Louder Than Love

Louder Than Love, the second album, came out on A&M on 5 September 1989 as CD 5252, the band's first record for a major label. Terry Date produced it with the band at London Bridge Studio in Seattle between December 1988 and January 1989, and Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero mixed it. It is the last album with founding bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Kim Thayil has said that its style owed as much to British bands such as Killing Joke and Bauhaus as to heavy metal. "Get On The Snake" is written in nine-four time, and Thayil has described "Big Dumb Sex" as a send-up of a whole genre of dumb rock. It entered the Billboard 200 in January 1990 and peaked at number 108, the band's first album to reach that chart. The singles were "Loud Love" in 1989 and "Hands All Over" in 1990. The Japanese edition (PCCY-10004) came out on Pony Canyon on 21 September 1989 with the same twelve songs. The running order here is the original's as printed.