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What has happened one of the greatest vocalists of our era?
Chris Cornell of the SoundGarden and most recently Audioslave fame has just shown that he too is susceptible to selling his soul for the cash!
His MySpace account ( http://www.myspace.com/chriscornell ) has some tracks created with the help of Timbaland. Needless to say, I’m quite disappointed with them. He left a really good band in the form of AudioSlave to create this tripe!!!
Ok I agree the last couple of albums from AudioSlave were heading the soft route, but this is crazy.
Chris please give up this new route now! We’ll miss you greatly over here on the dark-side 
#1 by Ginny at September 22nd, 2008
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A much easier and more obvious way for him to have “sold out for the cash” as you put it, would have been to reform Soundgarden and churn out the old hits from now till doomsday. Fans like you would have been happy and unquestioning and a reunion tour would have hoovered up vast piles of cash for grunge nostalgists. BUT he’d have created nothing new and would have remained typecast for ever. Is that really what you want to ask a creative like Cornell to do with his life? Bore himself to death?
Whether you personally like the new stuff or not, there’s no denying he’s taking some brave risks, challenging himself and doing something he’s never done before.
#2 by Tom Doyle at September 22nd, 2008
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You’ve made a lot of assumptions there Ginny.
I personally wouldn’t be bothered with a SoundGarden reunion. Saw them before and I wouldn’t bother watching them again to be honest.
I would have preferred that Cornell went in a different route into something that shows off his talent as a singer and a songwriter instead of putting out over produced crap.
Musical differences were cited in the breakup of AudioSlave. It was obvious from their last album that the band were trying to be more commercial. They wanted to go one direction, he obviously wanted to go another.
No there certainly is no denying that he’s taking risks, whether they are brave or not is very debatable.
Why didn’t he try something underground rather than commercial?
Was he too afraid his songwriting skills weren’t good enough to make it in the genre he came from?
I really think we’ve lost a talented guy to the lure of fame.
Any of his previous [good] songs could be a hit when it’s produced by someone like Timbaland, there’s no risk there in my opinion.
#3 by Toshala at September 22nd, 2008
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lost a talented guy to the lure of fame? Sorry, but WTF???? He’s already known. One freaking album, he wanted to try something he’d never tried before because HE CAN and so called tried and true fans want to spill his blood and make ridiculous assumptions that he is ’selling out’!! Who are any of us to dictate what he should or should not do? He’s a musical ARTIST who is expressing his music the way he wants to. Be dissapointed all you want. This music isn’t my cup of tea either but as a fan, I’ll buy the cd and add it to my collection and since it’s his VOICE I love, I’m sure I’ll listen to it just as often as any of my other CC related cds.
honestly, I can’t wait for SCREAM to come out!
#4 by smurf at September 22nd, 2008
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Tom – I’m with you. I’ve been a long time fan and have followed Cornell in every venture he has tried, but this collaboration and the so-far leaked result is hideous and reaks of selling out.
Chris’s talent is his unbelievable voice which is now lost in this overproduction. His lyrics have always been powerful and introspective and with the few leaked songs – they are just empty bullshit. I also understand that he didn’t even write many of the lyrics – and his melodies had to fit in with Timba’s beats. What was he thinking? This isn’t being more creative – it is just trying to get more to sell.
You could almost excuse it if the result wasn’t so generic. It is predictable hip hop from a once unpredictable genius.
This is a massive waste of talent and I’m sorry to see one of my past heros take such a quick, cheesy sell out fall. I thought so much more of his ideals once upon a time. This will be the first album he has put out that I won’t buy.
#5 by Tom Doyle at September 23rd, 2008
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@ Toshala
He may be known, be only in certain circles and certainly not the mainstream.
Becoming mainstream and a household name is what I mean by the “lure of fame”.
I personally don’t think this is him expressing himself at all. This is him trying to make a cheap, quick mainstream chart hit. There’s not an ounce of his own art put into these tracks in my opinion.
He knows how to write good tunes and these songs are pure dumbed down tunes to sell records.
Yeah I love his voice too – but I love Mariah Careys too, but I wouldn’t buy a CD because I love someones voice.
I buy CDs of good songs, not talented musicians. If everyone bought CDs because of talented musicians we’d have a lot more session players known in the mainstream….
