Soundgarden - "Head Down"

Author Notes

GUITAR/REDUCTIONS: Mb1nightmare
DRUM ANIMATIONS: MrBurpler
 
A thing of otherworldly, unsettling grace, Soundgarden never recorded anything else quite like “Head Down,” though it could certainly be located as a genesis point for some of the explorations that would later occur on Down On The Upside. Superunknown is a primarily dark affair, not as screeching or hard-edged as Badmotorfinger, but plenty grinding and despairing in its own ways. “Head Down” is too unnerving to be considered a moment of lightness from all that, but it feels like a detour that simultaneously deepens the character of the album. It was with psychedelic tracks like this that Soundgarden marked the borders of their new expansive sound. It glides rather than thrashes, but it seeps out of the same darkened mind and heart as the rest of Superunknown. “We hear you cry/ We hear you wail/ We steal that smile from your face,” Cornell sings, later ending the song with “Head down, head down, head down, hide that smile/ Head high, head high, head high, you got to smile.” It’s all delivered in a smooth, almost-detached lilt, proving that sometimes the best way to be haunting is not through heavy guitars and screams, but through the misleading sweetness of a strangely tuned guitar and an enticing rhythm.