I Want to "Scream"

Warning! This piece contains some use of superlatives for Chris Cornell ... sadly most of them will not apply to his new album.

If somebody asks me who my favourite vocalist is, I will proclaim without any hesitation that it is Chris Cornell. The man has defied lung capacities for all rock singers ever since Soundgarden released their early heavy stuff. Before the said band went stratospheric, he masterminded the Temple Of The Dog project - a good contender for the best album of '90s and, arguably, one of the most important albums of any genre. Then Soundgarden imploded and he went solo and released what I believe to be a really good album with "Euphoria Morning". When the announcement was made that RATM guys would  record an album with Cornell, I thought that finally we have our generation's Zeppelin. Even though Audioslave imploded under its own weight (implosion is a common theme in Cornell's musical career, it seems), they released one good album ("Audioslave"), one very good album ("Out of Exile"), and one great album ("Revelations").  I'm not biased at all.

In the middle of all this, he released another album where he tried to emulate (he didn't have to) people like Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley. It was a patchy album, but it had that amazing version of "Billie Jean". Then I was informed by none other than Mr. Rican himself that Timbaland was producing Cornell's new album. My first raction: "Isn't his album out already? Why is he making another one so soon?" My second reaction: "Who the fuck is Timbaland?" When I found out about who the fuck Timbaland was, I said to myself: "Fuck".

The new album took a long time to hit the shelves. I'm sure Cornell realized his error halfway through and wanted to take a low profile. Because, you know, I grew up with grunge. And people like me don't like their music to be tampered with by, of all people, hip-hop "artists" (sorry, I couldn't resist). I like elements of soul and old school R&B (I'm talking about Sly & the Family Stone and Stevie Wonder stuff, not fucking Beyonce) in grunge ... but Timbaland? Is Chris Cornell becoming like Justin Timberlake? Don't get me wrong, I love JT's contributions to music with hits like "Dick in a Box" and "Jizz in My Pants" (he only has a cameo in the video), and he's very good at what he does. He has a massive fan base, but I'm just not part of it. And I don't like the artists that I like to succumb to the pressure to make a hit or blend in with the "in" crowd.

I respect Chris Cornell's ambition and his decision to diversify his output, or whatever. But, I think it becomes a little masturbatory when bands / singers do shit like this. As I'm writing this U2's new shit is playing on TV ... I don't think I can write what I'm thinking about here, because, you know, this not the fucking place to spew out obscenities on vermin like that. There, I said it. I think U2 are the vermin of the music business. They write shit, release that shit ... and make people buy that shit, because it says U-fucking-2 on the link you click with your mouse.

Anyway, back to "Scream". There are some great moments, like the transition from the opening song "Part of Me" to "Time" - a power-chord bonanza that really got my hopes up. Similar transition also appears at the end of "Get up". By the way, the chorus for "Part of Me" is No, that bitch ain't a part of me (I'm not fucking kidding). "Take Me Alive" has a certain Soundgarden quality to it, but without Kim Thayil's crunching guitars. "Scream", the best song on the album, could easily be the best song he released as a solo artist ... he just needs to get rid of that rap part in the middle (I'm assuming it's Mr. Timba-fucking-land) and the annoying beats that drown everything else, including the vocals. The rest of the album has moments of genius, but also moments that make you think if Cornell intentionally paid Timbaland to ruin his music. I'm hoping that's the case, because that would be a great post-modern twist that Cornell is playing on the music business before announcing that Soundgarden are getting back together (I like to daydream).

I really wanted to hate this album. But I couldn't. His voice is still very unique, despite the tweaks here and there (I guess Mr. Timba-fucking-land thought that Chris Cornell was some 18-year-old kid who just wants to get rich and bang some bitches without an iota of singing talent). The songs are actually very good - it's just the arrangements that ruin them. I hope that Cornell re-releases this album with songs re-mixed and re-arranged by somebody like Rick Rubin. Now that would be something special. The odds of that happening? Not as good as a Soundgarden reunion. I guess I'll just blast "Louder Than Love" and remind myself that Chris Cornell is still the best there is.