Soundgarden’s Superunknown is filled with tracks with odd time signatures, which makes its popular appeal all the more impressive, and the music has a momentum to it that’s akin to music produced by bands such as Led Zeppelin (admittedly, the band is very much like Zeppelin). The single ‘The Day I Tried to Live’ alternates between the 7/8 and 4/4 time signatures wonderfully. The hook has a real unrelenting groove. Songs such as ‘Limo Wreck’ don a 15/8 time signature, which you almost never come across on a pop album. Well, it’s a hard rock, hard metal, psychedelic grunge album that became very popular. These song structures really give Superunknown a distinct character that’s charming, there is the sense that the album wasn’t created with the intention of being a mainstream sensation.
I have to talk about the psychedelia too because it really elevates the tracks here. The second song, ‘My Wave’, has a beautiful groove and it’s topped off brilliantly by a collage of cymbals, wah-wah guitar, and vocal harmonies. The iconic single ‘Black Hole Sun’ is a neo-psychedelic classic, a real exhibition of grunge balladry whose melodicism owes more to The Beatles than Zeppelin. The Beatles influence comes through again in bassist Ben Shepherd’s effort ‘Head Down’ that has a real hypnotism that’s addictive – again Cameron’s drumming is so instrumental in setting up the psychedelic wall of sound.
To be honest, the music and soundscapes are so great that the album’s lyrics, though good, don’t catch the ear as much. Cornell was reading a lot of Sylvia Plath at the time and it shows in some of the titles of the songs (‘Let Me Drown’, ‘Fell on Black Days’). He’s quoted to have said that such tracks are about “crawling back to the womb to die” and “realising you’re happy in the extreme”. Yeah, Plath is the apt poet to consult when experiencing such feelings. That being said, the lyrics on ‘Fell on Black Days’ for instance, aren’t bad at all, but they’re nothing compared to Thayill’s fiery guitar lines, or Cameron’s rolling drum fills, or Cornell’s catchy vocal riffs. The extent to which the sounds on the LP are so great is encapsulated on singles such as ‘Spoonman’: the integration of utensils in such a manner is inventive and executed very, very well. From: https://www.indiependent.co.uk/album-review-superunknown-soundgarden/
