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Rating:
Plaino di Pagnacco, 7 a.m. on August 3, 2013. Not only did I have to wake up at an ungodly hour to go to Lignano to spend a day at the beach and listen to David Guetta (sigh), but I also have to bring friends along: I will be the one, then, to ferry my ass to one of the worst events of my musical life - and perhaps not only. Half of the company wants to attend the concert, but you know how it goes, one way or another, those who don't understand a damn thing about music always win. But I won't let you get away with it, bastards. If you want to poison me, I must take an antidote first. Yes, first.
7:15 a.m... "Listen - I say with a humble and subdued air - would you guys like to listen to some music?" "Okay, okay," they mumble amidst yawns. "Alright, I'm turning it on now, I don't even know what I've got on..." In reality, I know very well that I've got "Louder Than Love" by Soundgarden on, and as I press the power button, I smirk maliciously; from the first Cameron-inspired percussive embroidery of "Ugly Truth," I understood that this would be a memorable trip.
Robert Christgau gave this album a C+. Robert Christgau didn't understand a damn thing. This album is simply a bombshell, as it should have been. Forget the pale simulacrum of Cornell in "Part of Me," forget the wrinkles and the white hair and go back 25 years, when Chris delighted in inserting "fuck" repeatedly to mock glam and earn the "parental advisory" as a medal of honor. "You stay down, but I won't be quiet...I'll hammer on until you fight...LOUD LOVE!": this was Soundgarden!
Following the ineffable concentration of perverse rawness known as "Ultramega OK" (released with SST by a certain Greg Ginn), "Louder Than Love" was the first album the Seattle group released for a major label, A&M Records, marking a decisive transition between the debut and the episodes that would follow, starting with the granite-like "Badmotorfinger". There's still a bit of rawness, but the path has been taken, the edges partially smoothed, and, above all, Cornell starts to extend his hands over the band: a process that will lead it, slowly but surely, to the melodic shores of "Down on the Upside". But those will be different times.
Our guys still draw heavily from the Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, but trying to reduce them to a bastard fusion of these two giants has always been reductive. Hence the spiraling and magmatic psychedelia of "Ugly Truth," the riffs of almost doom-like malignancy of the climax "Gun," the bizarre tempos of the brash "Get on the Snake," the caresses of wizard Kim Thayil in "Loud Love" and "Uncovered," the punkish up-tempo of the ruthless "Full on Kevin's Mom." A kaleidoscope of multiple influences, the offspring of both the '70s and '80s, where one cannot help but mention the compositions of the departing bassist Hiro Yamamoto, the dark soul of the group. The Japanese-American, indeed, is not only the creator of the bluesy "Power Trip," with Cornell obsessed and repressed like few other times, but also of the "dark Seattle" chapter, constituted by the pair "I Awake"-"No Wrong No Right": the darkest, most twisted and desperate page of the Sound Garden. Even in this album, to conclude, there are no shortages of mockeries, which in the previous chapter were known as "665" and "667": "Big Dumb Sex," as the title itself indicates, is a demolition of Glam metal with tasteful "Fuck you's," and the Reprise of "Full on" is paradoxical in its attempt to be a cathartic and restorative finale, considering what the lyrics of the song were referring to. How to sum it all up? Simple: a masterpiece, as well as the record where Mr. Cornell whips out his best performance with Soundgarden, similarly to what will happen in "Badmotorfinger" for Kim. Kim, who, however, even here draws from his Eta Beta skirt stoner, Sabbath-inspired, hard rock, blues, or psychedelic riffs at will, accompanied by the usual, terrifying Matt Cameron.
And it's not just the album that is noteworthy, but also the booklet, which contains thanks, among others, to bands like Mudhoney (and that alone would say it all), Screaming Trees and Mother Love Bone: a sign, in its way, that in 1989 Seattle was a red supergiant ready to shine like a supernova.
Ah, I didn't like Guetta: they say it's "dance" but it didn't make me want to dance for a single second. But I'd already had my moment: imagine the satisfaction of seeing friends stare at each other's stunned eyes while you pump "Get on the Snake" into their sickly eardrums?
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Hands All Over (06:00)
CAN'T TOUCH ME
Hands all over the Eastern border
You know what I think we're falling
From composure
Hands all over Western culture
Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures
Yeah, Into vultures
Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
You're gonna kill your mother, gunna kill your mother
And I love her
Yeah, and I love her
Hands all over the coastal waters
The crew men thank her
Then lay down their oily blanket
Hands all over the inland forest
In a striking motion trees fall down
Like dying soldiers
Yeah, like dying soldiers
Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
You're gonna kill your mother, gunna kill your mother
And I love her
Yeah, and I love her
Hands all over the peasant's daughter
She's our bride
She'll never make it out alive
Hands all over the words I utter
Change them into what you want to
Like balls of clay
Put your hands away
You're gonna kill your mother
And I love her
(she loves me)
03 Gun (04:42)
I got an idea of something we can do with a gun
Sink load and fire till the empire
Reaps what they've sown
Shoot shoot shoot till their minds are open
Shoot shoot shoot till their eyes are closed
Push push push till we get some motion
Push push push till the bombs explode
I got an idea
We can do it
All on our own
Nothing to worry
Regret must weigh a ton
Kick kick kick till the laws are broken
Kick kick kick till the boots are worn
Hit hit hit till the truth is spoken
Hit hit hit till the truth is born
I got an idea of something
We can do with a gun
04 Power Trip (04:11)
POWER TRIP
I want to be
A cowboy star upon the screen
Oh hey and I want to drive
My cowboy car across the scene
Oh hey and I want to write
The magazines housewives read
And I want to be
In control of everything
I want to be King
I want to make the toys
You buy for Christmas Eve
Yeah and I want to be
The father of the ethnic child
Who stars on T.V.
