****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Soup was released on August 15th, 1995, under the production of Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine’s producer, Andy Wallace (who is on the front album cover). The album was released just a mere 2 months before Shannon Hoon’s fatal cocaine overdose. The band tried to veer away from the image that the “No Rain” music video unfortunately managed to create for them, and hopefully be taken seriously as a legitimately talented musical act. The songs on Soup use much tighter and more intricate guitar arrangements than their previous album. It is skillfully structured and introspective in terms of the songwriting. Hoon wrote all of the lyrics for the album himself, and they mostly revolve around themes of self-deprecating insecurities and the immobilizing uncertainty of drug addiction. Hoon was indeed channeling his inner most turmoils into a creative and painstakingly honest work of art, which is completely devastating in hindsight. Initially overlooked, Soup was absolutely the statement of a band at their creative peak. They managed to not only surpass what they had done on their first record in terms of their musical compositions, but they also establish themselves as a rare and unrivaled commodity in an era that was more concerned with trivial MTV garbage. The album itself had mixed reviews, which many believe played a part in Hoon’s unfortunate and untimely death. Soup utterly exceeds Blind Melon in terms of structure, formula and lyrics, but it unfortunately didn’t do enough to shake the “bee girl” image from the public's conscious. Considering this vinyl was out of print and going for $600.00 on eBay, I can't tell you how much of a steal it is to get it for 27.00 here on Amazon! Viva La Blind Melon.
