September 5, 1989 - Louder Than Love

About two weeks after my last release and just under a year since "Ultramega OK", Soundgarden released their second album "Louder Than Love" on September 5, 1989. They switched record labels once again and this would be their first album on a major label with A&M Records. It would also be their first album to make the charts as Soundgarden's success is spreading much farther than just the Seattle grunge scene. Lead singer Chris Cornell is also now a full-time rhythm guitarist as he impressively joins the music side as well. Cornell would write the majority of the music and the lyrics on this album and it leans a bit heavier than their debut album. That sounds great to me, let's check it out!

The album opens with "Ugly Truth" and Matt Cameron starts things off with a cool slow drum beat before Kim Thayil comes in with some fast lead guitar and Hiro Yamamoto plays some cool slow bass. Cornell leads a couple solid verses with his trademark wailing voice, then things calm down a bit and Chris sings in a lower voice overtop a quieter riff. They return to the loud verse, then everything falls away but the cool, trippy lead guitar and Cornell's great singing. After this cool part the band returns to jam out the end of this solid opener. Up next is "Hands All Over" and Thayil plays some more trippy guitar to start while Yamamoto begins a cool bass riff and Kim then syncs up with Hiro for a very loud, emphatic and cool main riff. Cornell sings a great verse that perfectly matches the mood of the song and he just has such a great voice, hitting high notes like it's nothing. They never really stray from the main riff for this whole six minute song, but it's pretty catchy and doesn't get old at all so it's no surprise this was one of the two singles off the album. Track 3 is called "Gun" and it's driven by a low and slow guitar riff that sounds nice and heavy. Cameron plays some great drums as well as they establish this heavy main riff and Cornell unsurprisingly sounds pretty good wailing overtop. The verse starts very slow and grunge-y but as it progresses they do a great job of slowly speeding up and by the time the verse is done they're playing in double time! The same riff is played twice as fast and Thayil plays some much higher guitar and it sounds great at this speed as well! It feels like the next verse flies by and then Cornell doubles the speed again and plays a great fast rhythm guitar riff that sets the stage for Thayil's solo. He gets a good while to solo and he doesn't waste any of it, playing some incredible fast guitar that sounds pretty awesome. At the end of the solo Cameron plays a great little drum part that segues perfectly into a massive breakdown. They suddenly slow down to half the pace of the original slow riff and compared to the lightning fast speed they were just playing it's a dramatic and very heavy shift. I love the breakdown as everything sounds so much heavier when you just play it even slower. They finish out the song with a final verse, but it takes almost a minute for this verse as they slowly and beautifully chug their way to the end of this fantastic song. The next song is "Power Trip" and it opens with a great bit as Thayil plays some really high guitar and Cornell echoes it perfectly with his high voice. This part is short though and they settle into another great slow and grunge-y riff with great contributions from everyone. Cornell sings in a low voice for this verse and he sounds great doing that too! The guitar and Cornell's voice both get a bit higher in the chorus but this song stays fairly tame as they jam through another verse and chorus. Thayil plays some faster, cool guitar as they continue to slowly jam to the main beat but they do end the song with a cool slow fadeout. Track 5 is "Get On The Snake" and Thayil leads the way with some cool guitar and Cameron plays some solid drums as well. Cornell sings another high verse overtop and he plays some pretty good rhythm guitar as well as Thayil takes the lead inbetween the short verses with some nice fast guitar. They never really stray from this main riff and eventually the song begins to slowly fade out. The next song is named "Full On Kevin's Mom" about a friend of the band's who apparently had quite the MILF for a mom. It's driven by a pretty fast-paced riff with some solid guitars and Cornell sounds great singing very high in the verse. The chorus is just the band saying the title of the song together several times but Yamamoto does keep things interesting with some nice bass. After another verse and chorus we hear Cornell yell "Mommy!" before Thayil takes off on a guitar solo. He does a pretty sweet job playing some fast and cool guitar and it leads right into the chorus once again. After they jam out a few of those they seem to start up another verse but the song ends after the first line. Track 7 was