Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This 1991 Seattle supergroup brought together Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden with the surviving members of Mother Love Bone (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard) and Eddie Vedder, later of Pearl Jam. The experiment worked. Cornell shines, seeming more comfortable here on this tribute to his former roommate and deceased MLB lead singer Andrew Wood than with his own band. "Hunger Strike" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" combine glam and grunge better than anything in Love Bone's catalogue, while "Wooden Jesus" is less didactic than anything in Pearl Jam's oeuvre. Most of the songs may be about loss and addiction but this is compelling music for dark days. --Charles R. Cross
Description
On the eve of up-and-coming Seattle rockers Mother Love Bone's full-length major label debut (1990's APPLE), singer Andrew Wood succumbed to a drug overdose. Longtime friend ChrisCornell, the singer of Soundgarden, wrote several songs in Wood's memory. These were rooted more in classic rock than his full-time band's metallic sound. Cornell recorded them with ex-members of Mother Love Bone guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, and then-unknowns Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder, in a project called Temple Of The Dog.
The project's self-titled 1991 debut fell on deaf ears. While such songs as the sullen albumopener "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and the epic jamfest "Reach Down" have lyrics that deal with Wood's passing, most of the tracks deal with other topics, such as the album's high point "Hunger Strike", as well as the organic-sounding "Wooden Jesus", the hard rocker "Your Saviour", and the drowsy album closer "All Night Thing". A year after its initial release, the Seattle rock scene exploded and the massive success of themembers of Temple Of The Dog prompted A&M to re-release both the album and the video for "Hunger Strike". Both were immediate hits the second time around.