Album · Mad Season
Above by Mad Season
Above is an album by Mad Season, released in 1995. 5 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 52 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “River of Deceit”, on 22 lists with a best position of #16.
Above, the only studio album Mad Season ever made, came out on Columbia on March 14, 1995, and it plays like four Seattle musicians catching their breath. The band started in 1994 as a side project that pulled Mike McCready away from Pearl Jam, Layne Staley from Alice in Chains and Barrett Martin from Screaming Trees, with John Baker Saunders on bass. Staley even drew the cover art.
This is grunge with the throttle eased back: McCready's guitar takes its time, Martin's drums and percussion keep things loose, and Staley sings with a weary ache all over "River of Deceit", the first single and a real radio success, and "Wake Up". The album reached 24 on the Billboard 200 and went gold, but there was never a second one. The band drifted into hiatus in 1996, and when Saunders died of an overdose in 1999 it was finished; Staley died the same way three years later. A remastered Above resurfaced in a 2013 box set.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Above on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | River of Deceit | 22 | #16 | – | 1995–2023 | |
| 2 | Long Gone Day | 18 | #487 | – | 1995–2014 | |
| 3 | I Don't Know Anything | 6 | #523 | – | 1995–2002 | |
| 4 | I'm Above | 5 | #438 | – | 1995–1999 | |
| 5 | Wake Up | 1 | #630 | – | 2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.