On his new album Scream, Chris Cornell explores new territory. The famed rock singer (Soundgarden, Audioslave) teams up with R&B megaproducer Timbaland to create a decidedly more pop-like album. While many of the singles, such as “Part of Me,” “Long Gone” and the title track created great expectations for the album, the album as a whole is a bit spotty.
Cornell billed this record as an “album-oriented album,” and that describes the flow very well. The end of each song has an interlude that transitions the listener into the next song. Many of them are guitar-driven, recalling Cornell’s past as a rock singer. Some of these transitions lead into the next song smoothly, such as the transitions between “Part of Me” and “Time” and the one between “Ground Zero” and “Never Far Away.” Others, however, seem forced and unnecessary, including the one between “Get Up” and “Ground Zero.” At the end of “Get Up,” Cornell begins to sing the first verse of “Ground Zero,” which he then repeats after the track changes, leaving the listener wondering if the transition was all that necessary. Other transitions, like the one between “Sweet Revenge” and “Get Up,” are more herky-jerky and simply do not flow well.
The album also suffers from overproduction in stretches, especially during the first half. Timbaland adds many strange sounds and beats that do not contribute anything to the listening experience. The listener can pick up on these unfitting additions at the very beginning of the album, when he inserts this weird voice that made me think I was listening to an alien overlord. This sort of effect also happens on “Sweet Revenge,” when Timbaland introduces a Daft Punk-esque vocoder voice that seems very out of place. He often tries to do too much and distracts the listener from Cornell’s voice and lyrics, which prove to be quite good. The most enjoyable parts of the album are when Timbaland pulls back and lets Cornell sing, such as in “Other Side of Town.” On that track, Cornell proves that one can have a creative beat without freaking out the listener.
The best songs on the album are “Long Gone,” the title track, and “Enemy,” which may be the best non-single on the record. Cornell’s still-amazing-after-all-these-years voice is able to shine through. His lyrics also are solid, offering up such lines as, “Throwing out the blame when you know it ain’t my fault / Messing with my brain when you wanna see me fall / There may come a time when I don’t bother you at all / It isn’t my call; it isn’t my call,” from the title track.
The album concludes with “Watch Out,” which features my favorite sound effect at the end of the song, where the listener hears a zoom-click that sounds like an old movie reel running out. Cornell also meshes genres well on the hidden track “Two Drink Minimum,” which has acoustic rock, blues and country influences.
Overall, while the album does not quite live up to the expectations set by its singles, it is still worth a listen. It succeeds at times and fails at times, but Cornell should be applauded for experimenting with other genres and styles and for refusing to be labeled.
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