For reviews of Chris Cornell's live shows, see the tour archive .

Press reviews of Chris Cornell's acoustic album, Songbook: [read my own review here]

From B.Ives of No Expiration:

I saw Chris Cornell on his solo tour last year, and was blown away, so I was glad when I heard he was putting out a live Songbook album. Like Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell is making a good case for having parallel careers with a band, and as a solo acoustic troubadour.

The album starts and ends with brand new songs that he hadn't released before this. [Not quite true - As Hope And Promise Fade was the secret track on Scream - webmaster] The first two tracks "As Hope And Promise Fade" and "Scar On The Sky" show that he still has lots of great songs in him. It's hard to imagine Soundgarden (or even Audioslave) doing "As Hope And Promise Fade." I would imagine this is the direction his solo career will go in. He sings really honestly about some of his issues. The line "You're never more than two drinks away from crying" kills me. "Scar On The Sky" sounds like it could be a classic Soundgarden slow tune. I just wonder: can he still write rockers?

The LP ends with "The Keeper," a studio track (not from the live performances) that he recorded for the film Machine Gun Preacher. It's an amazing song (I haven't seen the film) that somehow lost to Madonna's "Masterpiece" (cough) from a film she directed W.E. I like Madonna, but Chris's song is way better (and so is Mary J. Blige's "The Living Proof" from The Help).

Back to Songbook: most of the album is solo versions of Chris' songs from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple Of The Dog and his solo records. He does great versions of these classics. Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and "Fell On Black Days" sound even more black, and the Audioslave tunes are just as soulful, stripped of their (amazing, face-melting) arrangements. I love "Doesn't Remind Me" and "Like A Stone." Of course, the Temple songs are incredible. And the album points out that Chris has had some great solo songs - and (sorry) that maybe his much-mocked Scream album would have been better with a producer other than Timbaland. I love lots of records that Timba has worked on, but I just don't think that that combo worked. Maybe someone like Flood or Danger Mouse could do a great, modern-sounding Chris solo record.

My only "complaint?" Well, I would have loved to hear the Bruce Springsteen covers that Chris performed when I saw him: "Atlantic City" and "State Trooper." And the "bonus tracks" on the album are "different" versions of "As Hope And Promise Fade" and "Call Me A Dog," that aren't much different from the non-bonus track versions of those same songs, on this same album. But I'm not a negative guy, so I'll just hope for a Songbook Vol. 2. But let's get that new Soundgarden record first!

From Tom Hersey of Rave Magazine:

Recorded across the American leg of his recent run of solo shows, Songbook is a collection of grunge rock survivor Chris Cornell belting out some very iconic rock songs and compiling them with liner notes curiously provided by actor Josh Brolin.

With minimal instrumentation to confuse matters, Songbook captures Cornell’s powerful voice as the Soundgarden main man wails and croons his way through a set of songs that have defined not only his career, but songs like John Lennon’s Imagine and Led Zepplin’s Thank You, which helped shape an entire generation of rock music. Even during these cover numbers, the songs are indelibly stamped by Cornell and his distinctive booming voice, sounding something like a yodel hybridised with a croon, and on the CD the singer’s voice captivates as it does live. The collection is light on Cornell’s work with Soundgarden, even though cuts like the subdued, diminutive rendition of Black Hole Sun, where his acoustic guitar drops out and Cornell works through the verses almost a cappella, stand out as the album’s most enjoyable moments.

Songbook focuses more on Cornell’s latter-day output, as his solo material is more suited to the stripped down format of the shows (the difference between the live material and new solo effort The Keeper, the one studio song recorded specifically for the album, is negligible), but the material that Cornell originally recorded with bands like Soundgarden and Temple Of The Dog, and to a lesser extent Audioslave, demonstrate Cornell when he was at the height of his creative prowess.

From Ben Hughes of Uber Rock:

When I first heard that Chris Cornell would be doing a solo acoustic tour in intimate venues earlier in the year the first thing I though was "wouldn't a live acoustic Chris Cornell album be a great thing" and lo and behold, here it is in my stereo as a type. Acoustically his material has always shined, since first hearing the beautiful 'Seasons' from the 'Singles' soundtrack I have always yearned for more acoustic material from the man. So to finally have in my hands a full acoustic live album from one of the greatest vocalists in rock music it's like Christmas has come early.

An album primarily released for the fans who witnessed the Songbook Tour, this stripped down, live acoustic album from the Soundgarden and ex-Audioslave vocalist is a testament to how good a man and his songs can be, taking the songs back to their original form just Chris and his acoustic and a bunch of great songs. It's something the fans have wanted, and he has delivered.

All parts of his career are covered here; Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and the solo material, plus a couple of covers for good measure. The songs were recorded during April this year on various dates across America and Canada.

'As Hope And Promises Fade' opens the album, a song I was unfamiliar with and it took me a bit of Google action to discover its origins, I can tell you. Turns out it was a hidden track on the 'Scream' album titled 'Two Drink Minimum', a basic blues song and very different from the Timbaland produced album. Here re-titled with the opening line of the song it's a melancholy opening that sets the tone for the album, showcasing the depth and power of Cornell's voice from the off, it's great stuff. Next up 'Scar On The Sky', the lone song from 'Carry On', works well acoustic, but it's track three I really have been looking forward to hearing; 'Call Me A Dog' is one of my favourite songs of all time, here acoustic and laid bare it fits the mood of the original song and still has the power to stir emotions and bring a tear to the eye...sublime indeed.

More highlights? There are many, of course the maybe obvious Soundgarden tracks are present and correct, 'Black Hole Sun' and 'Fell On Black Days' are excellent as they should be. Audioslave are represented with personally their strongest and most Cornell-like songs 'Like A Stone' and the fantastic 'I Am The Highway' which always has me singing along, it's another 'goosebumps' moment. The lesser known 'Wide Awake' and especially 'Doesn't Remind Me' benefit from the acoustic treatment and sounds far superior to the original.

The solo material stands up well against the classics, 'Can't Change Me' from the underrated 'Euphoria Morning', an album he still hasn't bettered, is good here; it's a good mix of old and new, something to please everyone.

He adds a couple of covers here, a fairly standard take on Zep's 'Thank You' works well, and, introduced as "a good Easter song", Lennon's 'Imagine' is one of those classic songs that should not really be fucked with, but if anyone can get away with it, it's going to be Chris Cornell, but does he pull it off.....? Well actually he does it justice, but it ain't the original.

Vocally there are no mistakes, the odd bum guitar note just adds to the live feel, and keeps it 'as it was' so to speak. His voice never falters on this album: Jesus, when he hits those high notes you feel it from your head to your toes. The power and delivery are inspiring and puts many singers to shame.

Unlike the recent, and frankly disappointing, Soundgarden live album 'Songbook' doesn't suffer from skipping from show to show, the songs do fade in and out but it is not something you really notice. Although the mood is generally melancholy throughout it is far from dull, it has the same feel that the Temple Of The Dog album has and that can only be a good thing.

Tagged on the end seemingly only because it features in the new film 'Machine Gun Preacher' is the original Cornell composition 'The Keeper' which actually keeps faithfull to the mood of the album, reminding me funnily enough of the Eddie Vedder soundtrack album 'Into The Wild'; it's an upbeat, sweet acoustic countrified tune that rounds thing off nicely.

Any fan of Chris Cornell past or present should be happy to have this in their collection. It's a thumbs up from me.

From Lucy Sanderson of Bring the Noise:

Behold, a selection of words that will make a lot of people very excited indeed. Chris Cornell. Singing tracks from all of his former incarnations in Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of The Dog as well as covering Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. All live and acoustic. Pretty good, right? You know you’ve reached legendary status when you can release an album entitled ‘Songbook’, and every note sung by Cornell proves that he’s worthy of such acclaim.

It’s the first live album he’s recorded as a solo artist, but it is a truly arresting experience throughout the mammoth sixteen track listing. The combination of that voice with the sound of acoustic guitar is as simple, substantial and satisfying as a hunk of bread and butter… and let’s face it, hunk is an appropriate word when it comes to Chris Cornell. Judging by the sporadic predominantly female whooping sprinkled throughout the tour recordings, there’s a lot of people who are in the firm belief that at 47 years old, he’s still ‘got it’.

It goes without saying that Cornell classics like Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’ and Audioslave’s ‘Like A Stone’ sound sublime on this record. The testosterone-smothered growl that weaves through those stripped back iconic choruses are as colossal, yet beguiling as the purr of a sleeping lion. New solo originals ‘The Keeper’ and ‘Cleaning My Gun’ sound totally befitting of this impressive songbook, but it’s with the cover tracks that the record hits a sumptuous high. A uniquely rugged rendition of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is a thing of pure beauty, but it’s a delectably gravelly performance of Zeppelin’s ‘Thank You’ that really hits the spot. With a voice made to tackle classic rock, it’s what your ears have always been waiting for.

From Michael Llerena of Live Music Guide:

Chris Cornell has been one of the most dominant and iconic rock voices of the last 20 years. Having fronted Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, Cornell is very much accustomed to having his raspy crooning backed by a wall of distortion and cymbals crashing. However, Cornell’s latest live solo record Songbook throws caution and convention to the wind, arming himself only with an acoustic guitar and those golden vocal chords.

The album comprises Cornell’s entire career in retrospective, stripping down old hits and deep cuts, as well as putting a new spin on classic rock standards. Cornell’s limited, but engaging stage banter offer a humanistic warmth that only live albums like this can offer.

Coming strong right out of the gate, “As Hope and Promise Fade” is nothing if not a trump card to any critics claiming that Cornell had gone downhill since his time in Soundgarden. Folk-inflected blues guitar paired with the singer’s trademark soulful wailing immediately remind listeners that he hasn’t lost his touch.

“Call Me a Dog” is Cornell unequivocally at his finest. Channeling his unbridled tenor from the Temple of the Dog era, Cornell soars over aching minor guitar melodies. Distant crowd applause can be heard as he hits some insanely high notes in the bridge.

The slower, stripped down version of “Ground Zero” will intrigue many fans who have heard its more synthesized, beat-driven counterpart. Here, Cornell’s coarse vocals evoke a frustration with the paranoia and despair of post-9/11 America.

Even in the midst of an already delicate, acoustic ambiance, Cornell reaches the epitome of vulnerable on the unreleased gem “Cleaning My Gun.” In a moody ballad about contemplating suicide in the wake of lost love, Cornell croons “And as you lay sleeping with your eyes softly shut I'll be cleaning my gun/When heaven or hell takes this life, I'll be done.”

One of this album’s greatest strengths is how stripped down versions of guitar rock anthems can come across even more powerful than their louder counterparts. Acoustic performances of “Like a Stone” and “Black Hole Sun” remove all but bare bones melodies, letting Cornell’s effortlessly soulful voice carry the song.

This notion of acoustic versions superseding the original studio recordings is also evident on Cornell standards like “Wide Awake” and “Fell on Black Days.” The former track features some of the singer’s most politically charged lyrics with lines like “Down on the road the world is floating by/The poor and undefended left behind/While you're somewhere trading lives for oil/As if the whole world were blind.”

Stellar covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” show Cornell paying tribute to his influences.

While Cornell’s previous solo work has always been eclipsed by his tenure in Soundgarden, Songbook has earned its place as a coveted piece in his lengthy body of work. After more than twenty years in the game, Cornell’s voice has not lost its power, nor have his songs lost their spark.

From Mark Murphy of Oxygen.ie:

In between fronting the multi-platinum, award-winning bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris Cornell has often dabbled in the acoustic – from the song Seasons for the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles, to his 1999 solo debut Euphoria Morning and now his first live album, Songbook; documenting a recent American acoustic tour.

It’s an understated aspect of his repertoire and one often overlooked, but Songbook is disarming enough to change that perception. Songbook is remarkable for tying together Cornell’s multitude of disparate musical ropes.

Material for the tour has been culled from every aspect of Cornell’s career to date, from Soundgarden to Temple of the Dog to Audioslave to his solo material. It even includes an unreleased track originally written for Johnny Cash in the mid-90s called Cleaning My Gun. Of particular note is a studio recording of The Keeper, a track written for the film Machine Gun Preacher.

Its speedy fingerpicking isn’t too far removed from Seasons, and if he decides to release a full studio acoustic album in the future it’s a good indicator of the potential therein for such a project. Instead of a mash of contrasting styles grinding against each other from song to song, we are in fact left with a cohesive set, with Cornell in some cases totally reworking rhythms to fit his slower, sparser acoustic style.

