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Rating: It's 1989, after two EPs and the first true album "Ultramega Ok," "Louder Than Love" is released. These are still the early Soundgarden, the angry ones, even angrier than "Badmotorfinger." The lineup features singer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yammamoto, and drummer Matt Cameron.
It's no secret the great influence that Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin have had on this band, and if you are a fan of the later, softer Soundgarden, this album might make you raise an eyebrow. 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. The album ranges from almost metal blasts like Gun, Get On The Snake, Full on Kevin's Mum, and the mocking Big Dumb to others with a more complex structure like the opener Ugly Truth, Hands All Over, and Loud Love. But even if the rhythm changes, the mood is always the same, dark, gloomy, suspended in a twilight atmosphere.
Even though we don't yet have the mature and more original band of subsequent masterpieces like "Badmotorfinger" and "Superunknown," "Louder Than Love" still remains a very good album, definitely a must-have.
Tracklist Lyrics 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 gate
This album is simply a bombshell, as it should have been.
Imagine the satisfaction of seeing friends stare at each other’s stunned eyes while you pump 'Get on the Snake' into their sickly eardrums?
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.