the big hit single off this album, titled "Loud Love". Thayil begins the song with a long distorted guitar part before the band settles into another cool slow and grunge-y main riff. Cornell leads another solid verse and although he only shouts the name of the song in the chorus, he sings it differently every time and keeps things fresh. After another verse and chorus they quiet things down a bit and switch to a new riff that isn't bad by any means, but there's not a ton happening and it seems like a weird step down. They do connect this part nicely back into the main riff and Thayil solos overtop the final verse, making things sound pretty good before they bring it to an end. Up next is "I Awake" and it opens with a slow and a bit trippy riff as Yamamoto plays some nice low bass to carry things and Thayil adds some creepy sounding guitar. It's a strange riff that also sounds a little dark and I think it's pretty interesting even though it's not terribly difficult stuff. Once Cornell comes in to begin the verse, the bass gets even lower as Yamamoto is playing some great stuff on this one. Chris sings in a low voice for the verse and switches to the other extreme for the chorus, kicking it off with a great yell of "remember!". They slowly trudge their way through another cool verse and chorus and then the vocals fall away and the music sort of puts you in a trance as they very nicely jam out the end of this song. Track 9 is called "No Wrong No Right" and it has a long droning opening backed by some decent drumming by Cameron before they settle into the main riff. Yamamoto plays a cool bass riff and Cornell sings a nice verse while Thayil comes in and out with the lead guitar. Kim plays some almost solo-level stuff once they reach the chorus and Cornell nicely wails "it's all the same in the end". Thayil plays some great guitar and he nicely ties things back to the main riff as they play another cool verse and chorus. They move into a different but similar riff as Cornell sings a brief new verse, but then the song ends a bit suddenly. The next song is "Uncovered" and Thayil leads the way with a slow but really catchy guitar riff and Yamamoto plays some great super-low bass as well. Cornell sings a slow verse to match the mood and they slowly jam out a couple long verses. They slow it down even more and move into a nice guitar bit, but then it's right back to another long verse and I feel like a sweet slow solo should've happened in there. Instead it's just a final verse to close out this solid song that could've been even better. Track 11 is "Big Dumb Sex" and this time they play a much faster main riff with Thayil and Yamamoto syncing up and playing a cool main riff. The verse has two Cornell's singing: one track of his usual high voice and another track with a very low, almost spoken voice. I'm not a big fan of the lower one and think Cornell's high voice would've been just fine, but it still sounds alright. The chorus has Cornell singing" I know what to do, I'm gonna fuck fuck fuck fuck you (fuck you)" and he makes it sound pretty cool. This song alone would warrant a Parental Advisory label for the whole album because of the amount of fuck's sung, but ironically this song probably would've been a good choice for a single. It's a vulgar but pretty solid chorus and Thayil and Yamamoto are basically still playing the same riff as they keep the pace as things head into the next verse. After another fun sing-along chorus Thayil takes off for a solo and he's not going terribly fast but it's a decent solo that fits the mood of the song. After the solo they jam out a couple final choruses to finish off this sexually charged track and it leads to the final song on the album, titled "Full On (Reprise)". They revisit the same riff from the earlier song "Full On Kevin's Mom", but this time it's played at a way slower pace. Thayil leads the way with some slow, light guitar and the rest of the band joins in to complete this almost sad-sounding main riff. It's hard to believe that it's the same riff, but when Cornell finally starts singing it sounds more like it. He does a great job of soulfully singing "full on kevin's mom" and I love how they took this funny joke song and made it sound slow and sad, but kept the same lyrics. It's a weird and funny song and Thayil does play some decent guitar towards the end as they slowly jam it out for this short finale.

That is the end of "Louder Than Love" and I thought it was a pretty good album! It's filled with lots of great grunge music and I love the heavier turn Soundgarden took on this album. In that same vein, I think my favourite song was "Gun", which was a great chugging metal song. I thought the band sounded more cohesive and even better on this album than their last one as Soundgarden continue to improve with every release. Will that continue with their next album? I can't wait to find out!