Connections to Pearl Jam are many. Where I worked here in the lowlands, back in the day they used the vinyl sleeve of Badmotorfinger as packing material. Must have been misprints, but that is how I learned they existed and after getting my ass to the record shop learned how good that album is.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of almost everything sludgy and doomy that came out of the PNW in the 80’s and beyond. I just think Soundgarden strikes the perfect balance between heavy and catchy.
Personally, I’m not a Pearl Jam fan, because I think they sanded off too much of the grit that makes sludge and grunge interesting, and there’s never a time when I hear Pearl Jam that I wouldn’t rather be listening to Soundgarden, which is why I think it’s a perfect connection
I hear you.
For me, it’s their first album I really dig, not so much the MTV and VH1 stuff on repeat like Black Hole Sun, kinda lost them there.
I like the simplicity of songwriting with garage rock, punk, post punk like Sonic Youth, Siouxie and the Banshees, the Pixies…
Badmotorfinger to me seemed a logic iteration of that but much heavier. There is nothing on that album in my opinion (which is worthless), that seems contrived, overproduced Et Cetera. It’s stripped to the bare bone of rock, imo.