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Review of Soundgarden's "Louder than Love"

© Nick Bendel

Soundgarden, at least if their album Louder than Love (1989) is anything to judge by, is a band that like making a whole lot of noise for no apparent reason. For Louder than Love is an album full of blaring guitar, turbulent drumming and the more than occasional yell from lead screamer Chris Cornell.

Sure there are some good moments on this record, basically from the second half. The first of these is "Full on Kevin's Mom." Actually, to be completely accurate, this piece of mindless lyrics and only reasonably enjoyable music is more average than good - but it stands out somewhat because the songs that preceded it are awful. And awful is the correct word because "Ugly Truth," "Hands all Over," "Gun," "Power Trip" and "Get on the Snake" are not merely bad, but far worse.

The only well-written song on Louder than Love is "No Wrong no Right." The ominous-sounding guitar throughout the song cleverly reinforces the equally ominous words: "Watch for vipers and poison snakes/feeling fingers make no mistake." Not long after comes "Big Dumb Sex," which isn't so bad, even if the lyrics are predictably mundane.

Apart from this there really isn't anything else positive to be said about this album. The melodies are non-existent and the standard of the lyrics is so poor as to indicate a distinct lack of effort on the part of the band. While Soundgarden would rise to fame on the strength of future albums (before breaking up in 1997 after a 13-year existence) Louder than Love does them no credit whatsoever.

RATING: 1/10