Why, Chris? Why?

When news surfaced that former Soundgarden and Audioslave front man Chris Cornell was teaming up with famed artist/producer Timbaland, I thought it was just a ridiculous rumour. Then the album came out in March with thirteen electronic and R&B tracks.

This musical shift for Cornell definitely screams of something though I’m still trying to figure out what. The first and almost too obvious reason for this baffling musical shift would be desperation to be successful, especially in the currently-lucrative pop/R&B market, which has never been synonymous with Cornell.

The next (and less devastating to Cornell’s integrity) thoughts were that this is some experiment he and Timbaland came up with that just didn’t work out. Or maybe Cornell was just bored. Or maybe he wanted to cause a stir, even if it meant a blemish on his musical career.

Within its preferred genres, the album is halfway decent. I would think that appreciators of a good drum beat and general fans of Timbaland’s work will like this effort. “Take Me Alive” was perhaps the only tracks that came close to hitting the right middle mark between Timbaland’s and Cornell’s styles.

In other, more significant ways, Scream is a poor record. The lyrical content is nothing special and, at times, overly stereotypical of the R&B genre. In most cases, it was very hard to get past his synthesized voice to hear the actual words. The dropped names in this effort, like Jerome “J-ROC” Harmon, Ryan Tedder, and Justin Timberlake (yes, Justin Timberlake produced a Chris Cornell album!), was pushing it too.

Oh Chris, it would have been one thing to be a featured artist on someone else’s album, which would have been both smart and subtly refreshing for your career. But an entire album that surely made a lot of your fans’ mouths drop in disbelief? That was just too much of an overload in perplexity.

Let’s hope the hidden track “Two Drink Minimum” was an indication that Cornell is returning to his musical senses.

Track Listing:
Part Of Me
Time
Sweet Revenge
Get Up
Ground Zero
Never Far Away
Take Me Alive
Long Gone
Scream
Enemy
Other Side Of Town
Climbing Up The Walls
Watch Out
TWO DRINK MINIMUM [HIDDEN TRACK]