(Credits: Far Out / TIDAL)
Sat 1 November 2025 21:15, UK
As their career has been one of constant transformation, Soundgarden can attest to the fact that the best thing a band can do is evolve.
So many artists want a viral hit in the modern age, and far be it from me to criticise those who have gotten famous from one, but it doesn’t leave you much room to grow. If the first time people hear your name is because of a huge hit that has taken off online, and they are only ever interested in that one specific song, it can be hard to build a career on top of a moment like that.
Realistically, what every artist should desire is a career of continuous development and making leaps. This means not only making music people like, but as they continue on the path, they learn new things about the band or themselves, how they work best, and what clicks most effectively with audiences.
There have been a few instances when this has happened with Soundgarden. One of the most monumental was when they realised how much they could tap into something within their listeners by writing lyrics that leaned heavier into the mysterious singer-songwriter look that Chris Cornell didn’t previously have. This manifested in the song ‘Black Hole Sun’, a track that even the most casual of Soundgarden fans would recognise as one of their biggest.
“We’d had singles before. But that was easily our biggest hit. That was more singer/songwriterish,” explained Kim Thayil, “Chris went that direction of singer/songwriter guy, and the band was more accepting because of the success of singer/songwriting stuff as opposed to more guitar-oriented rock. It was more vocal accompaniment rock, some guitar. So we started utilising a little bit more of that.”
Not all of the quintessential lessons that the band learnt pertained to lyrics, either. When they wrote ‘By Crooked Steps’, they realised how well they could use unusual time signatures to create a song that was still clearly top quality rock music, but also gave fans something a bit more unique that they could latch onto. People loved the song, and it was clear why, as Soundgarden were beginning to understand how they could dance around various rhythm patterns without sounding too experimental and alienating.
“It’s something Soundgarden does uniquely well,” said Cornell when discussing the track.,”We’ve had hit singles in 6/4 where nobody ever really noticed that. Or with odd time signature and rhythmic changes sometimes, particularly for a song that’s played on the radio. [‘By Crooked Steps’] is like that, particularly the way the vocals sing over the guitar rhythms. It sounds almost like a straight rock song but there’s something askew.”
When a song is written in a unique time signature, it can often throw listeners on a path of confusion regarding what they’re listening to, and they might disengage as a result. The fact that Soundgarden worked out how to use it to give their fans something different without turning them off completely was a real stroke of genius, and just one lesson in many which led to the development of the band’s career.
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