Even Ground Zero, taken from the unfortunate R&B experiment album Scream, is reworked totally, and feels more at home here than it ever did. It’s a quiet joy to hear the powerful, downtrodden psychedelic Soundgarden songs Fell on Black Days and Black Hole Sun reduced to just guitar and voice, as if they were ever intended to be delivered in any other style.

John Lennon’s Imagine and Led Zeppelin’s Thank You are both covered here and the former in particular is one of the better recorded versions, paying a certain amount of respect but twisting and turning it into a song that only Cornell can pull off.

The near-mumbling of the lyrics on Thank You is jarring; slurred together yet as intense as the most scorching of Soundgarden tracks. Cornell’s voice, being a focus of constant discussion, sounds better than ever. Regardless of his range, which is as expansive as it ever was, on these slower acoustic songs he’s given a platform to display his agility, poise, strength and timing.

Lyrics roll out, stained and powerful, sombre and rough, disappearing into the guitar’s notes and off into the darkness of the crowd. When he belts out, holds and raises a single note, as the guitar strum drops off for a bar, you can hear his throat strain and his voice stretch like no other singer can.

Songbook isn’t Cornell lazily firing off acoustic versions of his back catalogue, it’s Cornell typing up his career to date and crafting something completely new in the process. ‘Can’t change me’? We wouldn’t even think of trying, Chris.

From Jeremy Stevens of The Au Review:

Chris Cornell truly is a musical powerhouse. Most widely known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of Seattle's grunge pioneers, Soundgarden - who will be visiting our shores for the 2012 Big Day Out tour very soon - his work with other bands such as Audioslave, and his solo output, have secured him a wide-reaching base of passionate supporters.

Songbook consists of various live recordings from Cornell's solo acoustic Songbook Tour across America, and for fans of the guy, has a wide selection of songs spanning his entire career, including Led Zeppelin and John Lennon covers. It’s fair to say that this is aimed not only towards his most devoted fans, but also for newbies like myself - and it hits the mark.

One of the most noticeable things about this live release is its atmosphere. It’s mixed in such a way as to incorporate the crowd and the venue acoustics without detracting from Cornell’s rich performance, and whether you like his music or not, there’s no doubt that it sounds great.

That aside, his live efforts themselves are engrossing. His wide-reaching vocal range sounds controlled and held with restraint, expanding and contracting just enough with every emotional nuance and turn. There's still a characteristic hint of grungey husk present, but only in the most intense outpourings does it become overbearing. Armed with an acoustic guitar, stand-outs like “Call Me a Dog” and “Cleaning My Gun” see Cornell’s tremendous falsetto take flight, and “Black Hole Sun” sounds brilliant stripped back.

This is a live album that’ll be enjoyed by both Cornell's devoted fans, and those unfamiliar with his work. Songs full of feeling run through this release, and it's special to hear one man alone on a stage playing with such sincerity and talent.

From Jack Foley of Indie London:

TO MARK the success of his Songbook tour, American alt-rock music legend Chris Cornell has decided to release an accompanying album – and it’s easy to see why the tour dates have drawn such favourable reviews.

The album features songs written by Cornell as well as a few cover versions, showcasing them in a new context by keeping them all stripped back and acoustically based.

As a result, his rich, distinctive voice can really take centre stage, while the lyrics are laid bare.

This lends extra resonance to crowd-pleasing moments such as Ground Zero, which is about getting over the “shitty, shitty horror of 9/11” and the atmosphere of hate that resulted. As he says during the introduction to it: “It’s about trying to figure out how we can make the world better instead of stupider.”

The song is impassioned yet hopeful and a really thoughtful response to the emotional fallout of that terrible day in history.

Similarly, the road-trip themed I Am The Highway, which allows for more personal introspection, or the sensitive Led Zeppelin cover that is Thank You, another favourite.

The acoustic backdrop occasionally comes alive, too, showcasing that rockier side to the Cornell make-up. Fell On Black Days contains some cracking guitar work and distinct riff-making that serve as a potent reminder of Cornell’s alt-rock roots. It’s also another track to make sure you hear.

I also really liked the acoustic makeover given to the richly melodic Doesn’t Remind Me, an homage to originality and unique experiences, that deservedly draws hand-clap support from the crowds. Admittedly, Cornell gets a little over-excited vocally towards the end but that’s a small price to pay. It’s a great song.

Of course, the biggest cheer goes out for the Soundgarden all-time classic Black Hole Sun, which doesn’t disappoint, but his rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine (described as “a good Easter song”) is beautifully assured and still highly resonant in today’s world, while The Keeper is a suitably thought-provoking finale.

All told, this is a fine collection of songs, re-interpreted for maximum emotional impact and capable of appeal to both die-hard fans and newcomers alike. Hats off to Cornell for making it so.

From Simon Gallagher of What Culture:

As lead singer for Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris Cornell carved out a reputation as one of the finest rock singers of his or any generation, and in Songbook, his brand new acoustic live solo album, he proves once again what that reputation was founded on. Cornell takes up his acoustic guitar and leads the listener through sixteen careful chosen tracks with the engaging presence of a man completely at ease with his own abilities.

Cornell’s voice has always been soaked in soul, as well as carrying an irresistible smokey edge that injected poignancy to even the most bold rock songs he lent it to in his former roles, and it has never sounded as good or as hard-hitting as when teamed up here with a simple guitar as company. Most importantly, for an artist who was somewhat cruelly criticised from some quarters about his decision to genre-hop for 2009?s Scream (a critically lambasted relative failure, but underrated criminally in my opinion), the decision to strip back the famous songs is a statement outside of the concerns of genre. It is proof that a voice can sell a song of any type, provided that voice in convincing and charismatic enough to carry a different agenda within the song than originally composed. And quite frankly, Cornell’s voice could convince me of most things.

The playlist is exceptionally well conceived, featuring stripped bare, emotionally piquant versions of his most famous former releases, including “Like A Stone” and the beautiful, brilliant “Black Hole Sun” as well as two perfectly pitched covers. On the first – of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You”, the singer seats in the easy company of Robert Plant, forefronting similarities in the two men’s vocal qualities that have never occurred so insistently before, and in the second, a hauntingly affecting reimagining of John Lennon’s “Imagine” he confirms that even the most iconic songs can become something entirely new in his hands.

There are brief snatches here and there of Cornell’s effortlessly cool charisma, in his spoken introductions to a number of the tracks – like the off-hand offering that “Imagine” is a perfect Easter song, and his anecdotal explanation prologuing “Can’t Change Me” – and more than anything Songbook feels like a personal insight into his inner workings. We are not only experiencing his song choices stripped back, but also he himself, and listening to the album will undoubtedly make fans who missed out on the tour lament the fact (as it did with me).

Tagged onto the end of the album, but not out of place, is the studio version of Cornell’s new acoustic track “The Keeper” (which is also featured on the soundtrack to Machine Gun Preacher) which perfectly knits together his past with his bright new future. And as a major fan of his voice, I can only hope that the direction is similar to that hinted on “The Keeper”. In the context of that track’s inclusion, “Songbook” feels more and more like catharsis for Cornell, who up until this point had toured with material ostensibly belonging to Audioslave and Soundgarden amongst his solo work – now, in their new guises, the songs feel more like Cornell solo tracks and the execution hints that they never needed the guitars and drums and bass to back up his vocals in the first place.

Cornell’s triumph here is in suggesting newness and individuality in songs we have heard a hundred times before, in investing someone else’s songs (even those formerly sung by him) with touches of the newer, more mature Chris Cornell. And in doing so, he manages to make certain songs sound even better than the originals – “Can’t Change Me” certainly sounds better, while “Ground Zero” and “I Am The Highway” sound like they have been infused with an entirely different message of personal emotional rawness.

Songbook is a triumphant tribute to a voice – as Cornell proves despite the absence of a hard-hitting backing band that bare rock songs can remain potent on the strength only of a vocal. There aren’t many rock vocalists currently working who could achieve what he did on the Songbook tour, without the protection of a band or the safety blanket of playlists and compositions learnt from years of touring the same material, and Cornell makes a mockery of those limitations in others. He is so explicitly in-tune with his voice as an instrument – able to make it soar, ornate with flourishes when desired (though never over-bearingly so), and to cut it all the way back to reinforce the message of the lyrics or the tone of a particular passage. And in this stripped back format, you really get the sense of how well he understands the mechanics of vocal work, of punctuating sound with other sound, and quite frankly it is a joy to be shown those skills.

From Elliott Alpern of the Michigan Daily:

Picture the scene: Tendrils of smoke drift idly up to a hot spotlight, which concentrates its beam on a single man perched upon his stool. The small crowd, hidden by the darkness of the venue, is anxious but hushed in restraint. In the silence a note rings out, followed by another and another until they blend together into pure acoustic enlightenment. But this isn’t Clapton picking away the first strums of “Tears In Heaven” or Bob Dylan getting ready to render the audience stunned. No, this is Chris Cornell, his raw voice building a sultry monument to Soundgarden’s “Fell On Black Days.”

For a man who’s done so much, it’s surprising to see that Cornell has anything new to offer — after all, his last three solo albums commercially flopped (and each garnered more negative criticism than the last). But Songbook is different: The album consists of acoustic covers that span Cornell’s entire career, from the grunge pioneer Soundgarden to the supergroup Audioslave and everywhere in between. Songbook seems to have found exactly the target to which it must pander — the nostalgia of longtime fans filtered through a fresh acoustic lens.

The end product — a smattering of 16 live-recorded tracks from nine different shows — is quite easily Cornell’s best solo work since 1999’s Euphoria Morning. The divine rock idol pushes an already impressive vocal range early and often. In “Call Me A Dog,” a cover from Cornell’s early ’90s tribute band Temple of the Dog, the man’s emotive howl treads ever so softly on the toes of modern blues masters. His guitar melodies reach comparable levels of emotion and are all but eclipsed by the singer’s powerful vocal belting — listeners would be prudent to pay attention on tracks like Audioslave cover “I Am The Highway” and the aforementioned “Fell On Black Days.”

Yet amid the many changes of venue, Cornell’s connection with the audience is well preserved and is occasionally depicted through the singer’s various asides between songs. “You at some point try to be a better person and change your ways to make everyone happy, and then that goes on for a while,” Cornell says to the crowd before one performance, and continues to the punch line: “And then you get to a point where you’re like, ‘Fuck it, I’m me!’ and then you write a song called ‘Can’t Change Me.’ ” Over the crowd’s cheers, the rocker launches into what might be the most impassioned tune on the record — and one that’s been colored with some context by Cornell’s vague yet revealing anecdote.

Songbook isn’t just a summation of Cornell’s body of work, even if its title suggests otherwise. In addition to one lonely new studio track tacked onto the record’s end (“The Keeper”), Cornell tackles Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The former seems like it’s always been begging to be re-done by a true-to-heart rock‘n’roller, and Cornell knocks it out of the park. However, while the latter is well executed, the change of style is a bit too abrasive.

Ultimately, Songbook allows Chris Cornell to do what he does best: scream sometimes, lilt softly at others and altogether flex his vocal muscles. Every cover is carefully reinterpreted or redefined, and the transition from the expanse of instruments of his booming power rock to a single acoustic guitar is magnificently smooth. Cornell’s latest shows that the man who used to lead entire arenas in choruses of his hits can just as easily bare his heart from a wooden stool — and possibly even do it better.

From Rory Carroll of Artrocker:

Back in 1991 the Seattle grunge bands were riding the crest of a successful, plaid-covered wave which, by 1995, had subsequently pitched, broken and fully rolled back on itself, leaving behind a pile of discarded lumberjack shirts and a group of kids who would eventually grow up to be in bands like Puddle of Mudd. We know.

Now in 2011, the wave seems to be gaining some anniversary inspired momentum. There was the reissue of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’; Pearl Jam released their excellent documentary, ‘Twenty’; and Alice in Chains toured a bit, but then wondered if anyone had actually noticed.

Soundgarden were, until now, a notable absence from this list, but the release of Chris Cornell’s latest LP may quickly change all that.

Recorded during an acoustic tour of the US, ‘Songbook’ acts as the perfect bookend for Cornell’s career to date. It blends stone cold grunge classics (‘Fell On Black Days’, ‘Black Hole Sun’), with Euphoria Morning-era solo cuts (‘Can’t Change Me’) and both the good (‘I Am The Highway’) and bad (‘Doesn’t Remind Me’) aspects of the Audioslave back catalogue.

