Audioslave: Out Of Exile (2LP, 180g) [HIP-O RECORDS / UME]

Why you'll love it

This 180g 2LP set spreads the album over four sides. Out of Exile debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the band's first chart-topper, and "Doesn't Remind Me" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Drummer Brad Wilk put it simply before this one came out: Audioslave the band had arrived. The debut had been two famous histories bolted together, Chris Cornell's from Soundgarden and Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Wilk's from Rage Against the Machine. Out of Exile is the sound of four people who had become a band.

Cornell called these his most personal songs yet, and his voice is in tremendous shape. "Be Yourself" is a big, warm anthem, "Your Time Has Come" and the title track hit hard, and "Doesn't Remind Me" is a sunny, wistful list of simple pleasures. Rick Rubin produced again, but the riffs are leaner and the moods more varied than on the debut, from "Dandelion" to the slow-burning "Man or Animal."

Three weeks before the album came out, Audioslave played a free show in Havana for 70,000 people, the first American rock band to play Cuba, and debuted many of these songs there. That's one way to road-test new material; most bands just try it out in the rehearsal room.

Also at Kops: more Audioslave on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Epic / Interscope / UMe, a reissue of the 2005 album.