Unlike a fair number of their PacNW peers, Soundgarden suffered through some growing pains. The problem wasn't so much that the band was trying to find its own voice, but that Chris Cornell wasn't always sure how to best utilize his. Cornell's apocalyptic shriek is the sort of weapon of mass destruction that needs to be implemented with care and precision. Letting it run free on the sludgy metal-punk of "All Your Lies" or faking the funk on a cover of the Ohio Players' "Fopp" were baby steps. And yet, getting to hear songs like these-- and, more importantly, to hear the band hit its stride on "Hunted Down" (from the Screaming Life EP) or "Beyond the Wheel" (from their first full-length, Ultramega OK)-- alongside the alt-rock standards, is a big part of the hook for Telephantasm.
This new career-spanning collection comes in a few packages-- the woefully skint single-disc version that will be packaged with copies of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the collector-baiting 2xCD/DVD/3xLP/book-and-pictures version, and a 2xCD version that serves as a somewhat serviceable overview of Soundgarden's career. For most people, the one to consider is the 2xCD version, and if there's one thing it does better than its best-of predecessor (1997's now-deleted A-Sides), it's acknowledging that the band released a fair amount of music before signing with A&M Records.
The potential displayed in their early years, coupled with the group's impeccable pedigree-- not many bands can say they released records on both Sub Pop and SST-- made that major-label jump a foregone conclusion. When Soundgarden did issue their A&M debut, 1989's Louder Than Love, they were still trying to figure things out. A track like "Hands All Over" has Cornell and friends striking the sort of po-faced martyrs' pose they'd later mock mercilessly, while "Big Dumb Sex" (the "I wanna fuck fuck fuck fuck you" song) seems to confuse being a parody of overblown cock rock with being the real thing. Group those two tracks with a half-decent live version of the half-decent "Get on the Snake" (speaking of cock rock) and a sloppy pre-Badmotorfinger take on "Room a Thousand Years Wide", and that's a third of Telephantasm out of the way without much of note happening.
Thankfully, the Telephantasm compilers (mostly) get out of their own way when picking what to include from 1991's Badmotorfinger-- they simply run with the album's first four tracks, and it's by far the best stretch of music on Telephantasm's first disc. By now, Kim Thayil's thick yet fluid guitar leads meet up with an equally heavy and flexible rhythm section to create a menacing backdrop that's perfect for Cornell's ungodly holler. Even better, Cornell's learned that the nuclear option works just as well as an implied threat-- and that makes his shriek that much more effective when it's let off the leash. On tracks like "Outshined" and "Jesus Christ Pose", Soundgarden figured out how to balance their messianic metallic tendencies with both a sizable helping of self-awareness and a fondness for off-kilter time signatures. The addition of bassist Ben Shepherd gave the group both a strong foundation and an off-kilter songwriting voice to add to the mix.
Alas, Telephantasm aims to bait fans by including a live version of "Jesus Christ Pose" instead of the album cut-- a pattern repeated too often on Disc Two, which (aside from the group's contribution to the Singles soundtrack, "Birth Ritual") covers Soundgarden's final two albums. 1994's Superunknown is, of course, the record that transformed the group into alt-rock superstars, so of course "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" are here. Two of the album's other singles, the surf-flavored "My Wave" and the fittingly pessimistic "Fell on Black Days", are also in the mix, though "Black Days" is represented by its lesser video-edit version. Down on the Upside-- Superunknown's gentler and more unfocused sibling-- has both of its most notable singles ("Pretty Noose", "Blow Up the Outside World") repped by live versions, the former represented by its performance on "Saturday Night Live", a venue infamous for making almost every musical performer that's graced its stage sound like ass. Also here is the album version of "Burden in My Hand" and "Dusty", an unremarkable album track that gave their final record its title.
Finally, as with every career-spanning compilation looking to make a buck, there's the rare or unreleased track: Where A-Sides offered an import B-side ("Bleed Together"), Telephantasm unearths a Badmotorfinger outtake, "Black Rain", which sounds exactly like... a Badmotorfinger outtake.
Even if you're not specifically on one of the group's many wavelengths, there's plenty to enjoy on Telephantasm-- fans whose tastes lean towards heavier stuff might find something to like in the Badmotorfinger tracks, while folks whose rock sensibilities are more melodic can dip their toes in the Superunknown. That said, for one extra dollar, curious iTunes shoppers can bypass the middle man and just buy copies of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown-- those albums' deep cuts are much better than most of the tunes on Telephantasm, and you'll get studio singles rather than cut-rate bootlegs.
Telephantasm was an opportunity to redefine Soundgarden's somewhat disparate career: to better illustrate the stylistic throughlines that connect Screaming Life to Down on the Upside; to take cuts from their neglected albums and place them in a more forgiving context; to breathe new life into well-known singles. It's a trick the band itself managed to turn with its first post-reunion gig. Performing as Nudedragons, the group took the stage at the Showbox in Seattle this past April and played a set that showed as much love to Louder Than Love and Ultramega OK as any other album in their catalog, giving each portion of their career equal respect without resorting to simply playing just the hits. Succeeding at this sort of task is easier said than done, but it would've been nice if Telephantasm at least tried.
