Above is the only studio album by Mad Season, released on March 14, 1995, through Columbia Records. During the production of Pearl Jam‘s Vitalogy, guitarist Mike McCready went into rehabilitation where he met John Baker Saunders, when the two returned to Seattle, they formed a side band with Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin.
McCready then brought in friend and Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley to round out the line-up. McCready had hoped that being around sober musicians would push Staley to get himself sober.
The album was recorded in 1994 at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington. The band worked with producer Brett Eliason, who had previously worked with McCready as Pearl Jam‘s sound engineer. The album was mixed by Eliason. The music for the songs Wake Up and River of Deceit came out of rehearsals that the group had before Staley joined.
The song Artificial Red came together at a show that the band had at the Crocodile Cafe in October 1994. The songs Lifeless Dead and I Don’t Know Anything were first premiered on Pearl Jam‘s January 8, 1995 Self-Pollution satellite radio broadcast, a four-and-a-half-hour-long pirate broadcast out of Seattle which was available to any radio stations that wanted to carry it. McCready said:
“We did all the Mad Season music in about seven days. It took Layne just a few more days to finish his vocals, which was intense since we only rehearsed twice and did four shows.
So this has been the most spontaneous thing I’ve ever been involved in. This was done even quicker than Temple of the Dog which took about four weeks… With Mad Season we just went in and started jamming on tunes and everybody had ideas and it just happened with three or four days.”
Over the course of 1995, Above scaled the Billboard 200 album chart eventually peaking at number 24. Above has been certified gold by the RIAA.
Tracklist:
- Wake Up
- X-Ray Mind
- River of Deceit
- I’m Above
- Artificial Red
- Lifeless Dead
- I Don’t Know Anything
- Long Gone Day
- November Hotel
- All Alone
2013 Deluxe Edition bonus tracks - Interlude
- Locomotive
- Black Book of Fear
- Slip Away
- I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama
Mad Season
Barrett Martin: drums, percussion, double bass, cello, marimba, vibraphone
Mike McCready: rhythm, lead and acoustic guitars
John Baker Saunders: bass guitar
Layne Staley: vocals, rhythm guitar, illustrations
Additional musicians
Mark Lanegan: vocals on I’m Above, Long Gone Day, Locomotive, Black Book of Fear and Slip Away
Skerik (Nalgas Sin Carne): saxophone on Long Gone Day and I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier
Production
Brett Eliason: production, engineering, mixing
Sony Felho: engineering
Sam Hofstedt: assistant engineering
Mad Season: production, art direction
Lance Mercer: photography
Gabrielle Raumberger: design
Howie Weinberg: mastering
Layne Staley (August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002)
John Baker Saunders (September 23, 1954 – January 15, 1999).
