CornellWatch: Day 12; LEAVE CHRIS ALONE!!!

(Note: I tried to find video of the PandaWatch clip from Anchorman, but no such luck.)

Nearly two weeks after the irritating Ryan Seacrest rip of Chris Cornell's new song debuted, we now have firm proof that Chris Cornell and Timbaland have not gone into hiding. "Long Gone" still hasn't been officially released as a single and can't be purchased via iTunes or AmazonMP3, but earlier today Planet Radio 107.3 out of Jacksonville posted some new material. I've listened to all five tracks that are released and am going through the interview material now, but I'll get to that in a minute. First, I need to get something off my chest to all the people who are taking a massive flaming crap on the new stuff.

Look, grunge music as children of the '90s knew it is dead. Soundgarden is NOT getting back together. Not now, and probably not ever. Likewise with Rage Against the Machine reunited and the way in which Audioslave disbanded, that reunion is dead in the water. Chris Cornell is going to be a solo artist for the remainder of his career. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Euphoria Morning has great material on it, provided you're not expecting Soundgarden throwaways. Carry On had some great stuff on it, but there wasn't much of a tying thread to it. It felt like a lot of ideas jumbled together. By introducing Timbaland as a producer, Cornell showed he was picking a direction now, and not the worst direction either. Maybe Scream won't be the rave success fans are hoping for, and it may not even be as successful commercially as Cornell hopes either, but he deserves props for taking a risk and giving it a try.

This is why I hate mainstream music haters out there; if an artist takes a risk and it flops, said artist gets ripped to shreds and the snobs declare the artist irrelevant or out of touch. But if that same artist takes a safer, tried-and-true route, now the artist is accused of lack of originality or being a one-trick pony, or worse, playing to try to sell records or get a song on the radio. It's a no-win situation (unless of course you choose to buck the system and go it alone, and now if you do that you're just copying off of Radiohead). So yes, Scream may not be a return to what we hope Chris Cornell will be, but at least he's doing it on his terms.

Which brings up another thing; based on the interview portions I heard, Cornell truly doesn't seem to give a shit about what initial reactions to the Timbaland announcement were. He thought it was a cool idea to take his music in that direction, so he did, and fuck anyone who thought it was a bad idea. By the same token, he seems a bit unaware of how much fans are hating "Long Gone", but give him props for sticking by it and not scrapping the project and recording something new.

Phew. OK I'm done ranting. Now onto the music.

Four new tracks debuted today (in addition to "Long Gone"). "Watch Out" shows some of the most evidence of Cornell's songwriting contribution. Cornell just seems more comfortable singing this song than he did "Long Gone" (which was co-written by Ryan Tedder). This song has some real potential to be a single that could please both rock and rap fans. The chorus sounds like something you might hear on typical mainstream rap, while Cornell's raspy, meaty voice reminds us that this is in fact still the guy from Soundgarden. Timbaland's beats and production on "Watch Out" are a bit more tasteful (think Linkin Park's "Bleed It Out"), which means this track is probably the second best of the five songs we've heard thus far.

Next came the title track "Scream". At first listen, it's got the instrumentals of "Apologize", so strike one against Tim. Lyrically it drifts back into the adult contemporary region of Carry On, but isn't a totally spineless venture. The venture is more or less on par with the rest of the material. Not completely forgettable, but also far from extraordinary.

Third is "Long Gone". Having now heard it a dozen or so times, I think it's better than it was the first time I heard it. That said, it's the worst track in this set. Balladry never quite works for solo Cornell. That and the fact that it sounds like a mix between a scrapped OneRepublic track and a leftover from Justin Timberlake's last album, and this song crosses out of meh territory and into flat-out ugh. Upon further review, Timbaland can have this track for his next solo album.

After that it's "Never Far Away". The verses remind me of early Audioslave, which no matter your thoughts on Audioslave as a whole, is a plus here. Another track that could work well as an R&B hit with appeal for people who like Cornell. If anyone will give Scream the time of day, "Never Far Away" could be a club hit. I think this track also shows off Timbaland's best work out of everything on this set. I know they're entirely electronic, but I think the drums on this one are fantastic.

"Ground Zero" is the last track introduced, the shortest one, and most certainly the most enjoyable. The beatboxing is terrific, Chris seems really at ease singing this song, and it meshes together the best. It reminds me a lot of "Original Fire", just without Tom Morello's guitar solo. Instead you get a ridiculous, inspired turntable solo to close out the song. If Cornell had debuted this song before "Long Gone" I think we'd be singing a much different tune about Scream.

MP3s are below, as is a link to Planet Radio's site. Be advised that a) these are webrips, and thus a bit glitchy, but not as bad as the Seacrest rip from last week, and b) since this is meant to be a gapless album, and these tracks are essentially radio edits, we're still missing material from this album. With those facts in mind, here you go:

Chris Cornell - Watch Out
Chris Cornell - Scream
Chris Cornell - Long Gone
Chris Cornell - Never Far Away
Chris Cornell - Ground Zero
Planet Zero's interview with Chris Cornell

==TJ==