August 1, 1988 - Fopp

About a month since my last release and ten months after their debut EP "Screaming Life", Soundgarden released their second EP "Fopp" on August 1, 1988. This EP is even shorter than their debut with only four songs totalling under fifteen minutes and only one of the four is an original song! Two of them are covers (including the title track) and the last is a remix of the title track. That's certainly an unusual mixed bag of songs, let's check it out!

The EP begins with the title track "Fopp" which is a cover of an old Ohio Players song. It gets right into a pretty catchy main riff led by some cool guitar by Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell comes in to sing the first verse with an interesting voice. It's much lower than Chris's regular high voice and he sounds more like he's having fun than trying to be a good singer. He sings "I fopped last night and the night before" as it seems it's a laid-back and fun song that Soundgarden have put a nice hard rock feel to. Cornell switches to his standard high voice for the chorus as we hear him yell about how everybody's fopping (what could that possibly mean? :p). He remains in his better, higher voice for the next verse as he yells nicely overtop the slow main riff and after another chorus they finish off the song by jamming out the main riff as the whole band yells "fopp and rock" a bunch of times, with Cornell letting loose some nice high yells as well. Right after the title track is "Fopp (Fucked Up Heavy Dub Mix)", a remix of the same song, but one that's almost twice the length at about six and a half minutes! Hiro Yamamoto plays the same main bass riff as last time, but he opens the song by himself before the rest of the band join in. Just when it seems like we've begun the verse, Cornell's voice fades out and they abruptly switch to a cool new part with Thayil playing some nice guitar. As per the nature of a remix, this song has lots of abrupt changes as it sounds like Soundgarden spliced together different parts of the first song and it's difficult to describe the flow with words. The ending "fopp and rock" part shows up again and Cornell's singing parts are not structured like a verse/chorus at all as he just seems to come in and out with short lyrics. Yamamoto and Matt Cameron keep the pace with a steady rhythm section throughout and Thayil plays some cool trippy guitar bits overtop everything else as he too seems to seamlessly drift in and out of the song. Remixes are not normally rock's thing (or my thing really) and I think if they kept it at around three and a half instead of six and a half minutes it would make a better song. After over four minutes of jamming Cameron and Yamamoto continue the rhythm section and Thayil and Cornell step out as we hear a talking part with a Male and female voice. It sounds like it might be out of a movie and it's certainly another weird addition to this pretty strange song. They return to chanting "fopp and rock" as we hear a bunch of very loud bangs along with the music that sound like being right next to a cannon! Finally the song just ends and I hope they had fun with this remix because I would just prefer the regular song. Track 3 is the only original song on the album, titled "Kingdom Of Come" and it actually sounds like something off their first EP with a nice grunge-y guitar riff leading a solid main riff. Cornell sings a nice verse to match the riff really well and Thayil does a great job playing some cool lead guitar in the verse and chorus. They jam through another quick verse and chorus before Thayil delivers a trippy guitar solo. It's not so much a solo because the guitar isn't in the spotlight, but Kim still plays some cool droning and trippy guitar in this instrumental part. From here comes a final verse and there's no time for a final chorus as they keep it nice and short. The final song on the EP is also pretty short and it's another cover, this time of the band Green River with the song "Swallow My Pride". I've never heard of Green River but this song sounds like it could easily be a Soundgarden song with Thayil leading the way with a cool guitar riff and Cornell singing a nice verse to match. The guitars slow down a bit in the chorus and Cornell sings "I wouldn't mind, if you swallow my pride" giving a much different, more sexual feeling than the term normally implies; a fun little play on words. Things roll right into another verse and then they just jam out several choruses until Cornell ends the song and EP with a loud burp. That about sums up this fun little EP!

That is the end of "Fopp" and I thought it was an entertaining four songs, but this clearly sounded like a loose and fun EP compared to "Screaming Life". I liked their debut way better but this was never going to compete with it as it seems almost like a joke EP. Something fun Soundgarden wanted to get out of the way before they soon move on to their first full-length album!