His voice has undoubtedly softened over time, but Cornell still has an unmistakable tone - a husky drawl mixed with an anguished shriek – that can turn any track into a classic.

The only questionable spot on the album is a slightly ill-judged cover of ‘Imagine’, but we’ll happily let Mr Cornell play the ‘I Was In Soundgarden’ card on that one. You’re welcome, Chris – just remember to pay it forward.

From Johnny Main of Metal Talk:

You would think that being part of the recently reformed Soundgarden would keep you busy - not so for Chris Cornell, who toured the US acoustically from March to May. This is the document of some of the many different tracks that he performed during that tour.

At times, there's not a lot of audience noise, which simply demonstrates just what a great voice Cornell has. The addition of just his acoustic guitar gives some of the tracks here a haunting quality and, for others, the chance to hear tracks without the layers of instrumentation, and offers a new insight into them at the same time.

The album contains two new tracks, 'Cleaning My Gun' and 'The Keeper' (written for the film 'Machine Gun Preacher', which gives a perspective of where he is now, compared to the other original tracks), and two non-Cornell related covers, 'Imagine' by John Lennon and Led Zeppelin's 'Thank You'.

The rest of the album is made up of tracks from Cornell's entire career, including the short-lived and sometimes underrated Temple Of The Dog. These tracks all demonstrate his versatility as a writer, arranger and musician.

Amongst the tracks aired here, 'Ground Zero', 'Fell On Black Days' and the evergreen classic 'Black Hole Sun' sound as good, if not better than they did when they were first released. Cornell's voice has rarely sounded better.

From Zee Zee of My Global Mind:

Chris Cornell is one of those guys that really should need no introduction… But in the interest of those that may not know much of him let’s just have a brief recap. Cornell is most famous for being the frontman of Grunge pioneers SOUNDGARDEN and is actually widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the entire movement, even though similarly to ALICE IN CHAINS, SOUDGARDEN had a bit more of a metal flair than other bands of the era like for example NIRVANA and PEARL JAM. But asides from that he also spent some time in the supergroup AUDIOSLAVE which he formed with some members of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. His other accolades include founding the Grunge supergroup TEMPLE OF THE DOG, a handful of solo albums and also numerous film soundtrack contributions. His most controversial move however was with his last solo album, titled SCREAM, which saw Chris move toward contemporary pop music and collaborating with TIMBALAND.

SO that’s it for our brief history lesson, now let’s look at Cornell’s latest effort, SONGBOOK, which is a live compilation of tracks from every era of his career done is pure acoustic fashion culled from the solo acoustic tours he has been doing for the last couple of years. So, does it work?… Oh, yes it sure does! Chris is already the lucky owner of one the best and more unique voices in rock history, the fact that nearly every one of these songs stand up to the bare-bones stripping back makes it all the more sweeter. The guitar work is kept minimalistic and basic throughout which really gives Cornell’s vocals centre-stage, and I think this is the best he has ever sounded, showing that his ability to croon on a lower register is just as significant and powerful as his high-pitched wail that he is more widely recognised.

The opener AS HOPE AND PROMISE FADE is one the best one-man, one-guitar performances you’ll likely ever hear and whilst the high quality is kept up across the entire sixteen tracks, this one is probably the main highlight. CALL ME A DOG is even more potent in this format than what it was when originally released. LIKE A STONE, I AM THE HIGHWAY and DOESN’T REMIND ME all show just how good Cornell’s lyric writing was in his time with AUDIOSLAVE and Chris’ most well-known tune BLACK HOLE SUN has never sounded better. There’s a couple of covers here too with a pretty standard rendition of IMAGINE (John Lennon) and an interesting version of LED ZEPPELIN track THANK YOU. There’s also two previously unreleased tunes in the mix with CLEANING MY GUN, a suicide inspired tune written back In the day, and THE KEEPER which works as bit of sneak-peek for Cornell’s next solo album, whenever that may be. Even the SCREAM era is represented here with GROUND ZERO, a tune based on the 9/11 attacks which was easily the pick of the bunch from the SCREAM album, although it’s actually the weakest track on SONGBOOK, except for the moving lyrics of course.

This album will be a real treat to anybody that has followed Cornell through his many iterations, and casual fans will surely find something of value here too. With songs like SPOONMAN, RUSTY CAGE, JESUS CHRIST POSE, BLOW UP THE OUTSIDE WORLD, PRETTY NOOSE, 4TH OF JULY and MY WAY still missing, a “Part 2” seems inevitable (Let’s hope so anyway), but we will likely have to a while as Chris Cornell is currently busy with the recent reformation of the almighty SOUNDGARDEN and the subsequent upcoming new album. Until that eventuates, SONGBOOK should be enough to keep most fans very, very happy.

From Clarissa Olivarez of The Nervous Breakdown:

The November release of Chris Cornell’s album Songbook, recorded during live performances of his recent tour, is not intended for new fans. This album features tracks that date back to Cornell’s involvement with bands such as Temple of the Dog (a band that featured former members of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, as well as a rising vocalist of the early 1990s, Eddie Vedder). The setlist offers long-time fans something from each Cornell era (from Temple of the Dog, to Soundgarden, to Cornell’s solo career, to Audioslave, and back to his solo career). Don’t be fooled, though — this is by no means a Greatest Hits-type compilation. The album recasts earlier songs and successfully presents them in a strange yet familiar framework. It should be noted that, with the exception of one song, “The Keeper,” there are no new tracks on this album. Cornell takes his best headbanging hits and his most beloved rock ballads and introduces them to his audience anew. This live, acoustic version is both surprising and impressive — it’s just a man and his guitar. In this way, Cornell not only reaffirms that he is a dynamo unto himself, but that he can single-handedly capture the full attention of his fans by once again laying out the full range of his vocal capacity and reminding his listeners of his brilliance in songwriting.

Chris Solo vs. Chris with a Band

I have always maintained that Chris Cornell performs at his best when he is in a band and not when he is recording, or playing, solo. Although he is an excellent songwriter, something that he has proven time and time again, I always held the belief that he was more powerful when he was working off of the chemistry he had with Eddie Vedder in Temple of the Dog, or with Kim Thayil in Soundgarden, or amongst the remaining members of Rage Against the Machine, while in Audioslave. His solo albums, in and of themselves, have a few songs on each album that always seem to catch the attention of the masses (e.g., “Can’t Change Me” off of Euphoria Morning); but, it seems that while listening to any album by Audioslave, Temple of the Dog, and Soundgarden there are no tracks that one could safely skip and feel ok about skipping. Every song is just that good. I have not been able to say the same for Cornell’s solo efforts in the past…until now. Perhaps now I am able to see the full extent of his songwriting abilities and the arresting nature of any performance of which he is a part.

THE BREAKDOWN

Just FYI, you can listen to these songs for yourself on Chris Cornell’s website: Songbook.

Cornell opens the album with the heavy-handed and lyrically vulnerable track “As Hope and Promise Fade.” As he croons “Never more than two drinks away from crying,” he decidedly begins his album with a classic anthem about love lost. With each new commentary that Cornell provides, his performance gradually becomes akin to an episode of Storytellers. This is a good thing. Cornell speaks.

Temple of the Dog: From his Temple of the Dog era, Cornell decides to cover two tracks: “Call Me a Dog” and “All Night Thing.” Next to “Say Hello 2 Heaven,” “Call Me a Dog” is my favorite song by Temple of the Dog and I was glad to see it included in this album. Fans immediately cheered as the song began, which clearly indicated that they recognized it. The re-imagining of the 1991 track proves that at 47, Cornell can still belt the fuck out of his lyrics. Cornell’s solo rendition of “All Night Thing” is so great simply because it sounds as if it could have been recorded in 1991. Cornell’s vocals never fail to impress and this “grungy” version successfully transports the listener to a time without studio excess.

Soundgarden: The acoustic version of “Fell on Black Days” is quite haunting without the drums in the background or the vibrato electric guitar. I absolutely love this bare-bones minimalist approach to this classic grunge tune. Cornell’s replacement of the electric guitar with the acoustic still preserves an intense level of edginess and rock n’ roll. On the other hand, the acoustic version of “Black Hole Sun” is eerie and disarming. While listening to the song, the track does not automatically bring to mind Barbie dolls roasting on a skewer or distorted, melting wax-like faces painted in suspense of a black-hole sun.

Here’s an experiment – Queue up the video on Youtube (link below) and hit play on the album (link to Songbook at the beginning of the track list) and you’ll see what a sharp contrast there is between the remake of the song and the original rockin’ concept for the video.

Solo Cornell: Cornell revisits three songs from his solo career. From his 2007 album Carry On, “Scar on the Sky” is not markedly different from the original version and does well to further showcase the trademark raspiness of Cornell’s voice. His version of “Can’t Change Me,” however, fails to impress. I guess I’m used to the heavily produced studio version on Euphoria Morning, but it seems that the acoustic version doesn’t lend itself well to the lyrics of the song. The acoustic version powers-down the impact of the song and leaves the listener feeling as if he or she is sitting around a campfire (which might be acceptable to some). At the very least, people know the song and can sing along. Lastly, the previously unreleased song “Cleaning My Gun” instantly identified Cornell’s faithful concert-goers. Cornell explains that it’s about a man who loses the love of his life and then contemplates suicide. There’s a reason why this song has only been performed live. I cannot imagine it being recorded, and subsequently mixed, in any studio. It’s a simple track that requires a simple delivery.

Audioslave: The acoustic version of “Ground Zero” is the best thing Cornell could have done for this song. The funkadelic mix that was released as part of his 2009 album Scream was distracting and moved the listener away from his intended message. In this version Cornell mentions the attacks of 9/11 and prefaces his performance of the song by stating that he wants to find a way “to make the world better instead of stupider. ”I Am the Highway” translates very well into the stripped-down version that Cornell presents us with. The key chords and vocal inflections are retained, which makes for a nice interpretation of the song. “Doesn’t Remind Me” and “Like a Stone” also prove to be successful crowd-pleasers. However, “Wide Awake” is a rocking track from Audioslave’s 2006 album Revelations. The lyrics “I find you guilty of a crime / Of sleeping at a time / When you should have been wide awake” serve to reinforce the fact that this song needs to be on your stereo at full-blast. For this reason, I find the song an odd choice for this setlist.

Covers: I have a lot of problems with Cornell covering non-Cornell songs. For instance, can the Led Zeppelin classic “Thank You” work without John Bonham’s drums? Can it work with anyone but Plant? I think not. Sorry, Chris — I’m a purist at heart. And while Cornell’s rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” is interesting, it is not quite as interesting as Cornell’s version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” I almost expected this Lennonian-standard performance from Cornell at some point. The version is “ok.”

New Stuff: Lastly, the folksy new single from Chris Cornell entitled “The Keeper,” and made for the movie Machine Gun Preacher, is simply stunning. Listen to it. Enough said.

Quick Sound-Bytes

Most Successful Acoustic Translation: “Scar on the Sky”

Least Successful Acoustic Translation: “Can’t Change Me”

Most Surprising Acoustic Translation: A tie between “Ground Zero” and Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”

Least Surprising Acoustic Translation: John Lennon’s “Imagine”

From Kat Papakyriacou of This Is Not A Scene:

Chris Cornell is a hugely successful musician with over twenty years of musical history to his name. As the vocalist of Soundgarden, the band at the forefront of Subpop’s “Grunge” movement, to breaking down all barriers with the unexpected release of an urban dance-pop album where he collaborated with prestigious hip-hop/R&B producer, Timberland. Chris Cornell seems to relish on never being restrained by genre, trends, style or time. This is highly evident on his fourth solo release, “Songbook”.

“Songbook” is Chris Cornell laid bare, stripped of any fancy equipment and relying on nothing but a voice and an acoustic guitar. There really is no margin for error here. No other musicians to cover any mistakes. This could be spectacular, or show the World that Chris Cornell no longer has what it takes to stand out vocally.

Recorded on a solo tour during the spring of this year, “Songbook” is a 16-track album that showcases an entire career. Many of the songs are acoustic versions of familiar songs written by Cornell. Here work from solo albums (‘Scar on the Sky’, ‘Can’t Change Me’, ‘Ground Zero’) sits comfortably alongside songs written for the two Grammy Award winning bands the vocalist has fronted – Soundgarden releases (‘Fell on Black Days’, ‘Black Hole Sun’) and Audioslave (‘I am the Highway’, ‘Like a Stone’, ‘Wide Awake’, ‘Doesn’t Remind Me’). “Songbook” even includes two songs written for super group, Temple of the Dog, in which Cornell wrote and performed with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone in tribute to late front man and friend, Andrew Wood (‘Call me a Dog’, ‘All Night Thing’).

