Chris Cornell

Considering Chris Cornell's songwriting leaps during the Soundgarden years, his move to the real big time with Audioslave, and the creative detours of his solo albums, most would not expect the guy's third solo effort to be a return to his heavy roots. But few would have expected it to be a pop album done in collaboration with Timbaland.

We’re talking smooth electronic beats and Timbaland's bleeps, bloops, samples, and sonic creations. The difference maker is Cornell's golden throat, which can often make a mediocre song powerful. On Scream, Cornell's voice is convincingly soulful, if occasionally a tad askew in the context of the prototypical pop songwriting (Justin Timberlake even makes an appearance!). The album does stay true–at least to some extent—to Cornell's vision for an album, rather than a mere collection of songs. That doesn't make it Pink Floyd's The Wall though, and "single" surely wasn't a word banned during the recording process. The ready-for-remix soulster "Part of Me" (and its memorable refrain) is one of a handful of songs with minor hit potential. The style is just not a perfect fit for Cornell, and Scream is not a perfect album, but the risk pays off more times than not.

—Scott Alisoglu
03.18.09

In case you didn't catch the symbolism, Chris Cornell is smashing a guitar on the cover of Scream because he's done with those six-strings -- he's leaving it all behind for Timbaland, who has long wanted to leave hip-hop and R&B behind to make a rock album. As an idea, this rock-dance fusion has some merit; clearly, Cornell needs to do something to shake himself out of his solo stupor and Timbaland is an imaginative, daring producer whose gifts are not limited by genre, although as much as they want to stretch, neither Cornell nor Timbaland is willing to leave his comfort zone here. To be fair, Timbaland's tracks are often augmented by additional production by anyone from Justin Timberlake to OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. Whoever was directly responsible, the result sounds like skittering dance-pop, graced by Cornell's sometimes looped, sometimes manipulated caterwaul. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi