Down on the Upside

Down on the Upside, the fifth album, came out on A&M on 21 May 1996 as 31454 0526 2. The band produced it themselves, with Adam Kasper as co-producer and engineer; it was recorded at Studio Litho and Bad Animals in Seattle and mixed at Bad Animals. The band's own site presents it as the record on which they moved from alternative metal into harder-edged experiment, and perhaps the clearest measure of how far they had come. Ben Shepherd and Chris Cornell play mandolin and mandola on "Ty Cobb". It reached number two on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in August 1996. The four singles were "Pretty Noose", "Blow Up the Outside World", "Burden in My Hand" and "Ty Cobb". "Burden in My Hand" topped the Mainstream Rock chart for five weeks and "Blow Up the Outside World" for four, and "Pretty Noose" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 39th Grammy Awards. The Japanese edition (POCM-1168) came out on Polydor on 13 May 1996, ahead of the American release, with the same sixteen songs. After a show in Honolulu on 9 February 1997 the band stopped for thirteen years. The running order here is the original's as printed.