Chris Cornell: Ranking Every Album From Worst To Best

Rather than retreat from the more focused, precise craftsmanship that garnered them instant critical acclaim for Superunknown, they instead decided to just haze things up a touch.

Listening to a song like "Blow Up the Outside World," it's hard not to default to Beatles comparisons. But that blurry guitar coupled with Cornell's subdued, almost hollow vocals immediately harken back to "She Said, She Said" and "A Day In the Life."

Elsewhere, a few too many songs are lacking the signature brawn of the rhythm section. "My Wave" is a great song, but parts of the song fall flat and sound empty, as if the producer accidentally deleted one of the guitar parts, but was on a time crunch and simply went with what he had.

Down On the Upside is a curious blend of visceral, gut-hitting hard rock and crisp-but-fragile alt rock that never quite catches on the way the'd probably hoped it would.