Oh yeah and I, I want to write
The magazines that housewives read
Oh hey and I want all the leaders
Of the Third World
To answer to me
I want to be King
I want to be King
So maybe now the Pope
Will bow and kiss my ring
I wanna be king
05 Get on the Snake (03:43)
Get on the snake
With a swarm of motor flys
Get on the snake
Under the cola colored sky
Don't worry, everything's clean
Road worthy, hungry and mean
Get on the snake
Where the metal river bleeds
Get on the snake
Where you never will believe
Hey baby, what's your disease
My hearts bleeding
I'm dying to leave
Get on the snake
Where the water turns to steam
Get on the snake
With a suicide machine
Don't worry, everything's clean
Road worthy, hungry and mean
Hungry and mean...
Hungry and mean...
06 Full on Kevin's Mom (03:37)
You don't get nothing for free
Kev & me were two of three
Three brothers to the end
The one went full on Kevin's mom
Now things have changed
Full on Kev's mom
Full on Kev's mom
Full on Kev's mom
Full on
You don't get nothing for free
And this one took the long way
This one took the hard road
I ain't saying who
But it wasn't me
We were three
Kevin's mom made four
(We don't come around anymore)
07 Loud Love (04:57)
There's no time to keep it low
I've been deaf and now I want noise
You stay down
But I won't be quiet
I'll hammer on until you fight
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Hammer on, till you fly
If you've got some time to kill
Slow resistance wins the war
Well I know
Yea, but that's no way to go
You can't resist the louder pull
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Cant resist, Loud love
All right
Well that's right
I want something to explode
I've been deaf
Now I want noise
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
Loud love
08 I Awake (04:21)
Woke up depressed
I left for work
You have a good day
It's not your fault
I know it hurts
Remember, I love you, love you
Remember, I love you, love you
I love
Woke up depressed
I left for work
You have a good day
It's not my fault
I know it hurts
09 No Wrong No Right (04:48)
Watch for vipers and poison snakes
Feeling fingers make no mistake
Grabbing that pull your hair
Stealing everything there, everything
Restless widow in the dark
Carelessly looks for a spark
Near the trap fate rears its head
No hesitation, victim dead
Just from the start it's the end
And it's all the same in the end
It's all the same in the end
Spider moving up your wall
To the ceiling he slowly crawls
Weaves a web above your bed
Egg that cracks falls on your head
And it's all the same
It's all the same
No hesitation, victim dead
Just from the start it's the end
No wrong no right or guilt admission
It's all the same
You've been bitten, you've been bitten
10 Uncovered (04:32)
Small creature are you
Small creature you are
How quickly you are uncovered
Naked and cold
Maumbling and crying
Knowing everything's been discovered
Many secrets have you
Many secrets you have
But it's only a matter of time
Did you finally decide
There's nowhere to hide
And really no reason why
Hey Mr. Shame
Have you got a name
I don't feel like calling you Buddy
I don't want to hear your story
I don't want to hear why
And I don't even care if you're sorry
Many secrets have you
Many secrets you have
But it's only a matter of time
Did you finally decide
There's nowhere to hide
And really no reason why
Strong is your body
Strong are your bones
Strong as your bloody lie is uncovered
Small creature are you
Small creature you are
How quickly you are uncovered
Naked and cold
Mumbling and crying
Knowing everything's been discovered
11 Big Dumb Sex (04:11)
Don’t you don’t you want to thrill me
Don’t you be afraid to tell me
Tell me if you think it’s ugly
But now don’t you want to touch it anyway
I’ve been looking for a reject
And you ain’t had nothing like me yet
Don’t you think it’s time for motion
I can take what you’ve been pushin’
Hey I know what to do
I’m gonna fuck fuck fuck fuck you
Fuck you
Ya I know what to do
I’m gonna fuck fuck fuck fuck you
Fuck you I’m gonna
I’m the beast and you’re the master
You’re the meat of the matter
I’m no fool for discretion
When it’s on the tip of my tongue
Don’t’ you don’t you want to thrill me
Don’t be afraid to tell me
Tell me if you think it’s ugly
But now don’t you want to touch it anyway
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Other reviews
By Teo
"Cornell's high notes are amazing, perhaps the young frontman exaggerates, but his qualities are indisputable."
"Tahyil's guitar has literally gone crazy, managing to create impenetrable walls of riffs."
By claudio carpentieri
'Louder Than Love' is a marble and edgy album enough, where any further artificial polishing would have risked losing the polish that still distinguishes it today.
With 'Louder Than Love' the baptism by fire occurs with 'Ugly Truth,' introduced by Cameron’s drumsticks that open to a fresh rhythmic compactness.
