Chris's Album Review's - Soundgarden - King Animal

     On November 13th 2012 Soundgarden came out with their 6th album and their first in 16 years. I was excited when I heard that they had come out with one. I was surprised that I had not heard of it before the release but our local rock radio station has made the full transition to top 40, therefore leaving my county without a rock radio station, it's upsetting but I digress. Soundgarden's history shows them on par with bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and of course Nirvana. I personally would rank them above Pearl Jam and below Alice in Chains with Nirvana conceding before completion and therefor coming in last by a healthy margin. Simply put Soundgarden is grunge, not modern rock. So why does this album sound like BuckCherry?

     Don't get me wrong, band's like BuckCherry and Three Day's Grace have their place in the world of music and I understand how Soundgarden got where they are now with Audioslave, Chris Cornell's solo career and all that but using the name Soundgarden set's up a certain understanding of what we are going to be listening to, this album refuses to follow those terms of understanding. "Well Chris..." your saying "Many other bands have changed the way they play and you yourself have said that a band evolving is important for creativity". These are true statments and things I do believe, however, as I said above, it has been 16 years since we have heard from Soundgarden, there's not progress, no point A to point B to point C. THey just went straight from point A to point T. The band still works well together as they always have but that edge, the raw sound, that attitude that they used to have is long gone.

God... It's like 30 years have passed...

The difference in style is most apparent in the opening song "Been Away Too Long". While listening to this song for the first time I said to myself "okay, well there's the single" which is something you shouldn't want or have to say while listening to an album. I didn't look it up on Wikipedia or anything it just sounds like a single and it's the only song on the album that sounds like a single. The closing song "Rowing" is a nice song to end the album on because its a bit more bluesy. I think its the best song on the album and the best use of the bands talents. There's not a lot of other songs to talk about, honestly there's not a lot good or bad to say about the album and I'm having a hard time pin pointing why it's not good. I think in all honesty it's just a blah album.

     A blah album is an album you pick up, listen to and put back down without second thought. There's nothing really wrong with the album it just doesn't hold your attention, there's no replay value. I found myself bored listening to it while driving, thinking about all the better albums I could be listening to. At the end of the day this album is neither good nor bad, all I can say is that right now I know it exists. Would I recommend it? Not at all except for diehard fans that don't have an issue making excuses for the band. To sum it up Soundgarden didn't need to make an album to remind fans that they still existed, but I think they needed to make one to remind their bank accounts. After writing this I will mostly likely forget this album was released.

What were we talking about again?

4 out of 10 barbie dolls melting on a bar-b-Que