Alice in Chains album released a few months later.
By treno
Blues and Hard rock blend into a brew of sadness and anguish that emerges in tracks like 'I Don’t Know Anything.'
'River of Deceit,' the gem of the album, introduces a very sad track with a dark text which transforms into an incredible live version.
By Nevskji
"Mike McCready’s guitar work on this album is a masterpiece, balancing electric outbursts and sweetness in perfect harmony."
"Layne Staley once again confirms the extraordinary talent bestowed upon him — a voice capable of stirring emotions and dreaming."
By Black Creep
Every note is as if a bullet fired to the heart.
'Above' is an unrepeatable work, it has something tremendously magical, it enters your soul making you experience many unique emotions.
