“Limo wreck” - soundgarden - song of the day

The friday freak!

On the heels of Soundgarden’s long-awaited induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I felt it was suitable to choose an underrated track from their quintessential 1994 album Superunknown, an album that among many others not just myself - consider to be one of the greatest musical packages ever released. 

Filled to the brim is this record with brooding, heavy, otherworldly tones and riffs no other big-name grunge band [or any band ever] was hitting at the time. If I could describe Soundgarden’s signature sound to somebody, I would say it sounds like hearing alien musicians arriving from another galaxy - but they really really liked black sabbath, late ‘80s punk, thrash metal, and skateboarding. 

Superunknown (1994)

The singles are stacked to the rafters in timeless classics like “Black Hole Sun”, “Fell on Black Days”, “Spoonman”, “The Day I Tried to Live”, and “My Wave”. Songs bigger than the band upon impact, so well rounded and catchy - they instantly cemented themselves among the best tunes that era had ever produced. Title track “Superunknown” could have just as easily succeeded on the airwaves. 

Among the deep cuts you have mammoths of sludgy-humongous riffs and acid-noise in tracks like “Mailman”, “Head Down”, and “4th of July”. Songs dripping in heavy metal molasses, drug through the mud along their journeys by Chris Cornell’s warm, weathered, and wailing lead vocal performances. Like a strung out Sisyphus, these songs build upon themselves like Chris putting the band on his back trudging uphill - until the visual turns to a megalithic multi-layered-frankenstein, watching in horror yet you cannot look away. 

Soundgarden, 1994 - Photographed by Melanie Weiner.

No song in this collection batters you, scares you, melts you down to your core like “Limo Wreck” does at track nine. It’s Sabbathy, it’s glimmering and full of fiery rage, it’s the boiling over point for Cornell’s vocals - as the band climbs toward a higher peak of intensity and stakes, making you feel a sense of uneasiness and impending doom unlike any other. This is the great middle point in Soundgarden’s catalog for me. It feels like looking God in the face and being terrified by a force so immaculately powerful - its mere existence rewires your brain. 

While all music is up for personal interpretation, most can make conclusions that Cornell’s vocals are singing from a point of view that’s watching upon something horrible, or unfolding - and being disgusted with the current state of affairs, while also being somewhat unphased. You can’t help but feel like our narrator is also mildly horrified to watch it all burn down as predicted, in the metaphorical “wreck” or crash that follows. 

This song is perfect, and remains my all time favorite Soundgarden rip. Stand in awe of the destruction, cover your eyes and open your ears. It is super-mega, colossal, cosmically heavy - beautiful. 

Here’s, to you Chris - and all current and past band members who contributed to Soundgarden’s everlasting creativity, artistry, and greatness.