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Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: A&M Records
Released: 1991.10.08
Time:
 57:42
Category: Grunge, Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal
Producer(s): Terry Date, Soundgarden
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.soundgardenworld.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Rusty Cage (Cornell) - 4:26
[2] Outshined (Cornell) - 5:10
[3] Slaves & Bulldozers (Cornell, Shepherd) - 6:55
[4] Jesus Christ Pose (Cameron, Cornell, Shepherd, Thayil) - 5:50
[5] Face Pollution (Shepherd) - 2:23
[6] Somewhere (Shepherd) - 4:20
[7] Searching with My Good Eye Closed (Cornell) - 6:31
[8] Room a Thousand Years Wide (Thayil, Cameron) - 4:05
[9] Mind Riot (Cornell) - 4:49
[10] Drawing Flies (Cameron) - 2:26
[11] Holy Water (Cornell) - 5:07
[12] New Damage (Thayil, Cameron) - 5:40

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Matt Cameron - Drums
Chris Cornell - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Ben Shepherd - Bass Guitar
Kim Thayil - Lead Guitar

Scott Granlund - Saxophone on [8,10]
Ernst Long - Trumpet on [5,8,10]
Damon Stewart - Narration on [7]

Terry Date - Producer, Engineering
Soundgarden - Production
Larry Brewer - Production Assistance
Efren Herreran - Assistance
John Jackson - Assistance
Ron St. Germain - Mixing
Howie Weinberg - Mastering
Mark Dancey - Front Cover Illustration
Walberg Design - Design
Michael Lavine - Photography
Len Peltier - Art Direction

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in March-April 1991 at Studio D in Sausalito, California; Bear Creek Studios in Woodinville, Washington; A&M Studios in Los Angeles.



Bidding for a popular breakthrough with their second major-label album, Soundgarden suddenly developed a sense of craft, with the result that Badmotorfinger became far and away their most fully realized album to that point. Pretty much everything about Badmotorfinger is a step up from its predecessors - the production is sharper and the music more ambitious, while the songwriting takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency. In so doing, the band abolishes the murky meandering that had often plagued them in the past, turning in a lean, muscular set that signaled their arrival in rock's big leagues. Conventional wisdom has it that despite platinum sales, Badmotorfinger got lost amid the blockbuster success of Nevermind and Ten (all were released around the same time). But the fact is that, though they're all great records, Badmotorfinger is much less accessible by comparison. Not that it isn't melodic, but it also sounds twisted and gnarled, full of dissonant riffing, impossible time signatures, howling textural solos, and weird, droning tonalities. It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision. Part of that is due to the presence of new bassist Ben Shepherd, who gives the band its thickest rhythmic foundation yet - and, moreover, immediately shoulders the departed Hiro Yamamoto's share of songwriting duties. But it's apparent that the whole band has greatly expanded the scope of its ambitions. And Badmotorfinger fulfills them, pulling all the different threads of the band's sound together into a mature, confident, well-written record. This is heavy, challenging hard rock full of intellectual sensibility and complex band interplay. And with their next album, Soundgarden would learn how to make it fully accessible to mainstream audiences as well.

Steve Huey - All Music Guide



Badmotorfinger has always been, well, outshined (yes, that is a song from the album). During grunge’s breakthrough into the mainstream in 1991, it was overshadowed by the more popular grunge releases, Nirvana’s Nevermind, and Pearl Jam’s Ten. Even in Soundgarden’s own discography, it is eclipsed by their following album (ironically titled Superunknown, since it is considered the band’s most popular and best release).

My problem with Superunknown is that some of the songs drag on for too long and there’s a bit too much filler. Badmotorfinger suffers from the issue of songs going longer than necessary, but not to the same extent. However, there are issues with filler even more than on Superunknown, and they decided on a pretty typical practice of putting all their strongest songs at the beginning.

