Badmotorfinger - Music and Lyrics

Music and Lyrics

Steve Huey of Allmusic said that the songwriting on Badmotorfinger "takes a quantum leap in focus and consistency." He added, "It's surprisingly cerebral and arty music for a band courting mainstream metal audiences, but it attacks with scientific precision." Guitarist Kim Thayil jokingly called it the "Heavy Metal White Album." Cornell said, "I think there's songs on the new record which are almost more commercially viable because they have that memorable feel to them, and I think if anyone expected us to come out and make something more commercial than Louder Than Love, then I'm glad that they were surprised." Cornell also added that the album is more representative of how the band is live. Shepherd contributed the song "Somewhere" and collaborated on the musical composition of several other songs on the album. Thayil said that Shepherd's contributions helped make the album "faster" and "weirder."

On the opening song, "Rusty Cage", Thayil uses a wah pedal as an audio filter, producing an unusual guitar sound. In describing the song's guitar riff he said that it "almost sounds backward." Soundgarden utilized alternative tunings and odd time signatures on several of the album's songs. "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Outshined" were performed in drop D tuning. On "Rusty Cage", "Holy Water", and "Searching with My Good Eye Closed", the bottom E string is tuned all the way down to B. On "Mind Riot" every string is tuned to one of several E's. Soundgarden's use of odd-meter time signatures was varied as well; songs like "Jesus Christ Pose" are in typical 4/4 time, "Outshined" is in 7/4, "New Damage" is in 9/4 and 4/4, "Somewhere" is in 6/4, "Face Pollution" uses 9/8 and 6/4, "Rusty Cage" is in 4/4 and 19/8, and "Holy Water" is in 4/4 with a section of 10/8 at the end. Thayil said that he didn't "push for weird time signatures," but rather "push to get the quirkiness out of things."

Cornell said that he tried to not get too specific with his lyrics and was more interested in "creating colourful images." Thayil suggested that it is "like reading a novel man's conflict with himself and society, or the government, or his family, or the economy, or anything." "Jesus Christ Pose" was written about famous people who exploit the symbol of Jesus' crucifixion as to suggest that they're persecuted by the public. Cornell said that "Outshined" is about going from "periods of extreme self-confidence" to "plummeting in the opposite direction." "Holy Water" was written about people who force their beliefs unto others. Thayil wrote the lyrics for "Room a Thousand Years Wide", and said that the song is about "experience in general." "New Damage" subtly criticizes the right-wing government of the United States.