Mad Season – Above

1995

Colombia

Released on March 14 1995, Above, the debut and sole album of grunge “super-group” Mad Season was released to generally favorable reviews. The record had come about as something of an accident; while in rehab Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready met bassist John Baker Saunders and the two hit it off well enough that we they reconvened in Seattle they along with the help of Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin started jamming and writing material for what would eventually become Above. McCready, in an interview with Musicradar.com states of his meeting with Saunders that ” I was in rehab in Minneapolis in 1994 and I saw this kind of crusty old guy pull up to the place…drove a Doge Dart and it had a bumper sticker that read, “What We Have Here Is A Failure To Give A Shit”[Laughs] I just thought “This guy is awesome, I’ve got to meet him.” He and I started talking about Bob Dylan and we struck up a friendship and when we got out I just wanted to stay there for a while with him (in Minneapolis) for a while and not go back to Seattle. McCready was so impressed with Saunders as a player and a person he invited him to come to Seattle with a view to starting a side band and got in touch with Martin. The new band, of course, would need a singer and that would prove to be Alice in Chains front man Layne Staley, McCready; “When I got back Layne was off the road and Pearl Jam was off the road there was Barrett from The Screaming Trees… and I was like “I’ve got these guys let’s try do something, lets just see what it is. Let’s jam and maybe do a record. It was more a jam thing at first”.

Above kicks off with “Wake Up” which begins with a pensive bass riff played by Saunders with dreamlike like guitar parts from McCready, a steady back-beat by Martin and agonized lyrics and vocals by Staley. This continues throughout much of the verses before leading to an explosive middle section in which the band makes good use of the quiet /loud dynamic with McCready laying down a memorable guitar solo. Lyrically the song seems to reference lost love and perhaps past regret invoked in the haunting lines “Wake up young ma, it’s time to wake up, your love affair has got to go, for ten long years”. “Wake Up” is an excellent tune and the perfect way to introduce Mad Season; part blues, part classic rock and part psychedelic.

“X-Ray Mind” is next and starts off, intriguingly, with tribal sounding drums along with slighty odd sounding guitars before leading into a fairly pedestrian verse section. The song is something of a mixed bag and not all of its good ideas mesh well or particularity suit the song, however “X Ray Mind” is still a fairly humable tune, even if Staley is clearly struggling with the higher register of the chorus section. “River of Deceit” follows and is much better. Beginning as it does with wistful guitar riffs from McCready who had originally envisaged his parts for the song for Pearl Jam ( “I think I had that part kind of hanging out. I defiantly had the verse part”) leading into an almost bluegrass sounding verse which then transitions into a memorable, big band – esque chorus, once again making good use of the tried and true loud/quiet dynamic that was so popular in alternative music in the nineties. The tune features beautifully confessional lyrics from Staley, perhaps the best he has ever written and the whole piece is tied down by Sunders tasteful bass playing, The song was picked as the albums only single and featured a memorable music video to boot.

“I’m Above” is next and is the first of two tracks on Above to feature quest vocals from Mark Lanegan. The song starts of with a guitar riff repeating three times with solid drumming and bass playing before leading into dual vocals from Lanegan and Staley. For Alice in Chains fans most accustomed to the Staley/Cantrell vocal dynamic, this track was another glimpse of how a different vocal dynamic might sound and In this reviewers opinion both Lanegan’s and Staley’s vocals meld in a chestnuty seamless manner, most powerfully in the excellent verses leading to a passionate chorus refrain from Staley. Lanegan, of Screaming Trees fame, was and is an excellent singer, straight from the Tom Waits school of vocals and his presence on both “I’m Above” and the later “Long Gone Day” are definite highlights of Above. “Artificial Red” follows and the blues influence that had been hinted at throughout all of Above so far now gets the full treatment – Seattle style. The tune is decent but does feel ever so slightly forced and plays out more like an extended jam than a fully cohesive song. Still, it’s a fascinating listen in its right.

