I don't really remember buying this record. Most albums I own I can tell you exactly where and roughly when I bought them, but I'm drawing a blank with this one. I just checked my spreadsheet and it was in a second hand shop in Oxford in 2005 - if I had to guess a few options, that would have been one of them, but I wasn't really very sure.
Piecing events together from other records gigs and memories, I was in Oxford on the way to London for a gig, a trip that also stopped off in Brighton - I was dragging my friend Thom along to see Pop Will Eat Itself, and he was visiting his girlfriend (now wife) in Oxford, then driving back to Brighton; we then got the train up to London for the PWEI show (which he hated - things got much easier when I realised it was better to just go to shows on my own than try to find someone who wants to go). I also bought a bunch of great records in Brighton before heading back up to Lancaster.
The shop was apparently in Gloucester Green, which is only of note because I ended up living in Gloucester Green nine years later when we moved to Oxford. The shop had long closed, but I had no idea where it was anyway - my knowledge of the layout of Oxford was non-existent before moving here, having always been shown around my friends at university in the city. It was a nice little shop with loads of second-hand vinyl. I also found this very tattered copy of Lit's A Place in the Sun. If I remember correctly, it was two-for-£10 on almost all the vinyl, and Badmotorfinger was £9, so I got the Lit record for £1. This LP is in remarkably good condition despite its age (it still has a sticker on from when it was originally bought in HMV for £9.45) and worth a good amount more than that now.
Anyway, three paragraphs in and I haven't even mentioned what a huge album Badmotorfinger is. I honestly couldn't choose between Superunknown and Badmotorfinger as my favourite Soundgarden album. When I saw them the second time and they decided to play Superunknown in full, I was ecstatic because I really love that album (it was the first of theirs I bought), but if I hadn't seen them a first time when they played some of these songs I'd have been a little gutted (although, in truth, my memories of the first time I saw Soundgarden are somewhat murky due to excessive alcohol consumption). Most of my favourite Soundgarden songs are across those two albums.
Badmotorfinger is a much, much heavier album than Superunknown, so much so it's hard to believe they're consecutive albums. The sticker on the sleeve says "The most brilliant band to hit the planet since Slayer unleashed Hell Awaits", which says a lot - in 1991 Soundgarden were being compared to metal bands, and Badmotorfinger is a metal album; after that point they were thrown in with grunge bands and certainly had more of that style about them.
But we've still not really got down to the details. Jesus Christ Pose: fucking hell, what a song. The drums racing a long, the guitar that genuinely sounds dangerous and Chris's vocals are some of their best. I've turned the volume up as loud as I think I can right now without waking the sleeping baby, but I kinda feel this is the sort of song I want her awake to listen to (she's heard it a bunch - when Chris died I made a mix cd for the car and this was pretty near the start). Rusty Cage into Outshined into Slaves & Bulldozers into Jesus Christ Pose is an obscenely strong way to start the album. If it wasn't for the fact there's not a dud on the album you'd have thought someone would have warned them about blowing their load too soon. You do wonder how they can possibly keep that momentum going, but they find a way. (And that is maybe the only criticism of Superunknown - there are a couple of songs that could be skipped). Searching With My Good Eye Closed and Drawing Flies (with the inspired addition of a brass section) are some highlights on the second side.
Badmotorfinger was the second Soundgarden album I got, about a year and a half after getting Superunknown - both on cd for £5 from a record fair. I continued to buy their back-catalogue over the following years, but nothing really came to close to that first pair of albums I heard. By 2005, Badmotorfinger had already established itself as enough of a classic to require a vinyl purchase. The vinyl probably hasn't had that many plays because I had the cd, hence the struggle to remember buying it. Still, very glad to have it in the collection.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9 second hand
Bought: Oxford
When: 22/01/05
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
