Home Album Reviews Was Chris Cornell’s “Scream” Worth the Wait?

Was Chris Cornell’s “Scream” Worth the Wait?

Posted by Albert Costill on Mar 15, 2009 in Album Reviews | Comments

Last Tuesday was the day that Chris Cornell fans have been waiting for, or dreading, for months.

After delay after delay “Scream” finally hit the shelves.

Now, I love Chris Cornell’s music and have supported every venture that he’s crossed, but “Scream” was everything that I feared it would be.

I seriously gave Chris the benefit of doubt, and didn’t judge him until I heard the album in it’s entirety. I tried to look at the positive benefits of a Seattle God teaming up with a hip hop producer. I really dug the self-titled track. I thought he promoted the album wisely.

Then, I listened to the album.

I don’t want to bore everyone with a rant and rave, after all there are some cool tracks on “Scream”, like “Climbing Up The Walls” and “Two Drink Minimum” (which seem like the two most non-Timbaland influenced tracks on the albums. Coincidence?). But, after the utterly goofy minute intro on the opening track “Part of Me”, I knew Chris was in trouble.

Basically, “Scream” is exactly what we were dreading it would be, the former Soundgarden frontman singing over left over tracks that Timbaland had from sessions with acts like Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake. It just makes no sense that Chris Cornell, the pipes behind Soundgarden and Audiosalve and the soulful solo debut “Euphoria Morning”, is making an album like this. Chris Cornell was cool. Now, he seems like a shell of his former self trying to capture the fame and success he enjoyed back in the 90′s, but this was defiantly the wrong direction to take.

The best thing about “Scream” was the $2.99 album download price from Amazon. If I paid anything more then that price, I would be screaming at the top of my head.

Too make matters worse, Cornell got Twitter-bitch slapped by Trent Reznor who said “You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus,”

Yup, kind of sums it up for me too.