Down On The Upside

Must have album if you love 90s grunge or Chris Cornell. This is on of my favorite albums. It's a gate fold too.

Highly recommended

I own hundreds & hundreds of cds. I've played in bands. I've bought & sold more audio gear, basses, guitars, amps, speakers, than I'd care to talk about. I cannot recall ever saying to myself, quietly and awe-struck, as a cd was playing, "HOLY S*** HOW DID THEY MAKE SONGS THIS GOOD?" I know that sounds like stupid hyperbole, but I really said this and I really did not 'mean' to say it for someone's script. Screaming Life / FOPP, Ultramega OK, Loud Love, and much of Badmotorfinger - those represent the raw, unpredictable sweet spot for me with enough structure, wildness, weird sounds, angst, unpredictability, and (somehow) fun at the same time to really put Soundgarden in their own category. Superkunknown wasn't my taste - too forced & self-conscious, and the hooks for the most part weren't even all that interesting. Objectively speaking (so people say?) Superunknown succeeded in creating their commercial masterwork, but that doesn't mean everyone likes it either. Not the fans from the beginning, like me, anyway. King Animal (fast forward a little) is strong & proves the band is still intact, looking ahead, OK, but I don't enjoy listening to it all that much, sadly. It holds up, but that's about all. There are a few good songs and a few terrible ones, a first for Soundgarden.Down On The Upside, as the first reviewer put it so well, crystallizes absolutely everything about the band that I love, goes further than any other album, and somehow pulls it off in such a confident, swaggering way that it's breathtaking. The timbre. The mix. The ensemble of instruments they put together. The newfound staggering power & muscle of the playing. Matt's drumming sounds noticeably more crisp & forceful than ever, somehow. The recording quality is outstanding. Chris' voice never sounded better. I could go on & on & on - the songwriting is in a different league, more mature, taking you on a more deliberate & impressive travel to a musical destination, rather than just bashing out creative riffs "but, harder." It's hard to fathom any other album with so many different styles of "five-star" sounds all in the same set-list. Burden In My Hand, Dusty, Tighter & Tighter, all worthy of "epic" "wow!" "phenomenal" titles. There are no weak tracks. The rockers are smoking. The moody stuff broods and builds & draws you in. The happy stuff feels exuberant, almost. The punk influenced stuff doesn't have to make any apologies. The quintessential Zep-No-Soundgarden! track "Tighter & Tighter" takes the band to where we always knew they could reach in sublime, benchmarking fashion. "Boot Camp" as other reviewers have noted has the peculiar and somewhat magical effect that when it's playing, it doesn't grab you or hook you, or seem to all that memorable in any way. But then you find yourself, of all 16 tracks, quietly singing it to yourself days later after just a few listens. Kinda spooky .It's hard to overstate my opinion of this cd. I missed it (only 20 years or so?) because after Superunknown, I'd written them off as gone the way of the dollars, and figured Down On The Upside was more of the same. How wrong I was."HOLY S*** how did they...?"

Best I have been able to find.

Bought three of these and all defective and stop in the same places of the CD. Just ordered a used one that rates good and functions properly so we’ll see if its not part of the same batch. Just warning those who are about to buy because it’s Soundgarden’s best CD imo and it’s no coincidence when three of them do the same thing on two different CD players.

Some songs seem like a continuation of super unknown, while others seem like they just kind of gave up

I cannot say whether this is their best album or not for I enjoy most of their stuff. I loved King Animal and I cannot believe all of the negative reviews on that album. I don't think that King Animal is their best but it is a great Soundgarden album for a band who is in there late 40s. I would say Superunknown or Badmotorfinger may be my favorites but Down on the Upside is definitely in there as well. The album is long in length as there is many songs on it...15 or 16 I think? I cannot say which song is my favorite because I didn't skip a single tune on the cd when I listened to it. Ty Cobb and Dusty are definitely two of my faves from the cd and to be honest majority of the songs I loved off of this album were the ones that didn't get any radio play. Down on the Upside is an amazing album very much worth the purchase for any Soundgarden or just hard rock/grunge/alternative fan period!

Just buy the album.