New songs ‘As Hope and Promise Fade’, ‘The Keeper’ and ‘Cleaning my Gun’ (originally written for Country legend, Johnny Cash, but never recorded) keeps fan’s thirst for new material at bay. New songs flow into songs that are twenty years old. There is no denying that Chris Cornell‘s song writing ability truly is timeless, and genre-less. Songs that were originally recorded with a full band work as if they had always be written to be played in an acoustic manner. This is highly evident on the song taken from Cornell‘s 2009 solo offering, ‘Scream’. ‘Ground Zero’ translates beautifully on this record, and the message behind the track – written about the 9/11 attacks – seems so much clearer when produced in this way.

The album also includes two hand picked covers; Led Zeppelin‘s ‘Thank You’, and ‘Imagine’ originally recorded by John Lennon, which is “The perfect Easter song”, according to Cornell. Both of these covers respect the original compositions, whilst sympathetically adding Chris Cornell‘s unique style.

Cornell‘s vocals are flawless throughout. Effortlessly reaching the height of his trademark vocal range, and then allowing his voice to soften when necessary to allow the resonant meanings of the lyrics to linger. Chris Cornell knows how to use his voice as an instrument. His pitch, tone, dictation and timing are all astounding.

“Songbook” is an anthology of one man’s career in music. And what a remarkable career that has been. Delving his fingers in many pies and never restricting himself artistically has paid off. Hearing all these songs on a single album forces a sentimental smile, appreciative of one man’s journey through music. The acoustic nature of this album evokes a very calming atmosphere, and the live aspect of it gives us an insight into Chris Cornell himself. His often comedic interactions with the crowd make this album more personable than other releases.

This may not be the Soundgarden release that the world is eagerly awaiting, but it is a bloody marvellous album in it’s own right. Chris Cornell powers through hits with a delicacy that is required for an acoustic record. This album is not only a showcase for Chris Cornell‘s talents, it’s also a beacon for what music should sound like live and uncluttered by production. Bravo!

From Jon Bye of Virgin.com:

From LM of Metromix:

Once and future Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Cornell covers those bands and others in this unplugged compilation from his spring 2011 tour. His first live, solo album boasts an extensive spread—besides songs from Cornell's two main projects, the singer also revisits Temple of the Dog, the Andrew Wood tribute band Cornell formed with members of Pearl Jam, and takes a pass at Led Zeppelin and John Lennon as well. One of the high points is the release's one studio track, the sweet, folky album-closer "The Keeper," which Cornell wrote for Marc Forster's latest film, the tepidly reviewed biopic "Machine Gun Preacher." Also of note is Cornell's expressive take on Zeppelin's "Thank You."

From Danielle Millea of Leeds Music Scene:

This release by Soundgarden / Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell is a collection of acoustic songs recorded live from his solo acoustic tour in the US during March to May 2011. They are stripped back versions of some of his greatest tunes from across his musical career, featuring tracks from his time with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog and his other solo album releases. There are also some unreleased songs by Chris, and a couple of covers (John Lennon's 'Imagine' and Led Zeppelin's 'Thank You').

There are introductions to most songs, like the meaning for writing the song 'Ground Zero' (self-explanatory really). Classic songs like 'Fell On Black Days' are amazing transformed into solo acoustic tunes, with Chris' raw vocals still as strong as if the rest of Soundgarden was behind him. Same goes for the Audioslave tracks 'I Am The Highway' and 'Like A Stone'.

Cornell's guitar skills are solid too, and the crowd can be heard clearly loving the choice of songs. Any Chris Cornell fan would love this collection too, showcasing how much this man has done for music (thankfully there is only 'Ground Zero' from the bottom of the pile 'Scream' album, which is a lot better here, stripped back so people can appreciate it).The Temple Of A Dog covers get a huge response, calling the need for a reunion tour (there have been the odd shared stage time with Pearl Jam however). Stand out tracks for me are 'Call Me A Dog', 'Fell On Black Days' and 'Can't Change Me'.

The fact that there is no cover of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' is a surprise as this was always covered at Audioslave shows by a solo Cornell, but the collection here is more than enough to show Chris' amazing vocal talent stripped bare. A must for anyone who has or even hasn't heard of him.

From Jeremy Lukens of Glide Magazine:

Throughout his enviable career, Chris Cornell has always enjoyed taking his music in different directions. Whether blazing the trail for the grunge movement with Soundgarden, fronting rock supergroup Audioslave or releasing solo albums, Cornell was always experimenting with his artistic expression. Though at times his experiments failed, such as his ill-conceived collaboration with Timbaland, even at his worst Cornell’s music had one nugget of redemption: that voice.

Cornell has the most distinctive voice of his generation, with his oft-imitated closed-off delivery, smooth baritone and impossibly high screams. Along with his trademark alternate tunings, Cornell’s vocals can instantly transform any melody into a classic. For that reason, Songbook is the solo album Cornell was born to make and is his best album since 1999’s Euphoria Morning.

Songbook is a true solo album, recorded live with Cornell and his acoustic guitar alone onstage. The stripped down sound gives more weight to his soulful vocals and allows classic songs to be reinvented. The track list is comprised of songs throughout Cornell’s extensive catalog, including songs with Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, solo songs and two covers.

The true test of a song is how good it sounds stripped down to its bones, and with the exception of “Doesn’t Remind Me,” each song surpasses expectations. The bluesy ode to sobriety “As Hope and Promise Fade” becomes a powerful acoustic anthem. Hit “Black Hole Sun” sounds even more ominous as a ballad. Though it’s fascinating to hear Cornell’s old songs take on new life, the album’s finest moments are two new songs, a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and the previously unreleased “Cleaning My Gun.”

Though best known for loud rock numbers, Cornell’s talents are never clearer than on Songbook. His full-throated screams echo through the auditorium while his the vibrato in his gentle crooning caresses the audience. After experimenting with Timbaland and Audioslave, Cornell has finally found the perfect music for his post-Soundgarden career.

From Ben Hogwood of MusicOMH:

Anybody reading this who has had the pleasure to witness Chris Cornell live will surely agree that the man has an astonishingly good voice. Not only that, but it can mould to a number of different styles, with doom-laden rock more recently giving way to an upbeat approach on his solo material, though that has itself become scattergun in its direction of late. Scream, his last album in 2009, was made with Timbaland, and was a hotchpotch of styles with some incredible singing. So what now?

A live acoustic album, that's what - just the man, his guitar and an enthusiastic band of admirers who came to see him on a recent North American tour. The songs are drawn from a number of different stages in the singer's career - Soundgarden, solo and Audioslave. The Cornell pipes are still in incredibly rude health, freely emoting as he describes the feeling of being "only two drinks away from crying" in As Hope And Promise Fade. His is a very believable voice, and works better without crowd pleasing histrionics. There are a few of those, but not enough to harm the overall impact - and in songs like Wide Awake you simply have to listen and wonder at the heights of his voice.

So why does it not fully work in this format? A big contributor is the layout of the collection, which sounds largely similar the whole way through, and there are times when you yearn for some guitar heft to complement the voice. The tempo choice, too, remains on the slow side. With less evidence of Cornell's recent forays towards soul and R&B, the pitch is generally a safer rock one. Ground Zero, for example, is profound - but sits closer to the middle of the road. One that benefits from this approach is Can't Change Me, one of Euphoria Morning's best songs. Introduced by its singer as talking about a life "that goes on for a while and then you get to a point where you say, "Fuck it, I'm me!", it works well.

The big draws are the Soundgarden numbers, but perhaps inevitably these are Fell On Black Days and Black Hole Sun, the first note of the latter drawing a primeval roar from the audience. Both translate very well to the acoustic idiom, but given the wealth of the available catalogue it seems almost a shame to focus on these two at the exclusion of the likes of Burden In My Hand, one of those songs where the Cornell lungs get a really good going over. More welcome is the Temple of the Dog song All Night Thing, powerfully sung.

There is a song that has "never been on anything", according to its careful owner. Cleaning My Gun is softly sung with that slightly nasal tone that makes Cornell such a distinctive vocalist, and he opens up the throttle in the chorus to a full blown husk. The Keeper, meanwhile, is a new song that closes the collection, in a studio recording made for the Machine Gun Preacher film.

Cornell's voice might not be as tight as it was back in 1994, but it remains a formidable instrument - and lifts this collection well above that of an average live album. It's the lack of variety that stops it from becoming truly great.

From Jen Walker of Rock Sound:

Just when you thought a new Soundgarden record was on the horizon, a new Chris Cornell record has appeared! Never fear though, it’s much better than ‘Scream’ (though ‘Ground Zero’ does appear, hugely improved we hasten to add). ‘Songbook’ is a live and acoustic compilation of many of Cornell’s finest songs and a few covers, but it’d be a far easier listen if it was a proper studio release. After spinning this, though, Soundgarden’s UK visit can’t come soon enough… that voice!

From Sticky Noise:

We’ve been in awe of Chris Cornell’s voice and song-writing capabilities since mid-1991 when we first heard the now legendary Temple of the Dog album. Just take a spin through Times of Trouble on that record and you’ll know what we mean.

We were going to wait until November 21 to review the complete album, since Chris decided to release Songbook in three installments over the course of this month, but we simply couldn’t wait. (Songbook 1 was released on Nov. 1, Songbook 2 today, and Songbook 3 coming on Nov. 21).

Songbook is an acoustic live album from solo shows performed earlier this year, showcasing songs from throughout Cornell’s career. There are songs here from Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, Audioslave and Cornell’s solo career (as well as a few covers). And, from what we’ve heard so far, it is brilliant.

The guy is essentially a one-man show. With acoustic guitar in-hand, Cornell wails each gem with such grand emotion and precision it’s impossible to disconnect yourself from what he’s singing and feeling. Each song is new and refreshing, despite the fact that you’ve likely heard it in some different form in the past.

If there were skeptics before, there can hardly be now. With Songbook, Chris Cornell has quite elegantly proven once again (as if it was necessary!) that he is a gifted musician, songwriter and singer… and quite frankly, one of the greatest of each in rock history.

Hey Chris, Stone, Jeff, Eddie, Mike and Matt – how about a second album from Temple of the Dog? We think the time is right.

From Joe Calabrese of The Aquarian:

There aren’t many things that Chris Cornell hasn’t accomplished in his career, and Songbook acts as witness. Songbook was recorded while Cornell was on tour following the 2010 Soundgarden reunion. This album contains acoustic versions of some of his most famous tracks and features selections from every step in Cornell’s career. Everything is fair game for this disc: From Soundgarden and Audioslave to Temple Of The Dog to solo and cover work.

Leading off is “As Hope And Promise Fade,” previously known as “Two Drink Minimum,” a hidden track off of Scream. It tells the story of a man that decides to abandon the bottle because of all the trouble it causes him, similar to how Cornell himself recently gave up drinking. Many of the songs, in fact, tell beautiful stories, like how “Ground Zero” is advice on how to move on from the infamous 9/11 attacks, as well as “Can’t Change Me,” which is pretty self-explanatory.

The hits are still strong as ever on this album. “I Am The Highway,” “Black Hole Sun” and “Like A Stone” are all still great, but the real gems are Cornell’s previously unreleased works. “Cleaning My Gun” has been played on tour for many years, but was never released, and “The Keeper,” the album’s final track, is an unreleased studio version. Both are fantastic. Cornell also pays homage to Led Zeppelin and John Lennon with covers of “Thank You” and “Imagine.”

As a whole, Songbook is a perfect balance of the well-known and unknown beauties from the lifework of this great singer/songwriter. Thank you, Chris Cornell, this album makes me want to go home, peruse all my old Soundgarden albums and pretend that I was lucky enough to understand what “good music” was back in the ‘90s.

From Dan Aquilante of the New York Post:

While Chris Cornell is famous as the frontman for big, loud bands such as Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden and Audioslave, this year the singer has experimented with quiet-riot arrangements in a series of small-theater solo concerts.

“Songbook” is a live compilation featuring the best performances from his 2011 spring tour. In each of the record’s 16 tracks, Cornell is alone onstage, with just a guitar. Unplugged yet energized, the singer deconstructs originals and classic rock covers, letting the weight of each song rest on his gritty baritone.

