Music Review: Chris Cornell - Scream

When Chris Cornell announced that this, his third solo outing, was to be a collaboration with R&B wunderkind Timbaland, he was met with a mixture of pessimistic trepidation and outright indignation. It seems that, to many fans, the singer’s move away from the signature wail of Soundgarden and Audioslave is to be regarded as nothing short of blasphemy.

Many critics too have dismissed Scream’s brand of watered down grunge-hop as a sort of musical mid-life crisis with no real purpose other than to perhaps act as a cathartic exercise, allowing Cornell to exorcise his R&B demons. However, to view this record through the eyes of a rock purist is to miss the point of what the singer is trying to achieve, as well as depriving oneself of a rewarding listening experience that delivers more with each revisit.

Although the album opens with an irritatingly obnoxious horn introduction that would sound more at home over the opening credits of a low-budget George Lucas movie, and a worryingly stylised synth voice-over heralding "the Chris Cornell experience..." it soon settles into its stride with first single "Part Of Me" immediately showing off Timbaland’s trademarks — heavy bass-lines, synthesized samples, and dance-floor rhythms, with guitars way down in the mix. The segue into "Time" feels a little forced, as do many of the segue sections that come as part of this concept album premise, but the vocal delivery and catchy chorus ultimately make it more memorable than the opener.

Timbaland’s influence rears its ugly head again in the appalling use of Autotune vocals in "Sweet Revenge" where, instead of capitalizing on one of the finest voices the rock genre has to offer, the producer reduces Cornell’s bark to a robotic drone. Through the album’s finest moments, such as the dynamic, September 11-inspired "Ground Zero," the soaring "Never Far Away," the spacey U2-esque title track, and the closing smoky blues of "Two Drink Minimum," Cornell’s vocals shine through, and even on the weaker numbers remain characteristically strong.

Article Author: Rhys Williams

Rhys Williams is a journalist and musician from Wales, now based in Leeds. He is a avid blues, and rock fan with an eclectic taste that renders him an authority on all things music. Heavily influenced by the works of Lester Bangs, Hunter S Thompson, …

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