Soundgarden and Chris Cornell

[facepollution]

Needless to say I'm loving it, everything I hoped for. There are some obvious stand outs on the first couple of listens, but gradually some of the songs I first deemed to be just 'album tracks' are starting to really impress me, at the moment it's Black Saturday, and Rowing is a brilliant way to close the record. As it stands though, A Thousand Days Before is still my favourite, fucking LOVE it

[Dayviewer]

listened to it 2/3 times while at work today, liked it alot from what i picked up, rowing is definatly my favorite.
will give it a few more spins in the coming days

[JaredWard]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/NeBjhpw_Ee0[/youtube]

PS: I've listened to the album once all the way through so far & love it.

[Ubik]

Haven't managed to completely absorb it yet, but Bones of Birds is ridiculously good.

[Decay]

I'm not a big Soundgarden fan, but I've listened to KING ANIMAL, and I think it's really really great, it's a well rounded album. I'd give it 8/10 and I'm definitely buying it on iTunes.
I'm not really fond of Been Away Too Long and Taree [this song is so damn cheesy, I don't like it at all]

Favorites on the album: Black Saturday, A Thousand Days Before, Worse Dreams, Rowing, Halfway There

[agny]

Life has been rough the last few weeks, was a treat to finally get this CD and my T-shirt in the mail today. I quit listening to previews to leave a few surprises. One listen through and I adore it. I knew I'd enjoy but I really was pleasantly surprised how much of my favorite aspects of SG it contains. Will review more later.

Great live video of Rowing from London
[youtube]http://youtu.be/dvVpNZMRzfU[/youtube]

[agny]

Been Away for Too Long on Letterman
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/vide ... n-20121113

[agny]

Interview with Ben Shepherd
http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/featur ... ent_future

[agny]

Like this review: http://thequietus.com/articles/10691-so ... mal-review

CNN interview with Chris (text)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/06/showbiz/m ... index.html

Fuse interview with Chris and Ben (video)
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2012/11/soun ... ed-the-90s
Chris has some interesting comments about the album title, album-oriented music, and the first single as "the door to walk through...once upon a time..."

[Heretic]

not really huge on this type of music anymore but I have to say King Animal is actually really really good, especially for a "return" type of album

[agny]

More tour dates in January http://soundgardenworld.com/tour/

BBC Later with Jools Holland performances and interview with Chris http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nw9g9 or search YouTube (they played Been Away for Too Long, Taree, and Rusty Cage)

Interview with Chris: http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/soundgar ... rview.html

Album review http://lamusicblog.com/2012/11/review/s ... ng-animal/

From Twitter: Snoop Dogg ‏@SnoopDogg
Shoutout 2 tha homeyz SOUNDGARDEN congrats on tha new album KING ANIMAL - shit is fire make sure n scoop it!! yall BEEN AWAY TOO LONG jacc!!

[agny]

If you have a digital copy and want the lyrics: http://chriscornell.com/music/king_animal/

[agny]

From the cc and sg twitters...

Chris Cornell's interview w/ @nprguyraz from All Things Considered: Armed With Age And Experience, Soundgarden Returns http://bit.ly/NPRatc

Ben on 'Rowing' http://bitly.com/RowingCommentary … #kinganimal

[agny]

Soundgarden Live on Letterman - 50 min show, excellent!
[youtube]http://youtu.be/avjUEL27mRQ[/youtube]

[sflonstage]

This album is kind of a double edged sword for the band. If you actually have been a longtime fan, like were into them when they were still together releasing albums in the 90's you realize that King Animal is basically the band continuing onward where they left off on Down On The Upside. The harsh side of that though is that Cornell's voice has been shot since the 90's and instead of doing so much touring for his live acoustic Songbook release, he should have been resting his voice at least for the recording of this album because, sadly, Cornell's vocals are very rough and raw here. The way he sounds on King Animal is the way he actually does sound live.
Than you have a large majority of people who are moreso fairweather/radio single fans who pick up King Animal and think it isn't very good because there really aren't any potential huge singles that immediately grab you. This also once again is partly due to Cornell's vocals, because if they were stronger, some of these songs would grab you a little harder. Soundgarden was never a radio single kind of band, they just happened to have quite a few big one's over their long career, and the casual fan doesn't quite realize that. "Bones of Birds," could really benefit from stronger vocals, especially in that chorus.

[facepollution]

Shot since the 90's? He went through a rough few years during Audioslave but steadily improved again when he gave up smoking. He's probably 80% the singer that he was back in the day, but he is pushing 50! Chris Cornell at 80% is still better than the majority of hard rock singers out there.

I don't think the vocals on Bones Of Birds sound weak, there's some vocal effects going on there and I think that is how they were intended to sound. Funny you should pick on that song too, because I think it has potential to be a hit for them - defintely struck from the same cloth as Black Hole Sun.

[agny]

Cornell's voice has been shot since the 90's

Common internet comment, but a vast overgeneralization and not true currently. People love to declare singers' voices shot as they age. Should all singers retire at 30? Must tenors be judged by people running around counting high notes rather than evaluating their overall singing? (That goes for Myles too.) Yes his voice is slightly deeper and rougher and his high notes may not be 100% of what they were but he can still nail Beyond the Wheel live. Have you listened to Live on I-5? He sings better than that now. On some songs he now has a lot more nuance and feeling, and holds notes longer than on the original albums. I'll take his Songbook All Night Thing over the Temple of the Dog version any day. He's said in interviews there are styles of singing he used when younger that he wouldn't now, not because of age/ability but he thought that he sounded silly before.

instead of doing so much touring for his live acoustic Songbook release, he should have been resting his voice at least for the recording of this album because, sadly, Cornell's vocals are very rough and raw here.

That doesn't jibe with the two times I saw him on the Songbook tour, the Songbook album (he didn't tour that album, the idea for the Songbook album came later during the tour) which had songs from many different dates, or the time I saw Soundgarden live. If anything you could make an argument that doing Soundgarden sets at giant rock festivals was risking his voice, but not the acoustic tours. But I'm not sure what dates they recorded the King Animal vocals anyway. Did you see him on the Songbook tour? Soundgarden live since 2010? Chris can sing in many different styles and you seem to be assuming that if he's singing in a more rough/raw style it's because his voice is shot, but it may be intentional to match the mood of the song. He's not going to sing like Euphoria Morning on King Animal.

The way he sounds on King Animal is the way he actually does sound live.

You intend that as a criticism; I'd say it's a great thing and he's better live than he sounds on the King Animal album. Have you listened to the King Animal tracks he's sung live so far?

Soundgarden was never a radio single kind of band.

This is correct.

[agny]

another commentary clip from Ben, talks about how some tracks are going to be hard to play live.
"Chris Cornell always writes these wacked out bass lines where there's dropped beats. It makes it really cool." - Ben Shepherd, http://bit.ly/BlackSaturday

[BSC]

Has anyone been keeping up with Soundgarden's recent setlists? They're really changing it up each night, not in a drastic Pearl Jam type way, but have been changing the order of the songs, opening and closing with different songs, and there's alot of King Animal in there. I think that's cool as it shows the band are definately proud of the new album. I think the only songs they haven't played from it are Blood on The Valley Floor and Halfway There.

Recently they've opened their show with Been Away Too Long, Worse Dreams, Incessant Mace, Flower and Jesus Christ Pose.

[agny]

@BSC I totally agree! They've done it even for TV appearances.