“Lifeless Dead” is next featuring an excellent Led Zeppelin-esque riff from McCready, indeed speaking of “Lifeless Dead”, McCready states that:”I was way into Jimmy Page at the time. I was trying to write a riff type thing in the vein of that … I did use the Gibson double-neck SG, so the vibe is very Pagey, I think”. Lyrically, the song is also quite heavy; it is no secret that most of the lyrics contained on Above was written with Staley’s ex girlfriend Demri Parot in mind. As such, Layne painfully sings about how “promises were never kept” and “although he would not accept, she was gone and so she wept”. As heavy as these lyrics are and the understandably emotional and physical pain that Staley was enduring at the time, the song does not come off as completely depressing. It’s hard to put one’s finger on it, but the track is almost dreamlike and otherworldly, like a kind of dark fairy-tale with the prince forever waiting for his true love. A remarkable tune.

Next up is “I Don’t Know Anything” the albums second lead single. The song begins with a huge heavy riff from McCready leading to an almost drone like verse and then into a clean sounding chorus before transitioning into a an interesting drum section courtesy of the excellent Barret Martin. Lyrically the tune is fairly redundant, a verse repeating “I don’t know anything” for a few bars gets a bit tedious after a few listens, but it’s a worthy enough track, if not quite essential. Things get much more interesting with the excellent “Long Gone Day” again featuring Lanegan on guest vocals. “Long Gone Day” opens with bongos and assorted percussion along with wistful guitars and soulful bass playing. The song was the albums last single, and it is an excellent retelling of the events of one lost summer and the memories contained within; “see you from time to time, it’s so strange how far away we are all now, am I the only one who remembers that summer?”. I think nearly everyone reading this piece can identify with that sentiment and the song is all the more powerful for it, climaxing as it does with a wonderfully bluesy saxophone piece in the songs middle section. “Long Gone Day” may very well be the best track on Above.

“November Hotel” is next an instrumental and a well composed one to boot. All too often instrumentals can become disjointed and messy affairs, however, “November Hotel” has the right amount of free form rock jamming along with structure for it to be memorable and an album highlight. Beginning with tribal tom drumming leading into dream-state guitars before then progressing into a thundering rock jam with many frenzied guitar riffs and dexterous drumming before collapsing into a delirious heap and fading out with the same music contained in its introduction, “November Hotel” is a Tour de Force before leading into the record’s conclusion “All Alone”. “All Alone” begins with church organ – esque guitar riffs along with tasteful percussion and earthy bass playing over which is Staley’s almost angelic refrain of “we’re all alone, we’re all alone”. There’s nothing much else to the song apart from that and there really doesn’t need to be much more.

Above is a fine record and something of a forgotten treasure. As mentioned earlier the record was well received and charted decently but it is an album that came and went in quick succession. It is noteworthy that it is the second last album the late, great Layne Staley would record, but I feel that the late John Baker Saunders’ personality is all over this record. It would appear, according to McCready, that Saunders was a well liked individual, who sadly would succumb to this demons in 1999. In a lot of ways, Above is Saunders album. One only has to listen the beautiful haunting bass strains on “Wake Up” to appreciate the man’s talent. In 2013 Above received the deluxe treatment with the set including a DVD of both Moore and RKCNDY gigs along with three unreleased tracks with vocal from Mark Lanegan to bring them to life along with the cover of John Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier” that the band recorded for the 1995 John Lennon tribute album Working Class Hero. If for some reason you have heard of Mad Season but never gave Above a chance, do revisit it. The album is a dense record for sure and some ideas do not come off all that well in places, but for a piece of work that was recorded in a fairly short space of time and given the immense talent involved, it will only be a matter of time before you fall in love with this most remarkable record.

Works Cited;

Bosso, Joe.(2013, May) Pearl Jam’s Mike MCready talks Layne Staley and Mad Season Above reissue. Musicradar.com