Scream

An unexpected turn in Chris Cornell’s career

It might seem that on his sophomore solo effort Carry On Chris Cornell has experimented as much as he wanted mixing styles and combining his vocals with most varied tempos, beats and instruments. Yet one should not underestimate the musician’s boldness and his extraordinary approach to work considering how easily he left already two successful bands. After the work on Cary On was finished Chris thought that it would be nice to make remixes of the album’s sings and with this idea in his mind he headed directly to the one who rules the R&B ball today, i.e. Timbaland. The producer agreed with pleasure but to the surprise and joy of both the idea of making remixes grew into creating absolutely new songs that resulted in the material for the new record Scream. Chris Cornell’s third solo work is even more different from the music the rocker used to perform and proves once again that one can always find a way to surprise an audience. An unexpected turn in the artist’s career widens the limits of both R&B and rock music and will surely be appreciated by both the genres’ fans.

Scream proves to be more integral than its predecessor

The album Scream is 13 tracks in which the power and immensity of rock, electro guitars, drums, keyboards are mixed with modern beats, tubes, with which all Timbaland’s latest works are filled, bold witty lyrics and Cornell’s splendid vocals. The songs have once again turned out to be quite different but as strange as it may seem this record is much more integral than its predecessor. One can find almost danceable songs here like for instance the opener Part Of Me, starting with those very tubes, Sweet Revenge on which the high notes in Chris’ vocals harmoniously combine with electronic samples, or Get Up meant directly for a club party. Besides there are such songs as Ground Zero with a most memorable chorus and one of the highlights Never Far Away with an excellent powerful accompaniment and Cornell’s breathtaking vocals. Timbaland himself joins the singer on two songs: Long Gone conquers with romantic lyrics and classic guitar solo and the title track Scream is also the album’s longest track lasting over six minutes on which the two musicians’ duo sounds most vivid and interesting. Tracks Enemy, Other Side Of Town and Climbing Up The Walls once again invite everyone to dance whereas the closer Watch Out is the nearest to rock music in its sounding, with a never-ending guitar sample, bright chorus and rather aggressive lyrics characteristic for Chris Cornell’s earlier works.

An unforeseen result

Recording collaboration together Chris Cornell and Timbaland have not said a new word in the music world, have not created a masterpiece, yet the result is pleasantly surprising. As a matter of fact everyone can have a vague idea of what happens if rock is mixed with R&B, actually, at least one example already exists that is OneRepublic, and with all its pluses a second work of the kind would be only Timbaland’s pathetically parodying himself. Yet everything is not that predictable as you may think. In reality both Chris Cornell and Timbaland are accomplished professionals and none of them was commanding the process. One composed music and sang and the other offered an unusual beat or arrangement, they tried what it was like and then drew the details together. Finally, in six weeks only the record Scream was born. Surprisingly Cornell’s voice loaded with Timbaland’s brandy hooks has turned out to be quite similar to the vocals in Gnarls Barkley’s works which was definitely impossible to predict. So, no matter how strange or openly commercial you think Scream to be this album deserves a chance to demonstrate you a new side of Chris Cornell.