Cornell is a unique vocalist in today’s pop; his bluesy, emotional delivery seems to draw its influences from Jim Morrison on “L.A. Woman,” his last recording with The Doors.

Among the many peaks on this record is the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You,” on which Cornell pays vocal homage to Robert Plant’s essential wailing vibrato. Cornell is thoughtful in recasting his Temple of the Dog tune “Call Me a Dog” as a strum ’n’ hum ballad, and he actually achieves a dreamy folk quality on the darkly dangerous original “Cleaning My Gun,” which he says “is a song I wrote a while ago,” but never recorded.

There is a pretty version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” that ranks among the best covers of the classic available, and the Audioslave hit “Doesn’t Remind Me” is also notable. The best of this very good record is “Black Hole Sun,” from Cornell’s Soundgarden tenure.

This rock classic about cleansing the Earth through total destruction is stripped down to voice and guitar. The laid-back, slow jam tempo suits the tune, allowing Cornell to sound as if he’s creating the lyrics off the top of his head. It’s an intimate and compelling piece on a very personal album.

From Dave Lake of Seattle Weekly:

There's no denying Chris Cornell has one of the gnarliest voices in rock. His upper-register howl is powerful and primal, helping to plant Soundgarden at the top of the '90s hard rock heap. There's not a lot Cornell can't sing, and there aren't a lot of singers who can sing Cornell (when was the last time you heard a kickass Soundgarden cover?), but his voice is at its best when he's wailing over the top of grooving, loud, metal, or subsequently, when he's nuanced and restrained.

Like a lot of live albums, Songbook is uneven, largely because of Cornell's spotty output as an artist. As you'd expect from a solo acoustic record, there's not a lot of Soundgarden material. Only "Black Hole Sun" and "Fell on Black Days" make the cut, the latter of which is one of the highlights. The Audioslave material is the weakest here, as those songs lack the power of the Soundgarden stuff, while also not possessing the melodic movement of his solo work or the pair of Temple of the Dog tracks that appear.

The album's brightest spot is John Lennon's "Imagine," which lets Cornell showoff both his wail and his warble, as he segues seamlessly into the falsetto parts at the end of each verse. The arrangement even heads into Jeff Buckley-esque territory as it hits the final verse, though it's hard to imagine Buckley doing the American Idol-style vocal run Cornell throws in at its conclusion.

Fans of Cornell's solo material ought to dig this most, and there's one track, "Cleaning My Gun," that hasn't appeared anywhere else previously. Songbook may not be an ideal career retrospective, but it does shine a light on at least part of what makes Cornell one of the best frontmen of his generation.

From Cack Blabbath:

Chris Cornell needs little introduction. Whether you like his voice or not, you have to respect him. With a career spanning over twenty years, encompassing styles from grunge/alt. rock to dance-pop, Cornell seems to be a man who isn’t fazed by trends, genres, sub-genres or any of that nonsense. At least that’s the impression he gives us.

As the artist on the album title suggests, this is a Chris Cornell record and not a Soundgarden offering. For those annoyed by this fact, I would like to point out that this is not the vocalists first solo project. It strikes me as ignorant to assume that an artist can’t – or rather shouldn’t – release a solo album whilst being part of a band where there are huge expectations for an impending release. With that out of the way let’s get on with the review;

As a long time fan, I was a little worried giving this a first listen. I wanted it to be great, but I also remember how I felt when listening to Scream. Appreciative that one man in such a creative business needs to spread his wings and experiment, I was disappointed with what seemingly felt like a lack of Cornell’s influence. I also held concerns for his vocal ability. Would the years of damage from cigarettes and the rock and roll lifestyle be evident with a lesser quality vocal?

I needn’t have worried at all.

Songbook is Chris Cornell in his purest form yet. It’s a very raw and simplistic live album, which relies solely on one acoustic guitar and a voice. And what an amazingly powerful voice that is. There is little room for mistake with so few instruments. Thankfully, Cornell doesn’t seem to put a foot wrong throughout the entire album.

Recorded entirely on what was dubbed ‘The Songbook Tour’ in April of this year, the 16-track album showcases every element of Cornell’s talent, from his now legendary vocal range, to his song writing ability. What is harder to make note of is the powerful and atmospheric mood his music creates. Songbook is calming, captivating and an outstanding showcase for music in general.

Fans of previous work will already be familiar with many of the songs on the album. However the opener, As Hope and Promise Fade, is a brand new song which immediately throws you head first into Cornell’s vocal acrobatics! If there ever was a song to make the most out of his range, this is it. The sound is completely stripped down, the lyrics are enchanting and his voice really does send a tingle up your spine. Scar on the sky (originally on Cornell’s second solo record, Carry On) breeds familiarity into the record; as does Temple of the Dog classic, Call me a Dog.

Ground Zero interests me. As I said, I wasn’t a fan of Scream… so how would an urban pop record translate acoustically? Stripped down this song is magnificent. The lyrics and melody seem stronger without the addition of the electronic samples. I, for one, would be happy to hear Scream entirely reproduced because underneath the dance beats I think it could be a gem of a record.

Cant Change Me, taken from 1999’s Euphoria Morning is introduced as a song the vocalist wrote after trying to change, then realizing fuck it! This is who he is.. Deal with it! The crowd applauds in agreement. It’s nice to hear these snippets of Cornell’s crowd interaction, which seems as engaging as his music.

Audioslave’s I Am the Highway is another reminder of a career that has been nothing short of amazing. That is followed by Thank You. A Led Zeppelin classic which treats the original with respect, but which the vocalist makes his own. The same can be said for the second cover on this album, Imagine by John Lennon which features later on.

We are also treated to a song that was written for legendary Country artist, Johnny Cash. Unfortunately Cash died before this was ever recorded, but Cleaning My Gun makes its recorded debut appearance here with unrivaled soft beauty.

Renditions of Audioslave (Like a Stone, Wide Awake, Doesn’t Remind Me), Soundgarden (Fell on Black Days, Black Hole Sun), Temple of the Dog (All Night Thing) lead us to the last song on the album, The Keeper.

The final song on the album is The Keeper, an original song written for the movie Machine Gun Preacher. However as this is a studio-recorded track I feel it’s a little out of place here on a live acoustic album. That said, it is a beautiful song and as always is nice to hear something completely new from Cornell.

What you get with Songbook is an anthology of one mans career in music. And what a remarkable career that has been – Through fronting two Grammy Award winning bands, One super group in Temple of the Dog, as well as his own solo career, of which this is his fourth recorded release.

Still all those songs sit very well next to each other, proving that Chris Cornell has unparalleled and timeless song writing ability. Vocally, he remains one of the most emotionally fueled, soulful voices in music today. His ability to control his voice as an instrument is inspirational, knowing when to soar into falsetto, and when to relax and let the lyrical content come through. His tone, pitch, technique and phrasing are all flawless on this release. This album is already one of my favourites. Well done, Mr. Cornell. Here’s to the next twenty years!

From Jim Norton of Planet Loud:

Chris Cornell has a lot of making up to do. Only two years have passed since the former Audioslave and Soundgarden frontman drafted in uber-producer Timbaland for an urban makeover on his third solo effort. Sure, progression is key for any artist, but this was no Judas moment of musical foresight a la Bob Dylan. The opposite in fact: nothing on the album ‘Scream’ offered any form of musical enlightenment, instead, it was a decision that suggested a mid-life crisis was attempting to wreak havoc on the grunge legend’s legacy.

So, as an apology or concession to his fans, Cornell has ditched the sub-Justin Timberlake nonsense and returns to the stage with just an acoustic for Songbook. And it’s a generous apology; mixing songs under previous guises with Led Zep and John Lennon covers, plus introducing a couple of new ones. Opting for crowd pleasers works, though it’s the voice that really compels. With the acoustic accompaniment, the grunge god soulfully bellows through each with a voice so rich it never fails to capture the emotion and grit of the lyrics. It’s the perfect platform for his pipes. Without Timbaland’s production, the two songs from Scream are far more powerful – particularly ‘As Hope and Promise Fade’ (previously Two Drink Minimum). It’s crushingly heartfelt and repeats the phrase “No more than two drinks away from crying” with devastating effect. A stunning opener. It continues as songs from Audioslave, Soundgarden, and Temple of the Dog’s back catalogues all get raw acoustic reworkings. What the songs lose in atmosphere without the band is more than made up for by Cornell’s engaging voice.

Cornell’s confidence is obviously high – despite the critical mauling of Scream – and he even has the audacity to cover a couple of classics. Nothing will ever beat the serene beauty of the original, but Cornell’s attempt at turning John Lennon’s Imagine into a warbling rock ballad sidesteps a butchering and works well. So too does his version of Led Zeppelin’s Thank You, a tender homage to rocks forefathers. Songbook also offers two new songs. The first, Cleaning My Gun, talks of a cheating lover and sings the rather foreboding line “As you lay sleeping with your eyes softly shut, I’ll be cleaning my gun”. It’s not a standout, but does suggest there are plenty of inner demons still for Cornell to write about in the future. The second newbie takes a different tack. After writing the best Bond theme in a decade (You Know My Name), he has been drafted in by the Machine Gun Preacher producers to write a song for the soundtrack. It’s a prettily fingerpicked song you can imagine accompanying a shot of a scenic dry Savannah as Gerard Butler wanders across saving all the Africans. It will also instantly remind some of equally qualified rock legend Eddie Vedder’s own foray into soundtracking for Into The Wild, particularly Guaranteed. The only reason one wouldn’t remember is because they could quite feasibly think they were listening to the same song.

Interestingly, Cornell’s new Jesus style hair and beard combo are also eerily reminiscent of Vedder. But hey, the difference between influence and imitation is difficult to determine, so let’s leave it at that. Originality is not the rationale for Songbook, anyway; it’s an offering to appease fans and to show that Cornell’s voice is better than ever. As apologies go, Songbook is Christmas come early for Cornell fans.

From Melissa Caruso of Elmore Magazine:

THE SOLO ENDEAVOR by Chris Cornell highlights gems from his efforts with grunge outfits Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden and Audioslave. On Songbook, live recordings from His 2011 tour—full of gregarious asides—offer the closest thing to the unearthly Grunge God.

Here, amps and drum kits are set aside as Cornell’s distinctively ethereal singing takes center stage, with perceptive poetic prose fans can’t help but latch onto. The protest “Ground Zero” steers clear of becoming preachy, appropriately situated next to the individualistic “I Am the Highway.” Other standouts include Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and Lennon’s “Imagine,” where Cornell’s grunge-laden pipes offer beautiful desperation. “Wide Awake” shows Cornell’s finest restraint of frustration before softening up on “All Night Thing” and “Doesn’t Remind Me.” With staples like “Black Hole Sun” and “Like A Stone,” this album offers a time capsule of rock’s finest gems. Dig it.

From Michael Brown of Drowned in Sound:

Finally, Chris Cornell is giving his fans what they want. After a number of attempts at pushing them away with misguided Timbaland collaboration Scream and tours with Linkin Park, he now eagerly ushers them back into the fold, first with a Soundgarden reunion and now his debut acoustic album, Songbook. While the fruits of Soundgarden 2.0’s labours are yet to be seen, Songbook comes off the back of Cornell’s highly rated solo acoustic shows in the USA. However, as is often the question with live compilations (including Soundgarden’s own Live on I-5), can a collection of live performances really gel as an album?

First impressions are that the tracklisting is a bit predictable. Of course, any compilation, live or otherwise, is likely to be populated with hits but with Cornell, many of the choices here are not what people were talking about after his live shows. Anyone who’s spent a few minutes on YouTube will be asking why ‘Seasons’, ‘Like Suicide’, ‘Mind Riot’, ‘When I’m Down’, ‘Sunshower’ and countless others are so obviously missing; all were highlights of Cornell’s acoustic shows yet strangely absent from this collection.

Still, what’s here is good, occasionally bordering on brilliant. There’s no denying that giving up the smoke and the booze during the Audioslave era has helped Cornell’s vocal cords immeasurably, as his high notes soar and his lows rumble with a timbre only vocal maturity can bring. This is best observed in a rendition of the aforementioned super-group’s ‘Wide Awake’, which is transformed from a clunky rawk anthem into a dark murder ballad, with Cornell’s previously painful screams now a comfortable wail. Other songs benefiting from the acoustic treatment include Scream’s Timbaland-free ‘Ground Zero’ and, perhaps the compilation’s finest moment, Soundgarden classic ‘Fell on Black Days’, jaw-dropping in its vocal dexterity and stripped-down intensity.

