Stare in to the glass, and wait for the time to pass.
Alternative title for Chris Cornell's album 'Scream' -- WHUT.
Now, I'm pretty sure that all of you know that I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Chris Cornell. His work has meant a lot to me as a person, and I'm always going to have a favourable bias towards anything he does.
Well, I went and pucked up his new album, 'Scream'.
Overall conclusion? It's really horrid when the song that's recognizable as being 'him' is the hidden track ("Two Drink Minimum") at the end.
Now let me be a little more clear. I'm not saying that the music is terrible. It's certainly decent -- I was humming along at points, but overall I found myself just confused. You can feel the influence of Timbaland throughout though, and I'm unsure of how I feel about Chris Cornell attempting to be 'relevant' by trying to put out the sort of music you'd hear in clubs.
I miss the Cornell that worked with guitars and melodies, who wrote lyrics that got what I was going through. This Cornell that plays with electro-pop and repetitive choruses isn't the one I fell in love with. I respect that he wants to experiment and whatever, and that artists evolve and change, but how is this the same guy who lead Audioslave, never mind Soundgarden?
(For the record, based on the articles I've just taken a few minutes to peruse, this opinion makes me the sort of fan that he can't stand. Yet another reason why I shouldn't read about or keep up with artists I like. It just depresses me.)
It's not all bad though. The electro-psychedelia feel isn't terrible, and to be fair, is even appealing at points. "Enemy" is a stand-out track that had me bobbing my head. This overall concept and the resulting product, however, are what I'm struggling with.
Who knows. Maybe a couple more spins will result in me actually getting what's going on there. I want to like this so very, very much. I want to appreciate what Cornell is doing as an artist. Right now though, I'm just trying to get over this congnitive dissonance.
"Fans should be encouraged that I want to try new things," he's quoted as saying in an interview with EW. "People should lighten up."
I'm trying, Chris. I really am. But I think I need to go listen to 'Euphoria Morning' now.