Soundgarden
Down on the Upside

THE REVIEW

The farewell album of Soundgarden starts from a minimal point of departure: to improve or at least match the artistic maturity achieved with the previous Superunknown, released when various Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, and Alice in Chains dominated the American charts, and neither the various clones nor the boy bands nor Britpop undermined (for a short time more) the legendary harmony, impurely defined as grunge. The death of Cobain changed things considerably, and Soundgarden found themselves in a world that did not belong to them, where neither Corgan nor Reznor, the two major rock icons of the mid-90s, managed to bring rock back to the center of media attention, now oriented towards Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and mediocre black rappers who still dominate MTV's programming today.

Repeating the success of Superunknown was the real mission: impossible, under these conditions. The task already seemed arduous, however, because that album was truly an unrepeatable masterpiece and probably one of the best records ever to come out of Seattle. Down on the Upside indeed fails to achieve the goal despite the initial enthusiasm and decent sales: critics immediately labeled it as a poor copy of the previous work, and the band, realizing the evident artistic decline, quietly disbanded the following year, without controversies but with great disappointment from the fans who had followed them for more than a decade. In reality, one of the real reasons for the split was certainly Cornell's ambition, who, convinced he could successfully follow in the footsteps of his friend Jeff Buckley, embarked on a solo career.

However, Down on the Upside turns out to be far more substantial than critics had to say, and tracks like Rhinosaur, Boot Camp, Switch Opens, and Dusty already make it clear that the album is not just the four songs that ended up on the subsequent A-Sides collection; in fact, there is substance and passion in these 16 songs, as in every album by Chris Cornell's band. Ben Shepherd is more inspired than ever, Matt Cameron is an increasingly skilled composer, and Kim Thayil is hard at work intertwining riffs and noise sounds halfway between Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth on the compositions of his fellow adventurers. The setlist might be a bit uneven, and perhaps a couple of tracks could have been omitted to give greater continuity to the magical atmosphere created by songs like the widely known Pretty Noose, the perfect single Burden in My Hand, and the highly underrated Zero Chance, personally deemed the best composition on the album. If you have loved this band, or the future evolutions of the good Cornell, you will easily admit to yourself that this is an album to bring, hidden from the eyes of the narrow-minded, to the deserted island... preferably along with a well-amplified stereo!