Elsewhere, we’ve got a disappointingly limited selection of solo material (‘Can’t Change Me’, ‘Scar on the Sky’), a couple of Temple of the Dog nods (‘Call Me a Dog’, ‘All Night Thing’) and some fairly impressive rarities (opener ‘As Hope and Promise Fade’, ‘Cleaning My Gun’). All are capable enough renditions but lend themselves so effortlessly to the acoustic setting that they fail to be ground-breaking. Top that off with a distinct lack of atmosphere, banter and flow between tracks and, no matter how well intended, these particular song choices feel like a wasted opportunity.

Ultimately, Songbook is not let down by performances or production but by its tracklisting. This release had the potential to be utterly essential, should it have included some of the more unorthodox arrangements Cornell had been popularising on his acoustic tours, but instead settles for the overwhelmingly obvious. There are some tracks, like obligatory Soundgarden masterpiece ‘Black Hole Sun’, which form necessities but is ‘Doesn’t Remind Me’ really worthy of a spot? Not even a touching version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Thank You’ or an overly saccharine homage to hero John Lennon in ‘Imagine’ can quite obscure the fact that this could have, and should have, been better.

As a beginner’s introduction to Cornell’s work, Songbook is exemplary, but for the fans, who this is apparently aimed at, it fails to completely satisfy. Closing studio track ‘The Keeper’ does bring with it a considerable amount of hope for the future but, for now, Songbook is a disappointing substitute for even the grainiest of YouTube footage.

From Ben Walton of Contactmusic:

It has been said that a truly great song can be stripped down to a basic vocal and instrumental accompaniment, and still be every bit as powerful and affecting as a full band version. This is the approach Chris Cornell has taken on Songbook, a live album collecting an impressive array of cuts from his solo acoustic tours.

The sheer range of material included here reminds you how varied and interesting Cornell's career has been. You get a couple of Soundgarden tracks, six of his own solo songs, some Audioslave tracks, some Temple of the Dog songs and even a few covers just for good measure. You cannot feel ripped off by so much back catalogue rummaging. There is indeed something for everyone in the Songbook.

Even though the songs are stripped back to their barest of bones, none of the songs particularly suffer from their lack of instrumentation and in fact, some are even enhanced by it. In particular, the overworked hip hop stylings of Ground Zero from his last (and incredibly controversial) solo effort Scream is turned into a kind of funky work out that allows Chris's voice to really shine, which, by the way, is stronger than it has sounded in years. Call Me a Dog from the Temple of the Dog album becomes a beautifully delicate track, even more fragile than its original album version. Soundgarden's biggest hit Black Hole Sun is transformed from Beatles-esque psychedelia into an even more haunting, sinister tune. All of the Audioslave tracks are brilliant as well, some - I am the Highway and Wide Awake in particular - actually eclipse the studio versions by many thousands of miles.

Of the less familiar material, Cornell's re-workings of Led Zeppelin's Thank You and John Lennon's Imagine are fantastic, even if they add nothing to the originals. Cleaning My Gun is an unreleased gem from the Chris Cornell archive that has a lot in common with the Temple of the Dog tracks. It's pleasant enough, but had it been released before now, it probably wouldn't have set the world alight. If further criticisms are to be made, then one would have to say that Chris easily has enough amazing songs to fill a second disc. Imagine a stripped back Getaway Car, Hunger Strike or Burden In My Hand. I know for a fact that on the tour this album chronicles that Cornell played Soundgarden's Mind Riot almost nightly. Had this been included, I would wager that a large proportion of the 'Garden's fan base would have collectively lost its mind.

The collection finishes with a slightly stripped back studio version of The Keeper, which Cornell wrote for the film Machine Gun Preacher. The song is easily the best Cornell solo track since 1998's Euphoria Morning album, and proves that should the Soundgarden reunion encounter any hurdles, a new Chris Cornell solo record would not be such a bad thing.

From Karina Halle of Consequence of Sound:

Chris Cornell‘s career has spanned the spectrum of rock and roll, from his start in Soundgarden to the beloved Temple of the Dog, to his supergroup Audioslave and his solo work. Earlier this year, Cornell went on a quick solo tour playing an acoustic set in various intimate settings. To those unfortunate enough to miss the shows, they are now a part of his solo acoustic live album, Songbook.

Every musical project that Cornell has had a part in is featured in this album. Audioslave is toned down with the haunting “I Am the Highway”, Soundgarden’s distortion is intricately simple on “Black Hole Sun”. From his solo album Scream, there’s “As Hope and Promise Fade”, a heartbreaking, personal track where Cornell is “never more than two drinks away from crying.” There’s a few covers like “Imagine” and the tear-inducing “Thank You”. There’s even “The Keeper”, a catchy number that was written for Marc Foster’s film Machine Gun Preacher.

The fitting song selection isn’t the only thing that stands out here: The album sounds fantastic. The sparseness of the recording comes shining through with Cornell’s emotive voice sounding crystal clear, the mood and clarity resonating with each strum of the strings. Normally live albums get bogged down with loud audience chatter or too much talky-talk from the performers. Not in Songbook. It sounds sharp and the audience only appears in atmospheric hoots and hollers that don’t compete with the music. As for Cornell, while he does talk, he sets up the scene and lets it get on its way.

Songbook is more than a worthy addition to any Cornell fan’s collection; it’s a beautiful showcase of his career that any music lover should have. When his voice strains with emotion during “Cleaning My Gun” and Temple of the Dog’s “Call Me a Dog”, you feel everything he feels. And it’s wonderful.

From Michael Christopher of the Boston Phoenix:

Chris Cornell's reaction to the critical lynching his Timbaland-produced debacle Scream took in 2009 was to grow his hair back out, reunite with Soundgarden (currently in the studio), and embark on a solo tour stripped down to just an acoustic guitar. Songbook is the colorful sonic snapshot of that jaunt, and it has a little bit of everything — Audioslave, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and solo material. That patented caterwaul is in fine form; Cornell easily hits all the notes on "All Night Thing," "Fell on Black Days," and "Wide Awake" — even a pair of tracks from Scream work in the bare-bones setting. The buzz has been about the inspired takes on Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" and John Lennon's "Imagine," but the highlight is the first appearance on an official release of "Cleaning My Gun," a haunting track about a narrator who reflects on the fleetinginesss of relationships and life in general while his lover sleeps. The song choices are a bit predictable, especially since gems like "Sunshower," "Seasons," and "Mind Riot" — which joined covers of Syd Barrett, the Beatles, and Mother Love Bone on the road — are omitted here. Then again, there's always volume two.

From Rick Florino of Artist Direct:

From Evan Schlansky of American Songwriter:

Now that the Soundgarden reunion is official with a subsequent untitled album set to drop this year, Chris Cornell spent much of 2011 looking back. In addition to hitting the road for a small string of dates with his old band mates and releasing the group’s first live album, Cornell went on a brief solo acoustic tour earlier in the year during which time he trotted out material from the various stops of his musical life. The Seattle native was kind enough to cherry-pick a number of these performances for what became his fourth solo album. Despite the fact that this is a bare-bones live recording, the combination of Cornell’s engaging stage presence, the formidable punch his singing packs and the strength of these songs makes this a record that will appeal to more than just Soundgarden/Audioslave fans.

Over the past two and a half plus decades, Cornell’s voice was always admired for its supple tone and impressive range, characteristics even more apparent with all the loud guitars and crashing rhythms stripped away. And having given up alcohol and drugs for nearly ten years, his vocals are even more impressive. While some of the set-list selections are of iconic Soundgarden songs like “Black Hole Sun” and “Fell on Black Days,” a number of lesser-known but no less welcome gems are plucked from the Cornell canon. A pair of numbers—the mournful “Call Me a Dog” and its soulful cousin “All Night Thing”—are resurrected from the sole Temple of the Dog album while the aforementioned Audioslave is represented by a quartet of songs including the politically-charged “Wide Awake” and its mention of trading lives for oil. While a perfunctory cover of “Imagine” provides an obvious link to those socially conscious sentiments, the outspoken singer-songwriter is more effective with “Ground Zero,” his own post-9/11 observation that was effectively resurrected off Scream, his disastrous 2009 collaboration with Timbaland.

Early on in Soundgarden, Cornell’s yowl and leonine locks gave him the semblance of a latter-day Robert Plant, so it’s no surprise that he trots out a solid yet straightforward version of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You.” And for as unremarkable as this may seem, he does impress with a pair of obscure solo cuts—“Cleaning My Gun,” a lament about lost love that works despite its seemingly threatening title and “The Keeper,” the only studio song. Self-penned for the 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher, the mix of Alain Johannes’ acoustic guitar chords and its composer’s light croon has it resonate long after the playing ends. A nice summation of Chris Cornell’s career up to this point, Songbook makes for a fine springboard into the next creative chapter of his life.

From Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com:

After spending over a decade avoiding his past, Chris Cornell reconnected with it in a big way during 2010. First, he reunited with Soundgarden, their tour so successful it spilled over into a studio collaboration interrupted by Cornell launching an acoustic tour where he revisited his catalog, quite definitively tying his solo career and time with Audioslave to Soundgarden. Songbook is a live album culled from this tour and has Cornell sampling from all phases of his career, often spinning harder-rocking songs into moody reflective territory. Unlike his solo debut, Euphoria Morning, this never sounds solipsistic; Cornell is engaged, looking outward to the audience, giving subtly forceful performances that often rescue overlooked tunes -- including selections from his electronica makeover Scream -- and freshen up familiar songs, including covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.” He sounds at peace with his past and comfortable with his present, and that casual assurance makes Songbook his best solo offering to date.

From Sion Smith of The Void:

There was little chance of this not being one of the best albums of the year even before its release.

I adore Chris Cornell (although I don’t always love everything he does) and my honest opinion of him is that he has given more than most will ever know to rock over these last few years.

If my suspicions are correct, the best may still be to come.

Songbook is what rock gods sounds like when they’re at their best. Stripped back to an old acoustic and an appreciative audience, this is one fine, fine album that no rock fan should even think twice about adding to the collection. What makes it work is the honesty. There’s no pretension here, a smattering of the familiar, a smattering of the not so. It’s incredibly beautiful, utterly compelling and thankfully, flawless. As to what it may do commercially, that’s anybody’s guess. Its been pretty low key so far, so unless you’re looking for it, there’s every chance it will pass you by and that would be a crying shame.

The big talking point of Songbook is Cornell’s voice. After all these years in the field, it’s taken its fair share of abuse and, like the hands of a farmer, has adapted itself to the point that it takes something pretty serious to get through the scar tissue covering it. Capable of reducing any soul to crying in the gutter, the world should be paying more attention to Cornell rather than lamenting those long since passed by – Buckley springs mainly to mind but there are others. What is this fascination we have with worshipping the dead and letting the living go about their business?

Calling on material from his entire career and throwing in some covers in the shape of Thank You and Imagine, whatever your stance, take some time out to at least investigate this because I guarantee you won’t hear anything quite as wonderful as this for a very long time.

You can hear some scraps from it at http://chriscornell.com/songbook/ but you’ll be doing yourself a massive disservice by not slipping on the headphones, turning out all the lights and burying yourself in its entire soundscape.

From Edna Gunderson of USA Today:

A stunning solo acoustic tour yielded this live sampler, and while some track list picks are mystifying (John Lennon's Imagine instead of Sunshower?), Songbook's pristine recordings nicely showcase Cornell's vocal dexterity and emotional thrust. Selections span his career, from Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog to Audioslave and solo efforts, and even the loud, dense originals shine after a stripdown.

From Jim Farber of the New York Daily News:

When most musicians banish their sidemen and cut the electricity, they mean to come clean. They want to sound intimate and close without the distractions and asides of volume and company.

Not Chris Cornell.

He may have launched his first-ever, one-man acoustic tour this year, but if you think one of the world’s greatest bravura singers would use that opportunity to whisper and mewl, think again.

“Songbook,” the CD document of the tour, finds this famously macho frontman of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave in full “golden god” yowl. Though accompanied solely by his lone acoustic guitar, Cornell sings loud and hard more often than not. In other words, he hasn’t suddenly turned into Bon Iver, or even James Taylor.

In that sense, “Songbook” reveals Cornell as a kind of rock opera singer, a big-chested orator of his inner life. His choice of songs aids that mission. Embedded in their big chords and rich arrangements lie genuine confessions.

