Louder than Love

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Louder than Love
Louder than Love cover
Studio album by Soundgarden
Released September 5, 1989
Recorded December 1988–January 1989 at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington
Genre Grunge
Length 53:15
Label A&M
Producer Terry Date, Soundgarden
Professional reviews
Soundgarden chronology
Ultramega OK
(1988)		 Louder than Love
(1989)		 Screaming Life/Fopp
(1990)
Singles from Louder Than Love
  1. "Loud Love"
    Released: August 30, 1989
  2. "Hands All Over"
    Released: 1990

Louder than Love is the second full-length album by the grunge band Soundgarden. It was released on September 5, 1989 through A&M Records. It was the last Soundgarden album to feature the band's original bassist Hiro Yamamoto.

Contents

[edit] Recording

The album's recording sessions took place from December 1988 to January 1989 at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington. The band worked with producer Terry Date. The album was mixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero.

About the sessions, frontman Chris Cornell said, "At the time Hiro [Yamamoto] had excommunicated himself from the band and there wasn't a free-flowing system as far as music went, so I ended up writing a lot of it."[1] Cornell would end up solely writing seven out of the album's twelve tracks. Cornell stated that there "was plenty of angst, anger, frustration and hell...but none of it had anything to do with Terry. He was very supportive."[2] He said that the sessions as a whole were a "positive experience."[2] Bassist Hiro Yamamoto would leave the band once the sessions were over.[3] Yamamoto was becoming frustrated that he wasn't contributing much, and opted to go back to college.[3]

About the album's production, Cornell said that the band tried to avoid 1980s production techniques.[3] On the album's sound as a whole, Cornell stated that the album "was just a few degrees too produced and too clean, although I wouldn't want to change any of it."[1]

[edit] Music and lyrics

Audio samples of Louder than Love
  • "Hands All Over"
    Sample of "Hands All Over", the second single released from Louder than Love. The song's lyrics show a strong environmentalist message.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.

Steve Huey of All Music Guide said that Soundgarden took "a step toward the metal mainstream" with "a slow, grinding, detuned mountain of Sabbath/Zeppelin riffs and Chris Cornell wailing."[4] At the time the band was trying to avoid the "heavy metal" label, with Thayil stating that the band's sound was "as much influenced by British bands like Killing Joke and Bauhaus as it is by heavy metal."[5] Cornell said that the band's sound is "enough for anyone into speed metal, but we're heavy rock...Neo-metal maybe."[3] Some songs on the album feature unusual or unorthodox time signatures. "Get on the Snake", for example, is played in a 9/4 time signature.[5] A lot of the songs on the album are tuned down to an open D tuning.[6]

Chris Cornell said that "Hands All Over" is about how humans defile the environment,[7] and that "Full on Kevin's Mom" is about "a friend of mine who slept with another friend of mine's mom. The guy who did it said to us, 'Yeah, full on Kevin's mom'."[3] The lyrics of "I Awake" were originally part of a note written by Hiro Yamamoto's then girlfriend Kate McDonald. In the late 1990's, an urban legend circulated on internet message boards which stated that Yamamoto, after writing the music, penned some lyrics on the back side of McDonald's note. When Yamamoto gave the paper containing these lyrics to Cornell, Cornell looked at the wrong side of the sheet and believed McDonald's note was the lyrics to Yamamoto's song. There was less material on the album intended as humorous compared with Ultramega OK, however the song "Big Dumb Sex" was written as a parody of glam metal bands, who often metaphorically addressed sexual intercourse in their lyrics.[8] The song was the reason the album gained a Parental Advisory sticker upon release.[5]

[edit] Release and reception

Louder than Love peaked at number 108 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1990. It was the band's first album to chart on the Billboard Top 200. Louder than Love spawned the EP Loudest Love and the video compilation Louder than Live, both released in 1990. Because of some of the song lyrics, most notably on "Hands All Over" (the "kill your mother" line) and "Big Dumb Sex", the band faced various retail and distribution problems upon the album's release.[9]

Rolling Stone gave Louder than Love three and a half out of five stars. Reviewer J.D. Considine said that "Chris Cornell has the sort of soaring, muscular voice Ian Astbury can only dream of, while guitarist Kim Thayil comes across like The Edge with an attitude." He stated that "the songs on Louder than Love are mean, lean and fighting fit." However, Considine criticized Cornell's lyrics, observing that "much of what the band has to say is clichéd, confused or generally incomprehensible." He ended his review by saying that "even when his lyrics are as dumb as rocks...Cornell delivers them with such full-throated intensity that they actually sound impressive."[10] Critc Robert Christgau gave the album a C+, stating that it is "covertly conceptual, arty in spite of itself, and I bet metal fans don't bite."[11]

Two singles were released from the album, "Loud Love" (1989) and "Hands All Over" (1990), each with accompanying music videos. "Get on the Snake" was featured in the movie and soundtrack Lost Angels. Guns N' Roses covered "Big Dumb Sex" on its 1993 album "The Spaghetti Incident?" as part of a mash-up with "Buick Mackane".

