Screaming Life/Fopp [Bonus Track]

by Soundgarden

Overview

While the grunge movement of the early '90s would be remembered for thrift-store flannels and an updating of early punk angst, it's easy to forget that the bands that would go on to become the genre's biggest names in hair metal started developing at the same. Much of what became alternative music started out simply as weird metal. Enter Soundgarden with their first two EPs, 1987's Screaming Life and 1988's Fopp, originally packaged together in 1990 by a soon-to-boom Sub Pop. Still a few years away from the downtuned proto-sludge of Louder Than Love, and the world-wide grunge rock domination they would encounter throughout the '90s, these EPs and first proper album Ultramega OK found the band in a flailing state. Somewhere between their metal roots and the full articulation of the sound they'd realize shortly, Screaming Life is rooted firmly in generic post-Sabbath riffery and Chris Cornell's absent-minded howling. Suffering from equally generic production, much of the album comes off as listless or stifled, even though hints of future greatness peek through at times. The bleak and doomy "Nothing to Say" rolls along in a less-refined version of the heaviness they would sharpen on Badmotorfinger, and the dissonant guitars and Misfits-esque croon of "Hunted Down" also come off as a more naive reading of the band's later sound. Of the two EPs, Screaming Life is far superior to the embarrassingly ham-fisted faux funk/punk of Fopp. An overly ironic and unfunny original tune lambasting the still-incubating Sub Pop scene, a Green River cover, and two mixes of an ill-fitting Ohio Players cover, make Fopp even more fans-only fodder than the at-times-foreshadowing but ultimately mediocre fare of Screaming Life. [The two-fer was also released with a bonus track, "Swallow My Pride."]

Product Details

Release Date:	11/25/2013
Label:	Sub Pop
UPC:	0098787106527
catalogNumber:	71065
Rank:	32646

Tracks

1. Hunted Down
2. Entering
3. Tears To Forget
4. Nothing To Say
5. Little Joe
6. Hand of God
7. Sub Pop Rock City
8. Fopp
9. Fopp
10. Kingdom of Come
11. Swallow My Pride

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Soundgarden   Primary Artist
Steve Fisk   electronics
Matt Cameron   Drums
Chris Cornell   Vocals
Kim Thayil   Guitar
Hiro Yamamoto   Bass

Technical Credits

Soundgarden   Composer,Producer
Jack Endino   Producer,Engineer
Steve Fisk   Arranger,Producer
Drew Canulette   Engineer
Chris Cornell   Composer
Jeff Kleinsmith   Reissue Design
Bruce Pavitt   Executive Producer,Concept
Jonathan Poneman   Executive Producer
Linda Owens   Execution,Layout
Middlebrooks   Composer
Katey Miller   Logo Design