So the first four songs are excellent. Outshined starts off violently with some metallic riffing in 7/4 and it’s a really catchy tune, also famous for its line “looking California, feeling Minnesota.” Jesus Christ Pose is also notable, a definite highlight. Beginning with explosive, fast drumming from Matt Cameron, it moves into a simple, repetitive riff, and then into a slightly evil sounding section. Chris Cornell really shows off his driving vocal style here. Probably the most metal thing Soundgarden has done alongside Gun and Black Rain; I want to headbang just thinking about it.

After this, however, the album starts to slip downhill though even the filler is mostly solid. A standout from the second portion is Searching With My Good Eye Closed, with its quirky spoken intro and spacey riff and vocals. It is a good example of Soundgarden’s building technique, in which the end of the song is a collection of shrieks from Cornell, random cymbal hits and fills, and sometimes purposeless distortion when the song goes overboard. Like I said earlier, this is a phenomenon observed more often on Superunknown, but it still occurs here. They do a better job of figuring out when to stop on this album.

Some of the other later songs are worth mentioning for good or bad reasons. Mind Riot is a nice slower piece, but the closing track, New Damage, just drags on for too long when it would have been mediocre even if it had been cut short. Soundgarden include a horn section for some of these efforts (Drawing Flies, Face Pollution), which is interesting, but it doesn’t really do much except add a bit of extra texture.

Badmotorfinger is worth checking out just for Jesus Christ Pose alone. And the rest of isn’t exactly bad either. It’s a great album, and even the filler is good. One other complaint: the cover is a real pain to draw.

Insin, March 6th, 2015
© 2002-2015 Encyclopaedia Metallum



Badmotorfinger is the third studio album by American rock band Soundgarden, released on October 8, 1991 through A&M Records. After touring in support of its previous album, Louder Than Love (1989), Soundgarden began the recording sessions for its next album with new bassist Ben Shepherd. The music on the album maintained the band's heavy metal sound while featuring an increased focus on songwriting as compared with the band's previous releases.

The focus on the Seattle grunge scene helped bring attention to Badmotorfinger. The singles "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" were able to find an audience at rock radio and MTV. Badmotorfinger became the band's highest charting album at the time on the Billboard 200. The band supported the album with tours of North America and Europe, including opening for Guns N' Roses on that band's Use Your Illusion Tour. In 1992, Badmotorfinger was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The album has been certified two times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States, and had, by October 2010, sold 1,517,000 copies in the United States.

Badmotorfinger peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It was released in the same year as Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten, all of which helped to break alternative rock into the mainstream. Although overshadowed at the time of its release by the sudden popularity of Nirvana's Nevermind, the focus of attention brought by Nevermind to the Seattle scene helped Soundgarden gain wider attention. Badmotorfinger was among the 100 top selling albums of 1992. Badmotorfinger has been certified two times platinum by the RIAA.

AllMusic staff writer Steve Huey gave the album four and a half out of five stars, calling it "heavy, challenging hard rock full of intellectual sensibility and complex band interplay." Ann Powers of Blender said, "Cornell strikes the perfect Jesus Christ pose on this sonic wallop." Gina Arnold of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+. She said, "On songs like the cynical "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Slaves and Bulldozers", Soundgarden sound a hell of a lot smarter than their peers, who seldom get beyond extolling booze, girls, and cars." She ended her review by stating that "the final effect is merely stylishly bombastic rather than bludgeoningly bombastic. Tuneless heavy metal is, after all, still tuneless heavy metal, and in that department, Soundgarden are as functional as they make 'em." Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B-, calling it a "credible metal album" while also criticizing the album's lyrical writing.

Badmotorfinger included the singles "Jesus Christ Pose", "Outshined", and "Rusty Cage". The three singles gained considerable airtime on alternative rock radio stations, while the videos for "Outshined" and "Rusty Cage" gained considerable airtime on MTV. The lead single "Jesus Christ Pose" and its music video were the subject of widespread controversy in 1991, and the video was removed from MTV's playlist. Many listeners were outraged by the song and its video, perceiving them as anti-Christian. The band received death threats while on tour in the United Kingdom in support of the album.

At the 1992 Grammy Awards, Badmotorfinger received a nomination for Best Metal Performance. It was also ranked number 45 in the October 2006 issue of Guitar World on the magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time.

Wikipedia.org
 

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