In 2001, Q magazine named Louder than Love as one of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time."[12]

[edit] Imagery and design

The cover of Louder than Love was taken by grunge photographer Charles Peterson, and features frontman Chris Cornell. Chris Cornell called the album cover "the quintessential angry young man."[13]

About the title, Chris Cornell said, "It's sort of making fun of heavy metal bravado. Metal bands would say Louder than Thunder or something. So Louder than Love, what is Louder than Love?"[3] Kim Thayil said that the band really wanted to call the album Louder than Fuck.[14]

[edit] Louder than Love tour

A month before touring for Louder than Love commenced, Yamamoto left to go back to college.[15] He was replaced by Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana. The band embarked on a North American tour that went from December 1989 to March 1990. On this tour the band served as the opening act for Voivod on the band's Nothingface tour, with Faith No More also serving as an opening act at the beginning and end of the tour.[15] Chris Cornell's roommate, Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Mother Love Bone, died on March 19, 1990 of a heroin overdose, the day Cornell got back from touring in support of Louder than Love.[16][17]

As Cornell went on to tour Europe with Soundgarden a few days later, he started writing songs in tribute to his late friend.[16] The result was two songs, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", that he recorded as soon as he got back from touring.[16] The two songs would eventually lead into the Temple of the Dog project. Bassist Jason Everman was fired immediately after Soundgarden completed its promotional tour for Louder than Love in mid-1990. Kim Thayil said that "Jason just didn't work out."[18] The band later released the video compilation Louder than Live, which was filmed at the Whisky a Go Go in 1989.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Chris Cornell, except where noted:

  1. "Ugly Truth" – 5:26
  2. "Hands All Over" (Cornell, Kim Thayil) – 6:00
  3. "Gun" – 4:42
  4. "Power Trip" (Cornell, Hiro Yamamoto) – 4:09
  5. "Get on the Snake" (Cornell, Thayil) – 3:44
  6. "Full on Kevin's Mom" – 3:37
  7. "Loud Love" – 4:57
  8. "I Awake" (Kate McDonald, Yamamoto) – 4:21
  9. "No Wrong No Right" (Cornell, Yamamoto) – 4:47
  10. "Uncovered" – 4:30
  11. "Big Dumb Sex" – 4:11
  12. "Full On (Reprise)" – 2:42

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Chart positions

Information taken from various sources.[19][20]

Album
Year Chart Position
1990 US Billboard 200 108
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1990 "Hands All Over" UK Singles Chart 82
"Loud Love" UK Singles Chart 87

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Colour Me Badmotorfinger!". Raw. October 30, 1991.
  2. ^ a b White, Richard. "Soundgarden Rocks". Rockpool. October 1, 1989.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "How Does Your Garden Grow?". Sounds. October 21, 1989.
  4. ^ Huey, Steve. "Louder than Love". All Music Guide.
  5. ^ a b c Kot, Greg. "Seattle's Big Noise Soundgarden Leads a Rock Invasion from the Northwest". Chicago Tribune. October 18, 1989.
  6. ^ Gilbert, Jeff. "Soundgardening Tips With Kim Thayil". Guitar World. December 1989.
  7. ^ Gilbert, Jeff. "Big Ugly Truth". The Rocket. March 1990.
  8. ^ Gilbert, Jeff. "Primecuts: Kim Thayil". Guitar School. May 1994.
  9. ^ Barber, Patrick. "Soundgarden". Pit. 1990.
  10. ^ Consideine, J.D. "Soundgarden: Louder than Love". Rolling Stone. June 17, 1997.
  11. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Soundgarden". robertchristgau.com.
  12. ^ "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time". Q. July 2001. p.90.
  13. ^ Cromelin, Richard. "Fertile Ground". Los Angeles Times. August 25, 1991.
  14. ^ "Kim Thayil's A-Sides". Metal Hammer. January 1998.
  15. ^ a b Loera, Carlos. "Soundgarden". Loud. 1990.
  16. ^ a b c Turman, Katherine. "Life Rules." Rip Magazine. October 1991
  17. ^ Nicholls, Justin (1991-04-14). KISW 99.9 FM: Seattle, Radio Interview by Damon Stewart in The New Music Hour with Chris Cornell, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard. Fivehorizons.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
  18. ^ Neely, Kim. "Soundgarden: The Veteran Band from Seattle Proves There's Life After Nirvana". Rolling Stone. July 9, 1992.
  19. ^ Soundgarden – Billboard Albums. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
  20. ^ UK Singles & Albums Chart Archive - Soundgarden. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.

[edit] External links

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Soundgarden
Chris Cornell · Kim Thayil · Matt Cameron · Ben Shepherd
Scott Sundquist · Hiro Yamamoto · Jason Everman
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