Album Review: Soundgarden's King Animal

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Soundgarden is back!

Man, is it ever nice to hear some new material from them, too!

Yes, they are back, and with a new album (well, relatively new, anyway - I know this review comes a bit late).

They sound good, too. This album is a bit more polished, and perhaps less in your face than some of their earlier material. But it works, it sounds good! They have advanced as musicians, and they collectively focus more on technical abilities here then in other records.

The first three tracks are the most reminiscent of older, harder Soundgarden, and any of these songs could have fit well in some of their previous albums. Those are the hardest, as well as a track that appears late in the album, "Worse Dreams", which is my personal favorite track from this album. It starts off slowly, and builds up to a crescendo, and reminds me somewhat of an earlier hit from this same band, "Spoonman". Even the lyrics remind me of older Soundgarden, but the song just has a really cool feel to it.

The songs that follow the first three tracks, while still Soundgarden, have a new, distinctive sound. The band has settled down a bit, and tried to develop their musicality a bit. They sound good overall.

Chris Cornell makes a point of shying away from specifically political lyrics, searching for deeper meanings that could resonate more universally, and not be pigeonholed to a specific time period or set of circumstances. He has produced some gems, as well, and this album is no exception.

The album opens with "Been Away For Too Long", which the band seems to allude to their own rather lengthy absence with, as Chris Cornell's lyrics reflect:

You can walk a million miles
and get nowhere
I got nowhere to go
Ever since I came back

The chorus goes on:

And no one knows me
no one saves me
no one loves or hates me
I've been away for too long

In the very next song, Non-State Actor, Cornell's lyrics  comes close enough to border on being outright political expression, although the lyrics remain more in the area of a more distant philosophy.

Coin in every pocket
more mouths to fill
So weak in the land
Strong in the will (need)
I'll be your beast of burden
I'll be the seed

I don't think I can post the entire song's lyrics here, but I do at least want to add the chorus:

And we settle for
A little bit more than everything
we're not elected, but we will speak
we're not the chosen, but we believe
and we settle for a little bit more than everything

Music (and lyrics) that make you think. That is one thing that you can expect from Soundgarden, and as such, these lyrics are brilliant in their own right. I have read some interpretations online about the possible meaning of these lyrics, and of the song in general. Most of them seem a little far-fetched, and far too soaked in the author's own biases to really represent what Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil meant. I have my own interpretation, as well, s he seems to address the exploding population (a problem around the world) and the excess wealth of some contrasted with the poverty of others. He alludes to both political and religious authorities, yet seems to reject them both on his own terms. Cornell seems to be the voice of human innovation at some points, with both positive and destructive elements to it. Indeed, there are many ways that can be interpreted (and that's part of the beauty about art, is how widely divergent some of the possible interpretations can be taken - usually far more than what the author had that  inspired the work to begin with).  But instead of adding my own interpretation, I just figured it would suffice more to simply post the lyrics, which is exactly how the artists put it to begin with, and then let the reader draw some of his or her own conclusions. Or, maybe better, keep your opinion open to some possible interpretations that you might not have thought of. Some of those interpretations made me think, and read into them in a manner that I would not likely have done otherwise. Read into these lyrics a bit, and if interested, go to Youtube or somewhere that offers some video imagery, then give it some thought. After all, artwork is supposed to make you think, right? That's what Soundgarden does, no matter how you interpret these, or other, lyrics.

Just food for thought, in case you were wondering, this is how Wikipedia defines Non-State Actors:

Non-state actors (NSA) are entities that participate or act in international relations; They are organizations with sufficient power to influence and cause a change even though they do not belong to any established institution of a state.



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A Thousand Days Before starts with an opening that would not sound out of place before a Doors song, before merging with a thoughtful and interesting sounding tune.

I was also very impressed with the darkly brilliant lyrics in Attrition, which are accompanied by a hard rocking tune that somehow manages to almost remain in the background:

Headed down to Nero's tomb
raising flags and burning rights
warm yourself
by a God-made fire
Pinnochio with spinning eyes
laugh aloud under bomb-lit skies
a victim's smile never lies
you have always lived your life like a joke

Taree was originally the brainchild of Ben Shepherd, who saw the word "Taree" in what he described as "fake holy wood lettering" in an overgrown landscape in Houston, and it inspired the music for this piece, which was written before Soundgarden broke up, years ago. Shepherd said that he knew Cornell would nail it. I got that information from Youtube, where you can find some commentary of individual songs from the album. Here is the link for Taree, and I will take the liberty of assuming that you can find the others on your own, if you are so inclined:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDFr1n9epeg

Poignant lyrics are also to be found in Halfway There, one of the album's slower songs:

Some were born
to move mountains around
and some to rot
away in jail
I get an itch
and when I am scratching
everything can go to hell

The rest of the lyrics are at least as thought provoking as well.

Of course, anyone familiar with this band also knows that they can be dark. That said, their darkness is not without meaning, as these lyrics from Blood on the Valley Floor (speaking of dark, look at this title!) illustrates:

Once we were the end
the end of a long road
leading to the start
of the ever invading crowds

and the smoke lies
on the valley floor
and the blood dries

Endless summer, needless space
fill it all up with a void

I've stated here before that I am a big fan of lyrics, and meanings behind them. I realize that much of this review has already been taken up by lyrics, and maybe it would suffice to say that I was impressed by the lyrics on this album. Not just what I posted, but the lyrics for each song on this album. Look them up online or, better yet, give each song, and this album overall, a listen on your own! In this day and age, when we are getting Justin Bieber-like music and soft, mind-numbing lyrics (not to mention headlines) crammed down our throats, a weightier and more serious approach to music by group like this is more than a little refreshing! I promise that the album, and the band's style, is about far more than Hollywood style pizzazz, ego, and an overall lack of substance. This album means something, and it is worth a listen!

Even the album cover is very interesting. It seems to suggest a Native American theme, although it is not strictly this either, necessarily. But the imagery is strangely appealing, and manages to capture the imagination. Another sign of just how cerebral this band is.

Much of the album has a brooding sound, perhaps predictably. That is a Soundgarden trademark, as is the more experimental sounds that the band always tries out. They do it here again, and the effect is pretty good, overall. That, also, is quite predictable with this group, which has always prided itself with taking their music very seriously, and the results speak for themselves.

All in all, this is a good, rocking album, and a measure of the progress of a band that has, as the title from the first track suggests, "Been Away Too Long". Let's hope they will not be away so long again!

I always considered Soundgarden among the "elites", so to speak, musically, back in their heyday of the nineties. This album not only serves to remind us of those days, I would go so far as to say it places them right back in the company of elites, as if nothing has changed. Of course, a lot has changed, including Soundgarden's music. But the level of seriousness in their approach to music, as well as the overall quality, has not changed at all. A wondeful addition, and a necessity at that, to any Soundgarden collection!



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