#6 by esther at October 13th, 2008
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Thanks for expressing your opinion Tom. I think you are a little harsh by saying Chris has dumbed down his tunes.
Artists are entitled to express themselves whether we like the new music or not.
I enjoy all types of music depending on what mood I’m in. I personally am hoping Chris will put out an entire album on acoustic guitar. That’s when he shines IMO and those are my favorite moments when I see him live in concert.
I’ve been a Chris Cornell fan for a very long time.
I do like a few of the new songs that I’ve heard so far. “Watch Out” and “Scream” sound pretty good live. The fans at the Projekt Revolution tour thought so too.
I’ll give his new album a chance and listen to it in it’s entirety before I express my opinion. I don’t like all the songs he’s done (in Soundgarden, TOTD, Audioslave and solo stuff) but the majority of the songs I like far outweigh the ones that I don’t like.
Hopefully, you’ll stick around and wait for that all acoustic album (or whatever you prefer) like me!
Best wishes.
#7 by Ari at October 13th, 2008
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There is nothing original about this album it all. It was collaborated with Timbaland, therefore, it’s a bunch of recycled tracks from Nelly Furtado’s “Loose” album. Just listen to “Scream” and “Say it Right.” As a Soundgarden fan, I prefer “Say it Right” to the former. Any one who has the tolerance to get on stage at some Fashion Rocks bullshit event and perform before the Pussy Cat Dolls has to be missing some sort of element to healthy consciousness. C’mone folks, he sang with Linkin Park to a Linkin Park song.
Why even try to stand up for this BS? Just listen to Soundgarden and only Soundgarden.
#8 by Chris at January 9th, 2009
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Timbaland is not hiphop. Nor is the current hiphop they are putting out.
If Cornell would have linked up with Timbaland 10 years ago, maybe it would be original. But I agree, it’s all recycled tracks. What I’ve heard from the new Cornell album sounds a lot like the One Republic stuff. And a lot like the Nelly Furtado stuff.
There’s a whole fusion that has led rock and hiphop into POP MUSIC. And I don’t know if there’s any coming back
#9 by weasel at January 31st, 2009
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This is ridiculous, why are people so quick to pass judgement, narrowminded-ness really grates my balls. What if a celebrated artist goes in a completely new musical direction? Is this not why Soundgarden broke-up in the first place and the same with Audioslave. This is the same exact reason why Soundgarden will never reunite as Cornell pointed out at the point of Audioslave breaking up. The past is the past and that is a closed chapter, let him do his stuff. I am a huge Cornell fan, have been since Superunknown so I am well aware of his back-catalogue of great music. I will agree that Scream is not groundbreaking or anywhere near his best work but I AM a music fan, not just ‘Grunge’ – ‘Rock,’ but almost everything, I ain’t a fan of overproduced music but some stuff I will give a chance and this will be one of them and it will be my first Timbaland produced record. I truly applaud Chris for doing what he is doing as he has said he wants to explore and try different things and not be pigeon-holed, just listen to Carry On. When the album is dropped I will be there purchasing my copy with anticipation ‘cos what I have heard is pop music with great, strong vocals and I am pretty sure as with all previous Cornell work I will enjoy it.
#10 by Tom Doyle at February 2nd, 2009
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@weasel it’s not narrow minded at all. It’s nothing to do with the genre either. It’s about a telented guy selling out. I don’t care what you say. The crap he is putting out is exactly that, crap. No-one can tell me that Chris thinks it’s any different, I’m sure he just listened to the reproduced tracks and went “well if this what it takes, let’s do it”.
There is absolutely no artistic flare from Chris Cornell in any of this.
What this about strong vocals ??? His voice is lost in the middle of a noisy drum sample. The vocals of past records are put in the background.
#11 by Ginny at February 5th, 2009
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If you “don’t care what people say”, why are you inviting comments? LOL. You’ve obviously made up your mind. I think you’re looking for “flair” though, not “flare”, unless you want to set the poor man on fire for making music you don’t like. Seems a bit harsh.
#12 by Tom Doyle at February 6th, 2009
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@ginny that’s taken completely out of context. I said I don’t care what weasel says, no-one is being narrowminded here.
But while you’re on that point. I don’t invite comments, you can make comments if you want – but I don’t ask or invite you to………
Ooooppppsss you spotted a typo well done.
Yes I have made up my mind… that’s why I wrote the article in the first place……..