Temple of the Dog – Temple of the Dog 2LP

Description

Featuring members ofSoundgardenand what would soon becomePearl Jam, Temple of the Dog’s lone eponymous album might never have reached a wide audience if not forPearl Jam‘s breakout success a year later. In turn, by providing the first glimpse ofChris Cornell‘s more straightforward, classic rock-influenced side, Temple of the Dog helped set the stage forSoundgarden‘s mainstream breakthrough withSuperunknown. Nearly every founding member ofPearl Jamappears on Temple of the Dog (including the then-unknownEddie Vedder), so perhaps it isn’t surprising that the record sounds like a bridge betweenMother Love Bone‘s theatrical ’70s-rock updates andPearl Jam‘s hard-rocking seriousness. What is surprising, though, is thatCornellis the dominant composer, writing the music on seven of the ten tracks (and lyrics on all). Keeping in mind thatSoundgarden‘s previous album was the overblown metallic miasma ofLouder Than Love, the accessibly warm, relatively clean sound of Temple of the Dog is somewhat shocking, and its mellower moments are minor revelations in terms ofCornell‘s songwriting abilities. It isn’t just the band, either — he displays more emotional range than ever before, and his melodies and song structures are (for the most part) pure, vintage hard rock. In fact, it’s almost as though he’s trying to write in the style ofMother Love Bone— which makes sense, since Temple of the Dog was a tribute to that band’s late singerAndrew Wood. Not every song here is directly connected toWood; once several specific elegies were recorded, additional material grew quickly out of the group’s natural chemistry. As a result, there’s a very loose, jam-oriented feel to much of the album, and while it definitely meanders at times, the result is a more immediate emotional impact. The album’s strength is its mournful, elegiac ballads, but thanks to the band’s spontaneous creative energy and appropriately warm sound, it’s permeated by a definite, life-affirming aura. That may seem like a paradox, but consider the adage that funerals are more for the living than the dead; Temple of the Dog showsWood‘s associates working through their grief and finding the strength to move on. -All Music Guide