Classic Rock Bottom

Artist: Audioslave

Genre: Rock

Country Of Origin: United States

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: No

Album: Audioslave

Producer: Rick Rubin/Audioslave

Release Date: November 19, 2002

Running Time: 65:26

RJ's Top 5 Songs: 1. Cochise...2. Like A Stone...3. Show Me How To Live...4. Set It Off...5. Getaway Car

 

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it). 

Well, for the last two weeks I have presented albums with Chris Cornell sound-alike vocals.  This week I'm going with the real thing.  It's the 2002 debut album from Audioslave, which I'm sure you know is the "supergroup" featuring Cornell and all the non-vocalist members of Rage Against The Machine.  First, a few album nuggets:

  • Audioslave's debut album reached number seven on the U.S. charts.
  • It has been certified 3 X Platinum by the RIAA.
  • Five singles were released (Cochise #69, Like A Stone #31, Show Me How To Live #67, I Am The Highway #66 and What You Are).
  • Like A Stone was nominated for a Grammy in 2004 (Best Hard Rock Performance).
  • The album cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson (and Peter Curzon).

I like the album, but I do feel like it suffers from the plague of the late 90's and early 2000's of being to damn long.  They should have cut four songs and the album would have been better in my opinion.  I've never listened to RATM.  I have no idea what they sound like.  But I do know that, due to Cornell, Audioslave sounds a lot like Soundgarden.  

Two other things I'll mention that stand out to me. One is the guitar solo by Morello on Like A Stone.  It's very different than most solos and is one of my favorites of this century. The other would be some of the riffing.  For instance, the riffs on Cochise and Show Me How To Live.  They are very Soundgarden"ish" to me, which is a cool thing.

Do you own this album?  What do you think of it?  Tell us. 

1. Cochise

2. Show Me How To Live

3. Gasoline

4. What Are You

5. Like A Stone

6. Set It Off

7. Shadow On The Sun

8. I Am The Highway

9. Exploder

10. Hypnotize

11. Bring Em Back Alive

12. Light My Way

13. Getaway Car

14. The Last Remaining Light

 

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I never ever listens to Audioslave these days. It was kind of the first mistake Cornell did...no, the first one was to break up Soundgarden, when they easily could had made a couple of great albums in the late 90's/start 00's.

Audioslave was his second mistake (after a rather great first solo-album in 1999). Morello's guitar-solo's are usually totally rubish, and they ruin most of the music for me.

Third mistake cornell did was the title-song for a Bond-move, fourth mistake the "Sceam-album", and actually re-forming Soundgarden might be fifth mistake, unless next album is a killer. When I saw him live alone on stage with his guitar a couple of years ago, it felt like he was getting his solo-project on the right track again, and then the totally forgettable "new" Soundgarden-album.

I almost went with his first, or even second, solo album, but went here instead.

I'm a hit and miss fan of his.  I like the album posted here as well as the follow-up.  Niels is right about the new Soundgarden though, its forgettable.  Also, my son did a presentation in High School on Rage Against The Machine, he loves them, but Ive never given that band much thought either. 

This album is so long I'm approaching it in chunks...

COCHISE is a cool opener but I like SHOW ME HOW TO LIVE a little more.  GASOLINE and WHAT ARE YOU, as the 3rd and 4th tunes in a row does start to give me that 90's  grunge feel, and its not working...  I will say that I do love Morellos geetar©™ work, I find it refreshing still.  But it doesn't save the listening experience up to this point.

I've gave Big Wreck considerable spin time lately...  love it, but... with all the Cornell/Thornley/Soundgarden sound alike going on I'm suffering from a bit of over exposure.  I like this, but I need to put this away for a bit and listen in a different direction for the next little while.

Interesting. Sounds like another cry for help, me believes.

Coming back to this knowing that I'll be starting with my favorite track on here..

  • LIKE A STONE.  No need to review it, it's the best one on here!!
  • SET IT OFF ...  Cool riffage, but the chorus suffers.  Hey, I'm having Deja-Vu from the Thornley listening session the other day.  Cool tune bad chorus of vice-a-versa ...  The bridge around the 3:00 mark is real cool too.
  • SHADOW ON THE SUN ... Same Story, different song.  I love the texture in this one though, it just feels more complete.  Even with the weird, weird, geetar©™ work.  The ending is not good though...
  • I AM THE HIGHWAY ...  and I'm going to ride it all night long...  oh wait, wrong song.  But this one sounds so much better than I remember, really nice and melodic.  Perfect match for my musical taste.  Maybe even better than LIKE A STONE?  OK, maybe even with it...  Nope its better, I just made that decision, just now!
  • EXPLODER ... Cool bass work but kind of a mess of a song, too grungy in places for me. But theres that bass work again!
  • HYPNOTIZE ... Kind of a funky tune, emphasis on funk.  For some reason this is working for me.  Like this better than OI recall as well...
  • BRING EM BACK ALIVE ... And were back to full on grunge.  Probably a good stopping point.

The center section of this experience is much better than I recall and certainly better than tracks 3 and 4 from my first post...  Back for more later....

I love this album. Listened to it again just the other day. Has been in "high rotation" since I got it, and it remains there today. Excellent album.

Morello is not much of a lead guitarist, but his riffage is still good and strong.

Killer tracks include: Cochise,...well, why bother. Cochise is a great rockin' opener, Gasoline is killer with it's atmospheric intro, and heavy heavy chorus. Takes me away, it does. I Am The Highway is also a great tune with that "atmospheric something"! Other good tracks include Set It Off, Exploder, Light My Way, Show Me How To Live, and more.

Back to finish off this album...  I feel refreshed after a couple Rush albums to and from work today!  Grace Under Pressure was the ride in and it sounded great! But Permanent Waves cleansed the soul on the way home!

LIGHT MY WAY ...  What a difference a day makes! This song sounds great! Has a Beatles feel in parts.

GETAWAY CAR ...  Bluesly is sometimes nice, this one works but its good blues not especially great blues

THE LAST REMAINING LIGHT ... As a closer its kind of anti-climatic, a droner even...

This album way better than I made it sound, a real fine choice and high quality post!  Removing tracks, 3, 4, 11, and 14 would do this album a ton of good..  1) it would be chock full of great tunes, and 2)  It would be the perfect length!

This is the third time I've listened to this album. The first time was when I bought it. Was underwhelmed.

Second time was many years later. Was underwhelmed.

So, is third time the charm? No. This album is incredibly boring, every song starts to sound the same after the first one. And it goes on and on and on. Now, I like long albums, but they shouldn't be monotonous and a chore to get thru. Three times I have checked to see what song I'm on. 

This is another of those "background music" albums. Even when I'm working on something, good albums have songs that stick in your head even though you're not listening to it 100%. Songs that make you want to listen to it again, immediately. This one is just a chore to get thru.

Now I remember why I never bothered to purchase the followup. I didn't like this one, so why would I waste money on another album I probably wouldn't like?

Oh, and it's still going on. I did 180 searches on Bing while this album was playing and STILL there was over half to go. 

Now I have to wait to post this because THERE'S STILL TWO MORE SONGS TO GO!

Thankfully, it's over. YAY!

   

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