28. Superunknown - Soundgarden 1994
When reviewing Soundgarden's fourth full length release, Rolling Stone magazine's, J.D. Considine, wrote that "the album demonstrates a far greater range than many bands manage in their entire career", and awarded it a five star rating. A near perfect sentence-long, summary of this stone-cold classic record. The band had reached a much wider audience with the release of their third album, 'Badmotorfinger', and were hand-picked by Guns n' Roses to open their huge, stadium filling, US leg of their 'Use Your Illusion' tour. They also were chosen by Skid Row to be the special guests on that band's tour for their hugely successful album, 'Slave to the Grind', in North America. Still relatively unknown to both those group's crowds, this opened them up to a whole new audience and propelled 'Badmotorfinger', to sales of over 1 million in the States alone. Their cause was also helped by the fact that the worlds attention was on their home city of Seattle, in the wake of the explosion of "Grunge Rock". The band, along with Alice in Chains, were definitely of the less Punk Rock acts from Seattle, and much more Hard Rock/Metal sounding. Although retaining their Metallic edge, 'Superunknown', was the result of the musicians bringing in loads of different influences, and diversifying their output. Still obvious was the Sabbath and Zeppelin worship, but that was now being permeated by elements of Psychedelic Rock and a shared love of the Beatles and their Pop sensibilities. Adding to the new flavors, there were now some unusual new guitar tunings and odd time signatures. At the time it was impossible to escape the sound of MTV's heavy rotation of the 'Black Hole Sun' video, it is still pretty hard to not see at least once a day on many Rock television channels. Ironically, this is one of the albums relatively weaker tracks, and were it not for the highly bizarre video clip that accompanies the song, wouldn't have been quite the hit it became. This album still rocks, hard, and this is evident as soon as 'Let Me Drown' kicks off proceedings. Bluesy, Hard Rock perfection. The best song that Zeppelin, never wrote. 'My Wave', keeps things heavy, sounding like it should have been written by mark III Deep Purple. 'Fell On Black Days', is a one of the darkest songs in the bands repertoire, and was apparently written about when you realize that you're "unhappy in the extreme", as Cornell explained. This remains a somber reminder that the trappings of Rock Stardom, aren't always all they're cracked up to be. The first single, 'Spoonman', was written as an ode to local Seattle legend, and street entertainer, Artis the Spoonman. The track even features highly adept spoon playing from the songs muse, with a solo when the song breaks down. This particular number acts as a reprieve from the albums mysterious lyrics, thought to be addressing themes such as substance abuse, fear, depression, seclusion and death. Despite the very bleak subject matter, the album went on to move 9 million units and saw the band break the mainstream and become a huge headline act in their own right. It remains the bands commercial, and creative peak and a fine example of 90's Hard Rock.