To ferret them out, Cornell made careful, and uncommercial, selections in his repertoire. Only two Soundgarden touchstones turn up: “Black Hole Sun” and “Fell on Black Days.” The latter proves it doesn’t need its original heaviness to achieve motion and mystery. Two oldies from Temple of the Dog appear, the better being “Call Me a Dog,” which showcases Cornell’s chops and range.

The singer favored songs from his iffy solo albums here, but they sound more melodically worthy in this bony form. Many boast a psychedelic-pop finery. One song, written for a solo album that never appeared on one (“Cleaning My Gun”), deserved to. Even songs from Cornell’s ill-advised project with Timbaland, like “As Hope and Promise Fade,” sound more robust stripped down. (It would have been better, though, had Cornell stuck with the song’s original, catchier title: “Two Drink Minimum”).

The disk includes one studio solo spin (“The Keeper”), featuring a more subtle vocal from Cornell, which proves he was indeed playing to the crowd live. So, dock him a few points for that. But if his main aim with his spare setup was to wow us, wow us he did.

From Scott Bartlett of Subba-Cultcha:

Chris Cornell and Co got the Grungers salivating of course when they announced the mighty Soundgarden were reforming to tour and hopefully release new material in 2012. A band of almost unrivaled power in their day, the comeback has been celebrated and, of course, helped gloss over the flack Cornell has taken from some of his more recent solo outings.

While it’s good to see people trying different things the lack of quality control of late has sometimes been hard to forgive, even though he’s earned the right to make a few howlers.

Here, on Songbook he bravely takes his guitar and barstool to the masses to perform a mix of material. The chest beating rock God stripped bare, indeed. The results are, overall quite stunning. His voice is at its unpolished, graveled best and his delivery is never less than sincere.

People will naturally focus on Soundgarden classics Black Hole Sun and Fell On Black Days where Cornell is at his emotive best. Both sound incredible here. The Temple Of The Dog era Call Me A Dog and All Night Thing, Scar On The Sky from his second solo album Carry On and Audioslave’s Wide Awake also stand out and he lives up to all those ‘Robert Plant of grunge’ comparisons he’s been tagged with over the years more than adequately on Led Zeppelin's Thank You.

In fact, public service announcement and point of order; anyone who doesn’t own the Temple Of The Dog album should get a copy right now. Thank you.

His version of Imagine is a little bit student party but carries just enough swagger to pull it off. The Keeper – from the Machine Gun Preacher soundtrack, fares much better, gentle, folksy, and overflowing with charm.

Back to basics certainly suits Cornell. Ravaged but in turn richer from years of wailing, he sounds in very rude health.

Press reviews of Chris Cornell's single The Keeper, the theme song for movie Machine Gun Preacher:

From Marc Hogan of Spin:

From the soundtrack to new action movie Machine Gun Preacher, "The Keeper" is slow, ruminative folk-pop from the perspective of a world-weary wanderer. "It doesn't take too long for this road to become a battlefield," Cornell sings with a gentle rasp. On Letterman, the song leaves ample room for the rocker to show his voice's prettier side as the tune comes to a honeyed, ooh-ing conclusion.

From Rick Florino of Artist Direct:

Chris Cornell's brand new song, "The Keeper", is just as riveting as Machine Gun Preacher is.

Of course Cornell penned the song with the film's main character, real-life hero Sam Childers [Gerard Butler], in mind, but it still possesses the hallmarks of the iconic singer's sound. He tells a story of struggle and triumph in barely over three minutes, and with his inimitable pipes, he communicates an avalanche of emotions that mirror the protagonist's journey from a hardened, drug-addled outlaw into a savior for oppressed children in Africa.

That emotional heft can be felt in each chord strum as well as the heavenly refrain that Cornell delivers with the same passion that made Badmotorfinger and Superunknown classics. His finger-picked melody nods to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" in reverent fashion as each note resounds clearly.

The lyrics palpitate with a visceral and vulnerable vibrancy. Cornell sings, "And before I let one more tear hit the ground, I will be the one standing between you and the sound of the rounds echoing out, out of the dark, the smoke and the spark, aimed at the heart of the flame".

It's poetic, powerful, and poignant, especially as the bridge sails off into sensitively psychedelic space. Cornell manages to channel Bob Dylan and Robert Plant all at once in one of the best songs of his own catalog. Download it now on iTunes!

5 out of 5 stars

From Corban of Stereogum:

The soundtrack for the forthcoming film Machine Gun Preacher features a new Chris Cornell track called “The Keeper,” which is a welcome return to the spare acoustic work of his early material. For the first 24 hours, the track will be available on Cornell’s website and all proceeds will benefit Sam Childers’ Angels of East Africa charity.

From SFCritic.com:

Soundgarden lead singer, Chris Cornell, who holds a special place in our teenage hearts for “Blackhole Son", [sic] has released “The Keeper” off the soundtrack from the movie Machine Gun Preacher. For the next 24 hours the track is available for donate-to-download with proceeds going to the Machine Gun Preacher Organization, which helps provide a safe haven for the multitudes of children and adults fleeing enslavement by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. On “The Keeper” Cornell softly sings “Beauty and truth collide where love meets genocide, where laughter meets fear, confusion all around while I try to feed these mouths” as he gently shifts between notes on an acoustic guitar. It’s nothing like Soundgarden, but much more comparable to Eddie Vedder’s work on Into The Wild. Please donate, help, and enjoy.

From All Music For Apple:

This track from the movie Machine Gun Preacher sounds like Chris Cornell returning to the sonic vibe of Temple of the Dog. Acoustic, a little eerie, and 100% heartfelt. Beautiful melodies stacked on top of a real traveling feel on the guitar, like a man walking across the plains in rural America--not wandering, but with a purpose and a quiet focus. Brilliant.

Press reviews of Soundgarden's retrospective live album, Live on I5, out March 22:

from Gregg Moffitt of the BBC:

The first ever live album from Seattle grunge pioneers Soundgarden should have appeared years ago, literally. Recorded at various locations during a 1996 US tour, Live on I-5 was intended for release the following year. Sadly, after the band split in April 1997, the tapes were left to gather dust on a studio shelf and even now have probably only been unearthed in the wake of last year’s reunion. We should be thankful they bothered: Live on I-5 is stuffed with searing performances from a band at the peak of their powers.

Although stitched together from material culled from several shows, Live on I-5 doesn’t suffer from the lack of cohesion which often blights live albums assembled this way. This says a lot about the band’s consistency, and although single-event recordings possess a unique aura, this 17-track set is a worthy document of Soundgarden’s glory days. There’s certainly nothing here which hints at a group on the road to self-destruction.

Opening and closing with hit singles may be an obvious crowd-pleasing ploy, but Spoonman and Jesus Christ Pose bookend a set littered with songs which will be familiar to anyone alive during the 1990s, never mind those immersed in the music which did so much to define the decade. From the hard rock swagger of Searching With My Good Eye Closed and Let Me Drown to the grunge-101 of Outshined and Rusty Cage, the band somehow bludgeon with the finesse they bring to moodier material such as Slaves and Bulldozers and Nothing to Say. Even songs from their final studio album, the markedly more lightweight Down on the Upside, sound vital and invigorating.

A slow-burning take on The Beatles’ endlessly-covered Helter Skelter and a run-through of The Stooges’ Search and Destroy shed some light on the band’s roots and on grunge itself as a somewhat unlikely hybrid of both establishment and anti-establishment elements. Like most music movements, grunge eventually ate itself, degenerating into just another fad. But in Soundgarden – as with Nirvana – it spawned a band beyond lazy labels and genre limits, and Live on I-5 is simply a great rock record, period.

from Chris Kies of Premier Guitar:

Live on I-5 compiles 17 greatest hits-worthy tracks from Soundgarden’s late-’96 tour that ventured up-and-down the Pacific Coast, captured by a rented 24-track recording truck. While this was a schism-laden time between band members that sparked their downward spiral and eventual breakup in April 1997, the music packaged here doesn't show it. (Maybe that’s why they went with a live CD release rather than a DVD release.) Guitarist Kim Thayil is on his odd-time-signature game, offering Seattle-sludge riff after riff with standouts efforts on a rampaging “Jesus Christ Pose,” feedback-harnessed solos on “Slaves and Bulldozers,” and even a bit of wah-wankery on the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” and “Searching With My Good Eye Closed.”

Chris Cornell helps thicken the guitars by providing support throughout, but most noticeably on the heart-pounding opener “Spoonman” and mach-speed “Rusty Cage.” But Cornell’s presence on guitars is overshadowed by his spine-tingling heroics on vocals. His primal, blood curdling roars and signature falsetto screams are spot-on during showstoppers “Ty Cobb,” "Rusty Cage," and “Black Hole Sun”—which is nearly a cappella except for a lone guitar. However, Cornell excels similarly when he cleans it up and shows his dynamic range on “Burden in My Hands,” "Fell on Black Days,” and the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.”

The tracks are gathered from a handful of shows making the disc more of a live compilation than a true concert album, however, the music is cohesive, the performances are tight, and the overall collection is as powerful as Soundgarden ever sounded.

4.5 out of 5

from James Greene Jr of Crawdaddy:

1990s grunge superstars Soundgarden cycled through all the expected rock n’ roll tropes during their original 13 years together: they started as underground heroes, sleekly transitioned to the mainstream during Seattle’s sonic boom, satiated hard rock fans with a slew of powerful and arena-ready riffage, found their greatest success with a five minute ballad, and broke up arguably at the height of the fame amidst rumors of serious group acrimony. The only thing they forgot was the requisite live album; thankfully, last year’s unexpected Soundgarden reunion has begat that final missing piece of the puzzle. Live on I5 (a reference to a specific stretch of Pacific coast highway) gathers concert recordings from a 1996 Soundgarden tour, and damned if it ain’t a fine reminder of the lumbering beast Cornell, Thayil, Cameron, and Shepherd created when put together.

A surprisingly crisp sound pervades I5?s recordings as Soundgarden nimbly rip through rhythmic standards such as “Spoonman” and “Slaves and Bulldozers”, and no atmosphere is lost when the band tones it down for more insular properties like Superunknown’s mellow “Head Down”. Of course, any superfan attending a Soundgarden concert in 1996 was probably there mostly to hear the bare-knuckle motorcycle roar of the band’s breakthrough hit, “Outshined”; here, singer Chris Cornell is a little shaky in his delivery, but the extra gristle on Kim Thayil’s guitar more than makes up for Corny’s melodic wavering. To be fair to Chris, there are plenty of spots on I5 where his singing is the absolute highlight. “Nothing to Say” would be pretty rote without those cascading, anguished howls.

If there’s any honest misstep to be heard during Live on I5, it might be Soundgarden’s moody interpretation of that Beatles classic “Helter Skelter” just before the ever-uplifting “Boot Camp”. “Skelter’s” arrangement is sort of grunge lounge—it’s easy to imagine Cornell in a powder blue tuxedo, running his hands through his hair and not looking at anyone in particular as he groans out, “You may be a luhvuh but you ain’ no dance-uh!” into one of those oversized 1930s box microphones. On the other hand, maybe that was the intent. I have similar quality control questions about the speed of “Ty Cobb”, Soundgarden’s balls-to-the-wall Ramones tribute, as performed on I5—it seems a hare too fast for its own good—but methinks I just miss the kooky banjo overdubs that are all over the studio version. Real talk: my toes were a-tappin’ all the way through this (possibly extra) speedy “Cobb”.

Any lingering historical doubts regarding Soundgarden’s musical prowess are obliterated by Live on I5?s monolithic closing rendition of “Jesus Christ Pose”. Rising up like some ancient pissed off Sumerian god, the band breathes incredible life into that creaking giant of modern rock and leaves no possible room for improvement. Matt Cameron’s limber drum work reminds us the secret to all great bands is an ace percussionist. There’s grace to be heard even as the song collapses on itself and fades into a thin fog of amplifier feedback. Truly, this group was/is a garden of sounds, one basically unmatched by its goatee’d, nose ringed peers.

Listen: the whole daggum thing on Facebook.

From Steven Fanning of Subba Cultcha:

The primal force of grunge from one of its finest exponents

Having been one of the defining bands of their generation, released some of the seminal albums from the early nineties and earned a legion of devoted fans across the globe, the decision some twenty years since grunge was tearing up the world to finally release a live album is perhaps the penultimate part in the Soundgarden story, before a b-sides and rarities compilation finally makes a long overdue appearance. Those who saw Soundgarden live tell different stories, they were seemingly either very, very bad or very, very good on stage, there was no middle ground. On the one occasion I caught them live they were in decline and their performance wasn’t brilliant, to say the least, so it’s with not a little apprehension that I hit the play button and sit back to listen to Live On I5.

