Superunknown

Spoiler alert – this is my favourite album of the year. However, this is not a new record. This year Soundgarden's 4th full length, 'Superunknown', turned 30 years old and even though it is clearly old, it was new to me this year. Without a doubt I spent a more time listening to this than any other record in 2024.

I actually bought this record back when it was originally released in 1994. I had liked the previous album, ‘Badmotorfinger’, so was keen to check this one. It was released as a double LP, and there were about 4 different colour vinyl options. I think at the time I ended up with a clear orange copy. I don’t remember exactly. But what I do remember was that I found the whole thing boring. There are 16 songs on here and it goes on for an hour and 15 minutes, give or take. The 19 year old me just couldn’t get into this, and I ended up selling the record. And for the best part of 30 years, I had this filed under ‘boring’ and ‘overrated’.

So what changed? Well, back near the start of this year someone on Instagram posting something about the third song (‘Fell On Black Days’) and the post said something about how great the song was and since I wasn’t familiar with it, I decided to check it out. And instantly I agreed that yes, this is a great song. This then prompted me to download the album (yes, I still don’t use Spotify) so I could play this song. And then you know how it goes – you play one song, but at the end you just leave it playing, and then after a few plays you start enjoying the songs that follow it too. And in only a few days I found that I was really enjoying playing this from start to finish.

Of course, I then decided that I wanted a vinyl copy, but in 2024 these things are not cheap. Despite there being four different colour vinyl options, and two pressings of each colour (one pressed in the US, one pressed in the UK), meaning there are technically 8 different versions available, every single one costs a lot of money these days. I find this kinda surprising given that there were probably thousands of each version. But it is what it is. Nostalgia is big business. Anyway, I wanted a US version, but in the end I went for this clear vnyl UK version, purely based on price. This one was listed on eBay as an auction and for whatever reason, did not attract much attention. So I got it for a relatively low price.

I was really into this back in about April this year and on a trip to the US this was played in the car several times. And here I am, writing this in the States in December, and it was also played in the car on a couple of drives on this trip too. I generally find these days that I get bored of records pretty quickly, but this one has been on rotation for most of this year. I think this is a great reminder of the power of the album. Sometimes a long record is kinda off putting, but there are times when a long record is really great as it is something that you can get absorbed into. It feels like a long time since I enjoyed a record this much, and no doubt I will be playing it long into the future too.

Also, slightly annoyingly, I realised that when I saw Soundgarden play live back in 2014 (supporting Black Sabbath) their set was this record. Back then it was the 20 year anniversary. Of course, I had no idea that they were playing this record in its entirety that day, as I didn't know most of the songs. But even though I didn't fully appreciate it back then, I'm happy that I was there, as (obviously) it will never happen again.

Funny how things change over time I guess...