Stream Soundgarden’s King Animal

King Animal, Soundgarden’s first new studio offering in more than a decade-and-a-half, is now streaming in full on iTunes.

I’ve expressed disappointment with the album cuts the band has released so far, but listening to them as part of a complete record experience, I feel less like they’re bad and more like they’re just, well… made by a bunch of old dudes. Lots of bands of Soundgarden’s generation have mellowed out somewhat in their golden years, but most of them also did it gradually. Even if “Pretty Noose” wasn’t exactly “Outshined,” it was a helluva lot heavier than “Been Away for Too Long.” So for Soundgarden to go from Down on the Upside to this seems a little, well, jarring. Alice in Chains’ Black Gives Way to Blue felt very much like the next Alice in Chains album, even if it did come out fourteen years after their prior release; on the other hand, this sounds like Soundgarden made a bunch of albums in between Upside and Animal that I never heard. It’s like if you pretended that …And Justice for All and Load came out consecutively, with no Black Album in-between to at least kinda-sorta ease you into the idea of songs like “Ain’t My Bitch.”

ANYWAY, stream the album here, then let us know if you dig it or not in the comments section. The album comes out November 13.