Temple Of The Dog - Temple Of The Dog (1991)

"Temple Of The Dog" is the only studio album by the American rock band Temple of the Dog, released on April 16, 1991 through A&M Records. The album is a tribute to Andrew Wood, the former lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. Wood died on March 19, 1990 of a heroin overdose.

Featuring members of Soundgarden and what would soon become Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog's lone eponymous album might never have reached a wide audience if not for Pearl Jam's breakout success a year later. In turn, by providing the first glimpse of Chris Cornell's more straightforward, classic rock-influenced side, Temple of the Dog helped set the stage for Soundgarden's mainstream breakthrough with "Superunknown". Nearly every founding member of Pearl Jam appears on Temple of the Dog (including the then-unknown Eddie Vedder), so perhaps it isn't surprising that the record sounds like a bridge between Mother Love Bone's theatrical '70s-rock updates and Pearl Jam's hard-rocking seriousness. What is surprising, though, is that Cornell is the dominant composer, writing the music on seven of the ten tracks (and lyrics on all). Keeping in mind that Soundgarden's previous album was the overblown metallic miasma of Louder Than Love, the accessibly warm, relatively clean sound of Temple of the Dog is somewhat shocking, and its mellower moments are minor revelations in terms of Cornell's songwriting abilities. It isn't just the band, either  he displays more emotional range than ever before, and his melodies and song structures are (for the most part) pure, vintage hard rock. In fact, it's almost as though he's trying to write in the style of Mother Love Bone which makes sense, since Temple of the Dog was a tribute to that band's late singer Andrew Wood. Not every song here is directly connected to Wood; once several specific elegies were recorded, additional material grew quickly out of the group's natural chemistry. As a result, there's a very loose, jam-oriented feel to much of the album, and while it definitely meanders at times, the result is a more immediate emotional impact. The album's strength is its mournful, elegiac ballads, but thanks to the band's spontaneous creative energy and appropriately warm sound, it's permeated by a definite, life-affirming aura. That may seem like a paradox, but consider the adage that funerals are more for the living than the dead; Temple of the Dog shows Wood's associates working through their grief and finding the strength to move on.

Track listing

01.  Say Hello 2 Heaven  (Chris Cornell)  - 6:22

02.  Reach Down  (Chris Cornell)  - 11:11

03.  Hunger Strike  (Chris Cornell)  - 4:03

04.  Pushin Forward Back  (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard)  - 3:44

05.  Call Me a Dog  (Chris Cornell)  - 5:02

06.  Times of Trouble  (Gossard)  - 5:41

07.  Wooden Jesus  (Chris Cornell)  - 4:09

08.  Your Saviour  (Chris Cornell)  - 4:02

09.  Four Walled World  (Gossard)  - 6:53

10.  All Night Thing  (Chris Cornell)  - 3:52

Credits
Jeff Ament – bass guitar
Matt Cameron – drums, percussion
Chris Cornell – vocals, banjo, harmonica
Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar
Mike McCready – lead guitars
Eddie Vedder – backing vocals, vocals

Notes
Recorded at: London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington
Genre: Grunge, Alternative Rock
Length: 54:59
Producer (s): Rick Parashar, Temple of the Dog
© 1991 A&M Records