The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Soundgarden

[#] King Animal (2012)

A spotty, but ultimately satisfying, reunion.

Reviewed January 9, 2021

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read a wordier and possibly less accurate version of my feelings on this album.)

Soundgarden's 90s breakup wasn't violent. There were no ongoing band feuds, no one died to cause it—it just kinda happened quietly, with the most musically talented of the Big Four of Grunge calling it quits for lack of agreement on direction and exhaustion from touring and all that usual shit. To hear of the band, now sixteen years older, trying to perform the wild, cerebral prog-metal of its relative youth brings worries that they might not still have it. King Animal thankfully dissolves every one of those worries, the catch being the best stuff is on the back half of the album where the band stretches its wings. When they try to sound most like themselves, weirdly, is when they're at their least memorable.

No disservice to the players—Chris Cornell can still wail, Kim Thayil can still take a screaming solo, and Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron are still the finest, strangest rhythm section in all of 90s rock. It's just that, aside from the skittery hard rock autobiography in "Been Away Too Long", nothing until "Blood on the Valley Floor" and especially the morbid lurch of "Bones of Birds" sticks to the wall very well. This album's secret weapon is the blues-toned unease that comes out strong in its second half. "Black Saturday"'s detuned acoustics give King Animal a rootsy twist classic Soundgarden never suggested, and Ben tucks two of his finest basslines, "Worse Dreams" and "Eyelid's Mouth", right at the tail end of the album. Oh, and "Taree"—this psychedelic ode to the Northwest was held for 15 years until Chris could sing it proper, and goddamn, was that the right call.

Essential:	"Been Away Too Long", "Bones of Birds", "Taree"
Quintessential:	"Worse Dreams"
Non-Essential:	"A Thousand Days Before"
Rating:
Further listening:	King Animal's Rediscovering entry