This isn’t a recording of a complete gig, the 17 tracks on here were recorded on the West Coast leg of their tour in support of their final album Down On The Upside in 1996 at various venues and have been cherry picked by the band. The emphasis is on their final three records – Badmotorfinger, Superunknown and Down On The Upside with only ‘Nothing To Say’ making the cut from their early Sub Pop days and Louder Than Love and Ultramega OK being overlooked entirely.

‘Spoonman’ begins things in typical chunky style, the descending riff slightly slower than the record but with a nicely extended mid section and a great guitar solo from Kim Thayil. ‘Searching With My Good Eye Closed’ is as good as the studio version and ‘Let Me Drown’ (which iTunes thinks is called ‘Let Me Down’ from the album Love On I5 – someone needs telling off) is one of the real highlights on here. It’s dark, dirty and beautifully heavy, a distinct vibe running through it that can only be captured live. ‘Head Down’ follows, a slower antidote to the intensity of the preceding track and demonstrating some great musicianship. ‘Outshined’ is simply brilliant. It’s a great song to start with, but captured here in all its full-on glory gives it a new lease of life. ‘Rusty Cage’ is fast and furious, Cameron’s drumming giving it another edge and making the song as brutal as the lyrics.

The two covers on here of the Beatles' ‘Helter Skelter’ and the Stooges' ‘Search And Destroy’ show a different side to Soundgarden. The treatment of ‘Helter Skelter’ is to make it disjointed, ponderous and bluesy whereas they race through ‘Search And Destroy’, doing some kind of dubious justice to both in their own way with the grunge makeovers bestowed upon them.

‘Nothing To Say’ is a welcome reminder of where Soundgarden came from and demonstrates how they shaped the sound of the music to come, and it’s a shame that some more of the early Fopp and Screaming Life tracks weren’t included on here and that ‘Hands All Over’, from Louder Than Love, wasn’t performed either, but these are minor grumbles.

‘Burden In My Hand’, ‘Dusty’ and ‘Boot Camp’ are unfortunately as unremarkable live as they were on record, and ‘Ty Cobb’ is pleasantly thrashy but wasn’t really what Soundgarden were all about, this was Down On The Upside’s ‘Kickstand’ but without the finesse and doesn’t really sit too well alongside the overriding metal guitar that was Soundgarden’s style, although it’s notable here just for the interplay between Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron. ‘Slaves And Bulldozers’ in contrast is epic, grinding rock, although Cornell’s voice doesn’t quite cut it on here it’s this added dimension of imperfection which augments the live experience, the extended performance of the song is compelling and you get the feeling that this is Soundgarden really expressing themselves and in doing so engaging their audience.

‘Fell On Black Days’ is one of the defining moments of grunge, a truly brilliant and cathartic song given a good airing here, Cornell’s vocals softer perhaps than on record and a little restrained and the decision to include a solo performance of ‘Black Hole Sun’ was an inspired one. ‘Black Hole Sun’ was the song that finally saw Soundgarden hit the mainstream and as a consequence it became overplayed and suffered from an immense amount of overkill, so a different take on it, stripping it down to the bare bones of one man and his guitar is a welcome change, a trick that Cornell has repeated consistently since on his solo tours in the intervening years between Soundgarden’s break-up and the reformation last year.

This brings us to ‘Jesus Christ Pose’, arguably Soundgarden’s finest song and the track that first began their assent to super-stardom. The deep, heavy riff offset with Cornell’s piercing vocals make for a timeless rock song, but the real star of this version is Cameron on the drums. His tirelessness and innate ability to make the drums such an integral part of the performance are quite remarkable. His contribution to Soundgarden and Pearl Jam is often too understated, but he is the glue that holds these bands together.

This record is long overdue and is a welcome addition to the Soundgarden legacy, documenting them when they were on fine form live. The decision to cherry-pick tracks from across a tour was probably a good idea, the more lacklustre moments of their live shows easily removed to provide an experience of what they perhaps consider the perfect Soundgarden gig. Sure, there are always some songs you wish they’d played, but it’s enough to be thankful for those that they did. The nineties were a great time to be alive, and this is a none too gentle reminder of what made the grunge era so special and another example of why and how Soundgarden outshined so many of their contemporaries. Fingers crossed that when they finally get on the road again they can recapture their magic because when they’re good, they’re very, very good.

9 out of 10

From Rick Florino of Artist Direct:

Most live records don't capture the primal, poetic power that Soundgarden's Live on I5 does.

In fact, most studio records don't either, but that's another story. Recorded over various dates during the west coast leg of Soundgarden's 1996 tour, Live on I5 is the legendary band's very first proper live release, and it stands alongside their classic albums Louder Than Love, Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, and Down on the Upside proudly. There's an urgency to the recording, and you can practically hear guitar god Kim Thayil picking the meandering riff during opener, "Spoonman." An older gem, "Searching with my Good Eye Closed," builds with a rhythmic darkness from drummer Matt Cameron's polyrhythmic pummeling and Ben Shepherd's brooding bass lines. At the heart of the sonic maelstrom, Chris Cornell bleeds every inch of his soul into each into each note of "Let Me Drown" and the psychedelically invasive Superunknown standout "Head Down." There's a paranoid sensitivity pulsating through these live renditions that takes hold of the record and doesn't let go—just like everything the band's done.

"Burden in My Hand" sees Cornell reach heights that only Robert Plant could, while the chug on "Slaves & Bulldozers" celebrates Black Sabbath musically, while encasing the delivery in its own sludgy brilliance. The band's cover of "Helter Skelter" proves poignant, seeing Cornell tear through the song with a punk fire and the accompanying music morph into full heavy metal rapture.

"Fell on Black Days" comes to life on stage as the crowd echoes its calculated catharsis in the dark hook. The band subtly shines in pockets of instrumental virtuosity bubbling up just under the surface of their mega-hit "Black Hole Sun," as the audience's energy practically roars through the speakers. Everything culminates with a divine "Jesus Christ Pose," as Cornell's screams reach out to heaven before one final crushing embrace of guitars, drums, and bass sends it all home.

I5 never sounded so beautiful, and Soundgarden have crafted a classic live album. This is essential listening and the perfect way to whet your appetite for the band's anxiously awaited forthcoming studio album.

4.5 stars out of 5

From Karina Halle of Consequence of Sound:

Live albums can be notoriously hard to review. After all, they’re usually the mixture of a band’s finest songs -“best of” moments carved out in time – and it’s hard to complain about some of the most iconic and revered songs in an artist’s discography. It’s also difficult to encapsulate the power of a live performance when the listener isn’t there to witness it themselves. As great as the best live album might sound, it still pales in comparison to the real thing. To see it is to believe it.

Soundgarden’s first-ever live album, Live on the I-5, has three things which make it stand out from other releases of its kind, right off the bat. For one, this is the first material Soundgarden has released since their breakup in 1997 (not counting last year’s resurrected “Black Rain”), which makes it automatically appreciated by any self-respecting fan. Second, the recordings were all captured during a slice of their 1996 tour, back when Chris Cornell’s voice was at its most powerful and the band still produced an aura of unity. Third…well, it’s Soundgarden. To say they were one of the strongest purveyors of grunge may sound outdated now, but there’s no denying the band’s near legendary place in that particular music scene.

The album title takes its name from Interstate 5, which runs up the West coast. The recorded shows all fall somewhere along that road, including Vancouver, BC, their hometown of Seattle, WA, Oakland and Del Mar, CA, and Salem, OR. Aside from playing a lot of their hits, such as the energetic “Spoonman” (in Del Mar), a raucous “Rusty Cage” (in Vancouver, BC), and the schizophrenic “Jesus Christ Pose” (in Oakland), there are some unusual twists and turns.  A successfully slinkier version of “Black Hole Sun” (performed in Seattle), and a frenzied rendition of “Ty Cobb” come to life, while a slowed-down cover of “Helter Skelter” and a version of The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” give fans some “new” material to feast their ears on.

Cornell’s voice sounds noticeably rough and broken at parts (“Let Me Down” comes to mind), but, for the most part, he manages to maintain his famous guttural wail throughout. The sound is also exceptionally well-mixed, and the output from the audience never overpowers the songs. Instead, it adds just enough excitement and atmosphere. The only caveat here is that the recordings were done at different shows during the tour, which can hamper any feelings of continuity. Luckily, these recordings flow together nicely for the most part, at times giving the impression that they could have been recorded in one place, at one time.

There’s nothing too exceptional about Live on the I-5, but given that this is the first new release from the recent reincarnation of Soundgarden, it’s worth a listen. Plus, knowing that the band is working on new material, it’s just enough to tide over the band’s patient fanbase while still keeping people on their toes.

3.5 stars out of 5

From The Music Fix:

The Interstate 5, or I5 as it is commonly referred to, runs the length of the West Coast, from the Canadian boarder all the way down to Mexico. On its way South, it passes though grunge mecca Seattle, Washington, home of the mighty Soundgarden. They was grunge even before there was grunge. They were the forefathers, the leaders. In their heyday they could not be touched, not even by that other celebrated Seattle band. With Chris Cornell's Wagnerian vocals (which could go from gut growling roar to a blood curdling scream in seconds) matched with Kim Thayil's ferocious guitar, they perfectly melded the 70s rock might of Led Zeppelin with the stripped down, bare bones no nonsense sound booming out of Seattle clubs in the mid-80s.

Live on I5, recorded during the West Coast leg of their 1996 tour for Down on the Upside, was set to be released after the tour, however the band's demise the following year meant that it was left gathering dust in a Seattle recording studio for 13 years. Now, in celebration of their 2010 reunion tour and release of the retrospective collection Telephantasm, this gem can now see the light of day and remind people just what all the fuss was about. Incorporating songs from their last three studio albums - Badmotorfinger, Superunknown and Down on the Upside - the 17 song set demonstrates just what a superbly tight-knit live act Soundgarden were. With little ado and virtually no stage banter, the band charge through the set as if their lives depended on it. Well-known numbers like 'Rusty Cage', 'Black Hole Sun' (here performed as a solo by Chris Cornell) and a truly blistering rendition of the mammoth 'Jesus Christ Pose', ride along side other killer tunes such as 'Spoonman', 'Outshined' and an excellently creepy version of The Beatles' classic 'Helter Skelter'. The only let down that can be said is the absence of anything from Louder Than Love. Ah well.

Live on I5 brings home all the power and magnitude of one of the most important bands to come out of the Seattle scene. For some this will be a trip down memory lane, for others a chance to have a taste of the magic that is alas long gone.

8 out of 10

From William Kherbek of Alt Sounds:

Here we go. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to a song by Soundgarden, I think Superunknown’s ubiquity made it almost impossible for me to think of the band in the same way I had when Badmotorfinger and Louder than Love came out, but listening to the new live album, “Live on I-5” which collects some fiery performances from several classic West Coast shows, I was reminded what I had been missing. All the classics are here, “Spoon Man”, “Fell on Black Days”, “Jesus Christ Pose”, maybe not so happily “Black Hole Sun” too. There are plenty of tracks for true believers as well, a damn solid version of “Burden in My Hand” which was much, much better than I remember it being.

“Outshined,” routinely one of the best songs to hear them play live is great here, the way it balances between the kind of thunderous heaviness that makes you fear someone’s resurrected a dinosaur and the shiny brilliance of the chorus. It all feels so liberatory, you can almost forget how ponderous grunge ended up being most of the time.

Then there’s “Rusty Cage” which is completely frantic in the best possible way. Rare is the rock song that makes you ponder the implications it has for philosophy, but as I was listening to the guys thrash their way through “Rusty Cage” I thought about how the concept of Romanticism had evolved in 20th Century America. Gone was the stultifying imperative to elevation so deeply ingrained in European conceptions, Soundgarden seem to tap into a primal, American Romanticism that owes very little to transcendentalism but more to the kind of indigenous vision quests that colour American literary classics. Plus it rocks. Hard.

Lesser known tracks shouldn’t feel too Minnesota as they’re given space to breathe too. “Slaves and Bulldozers” has a great sludgy viscosity, and Kim Thayil’s guitar on “Boot Camp” goes from sensitive to vicious in no time at all. If there’s a real star of the album it’s Thayil who is one of the few guitarists who you feel deserves the right to use as many pedals as he wants because, in his hands they realise their true potential. If there’s a down side to the album, it is a bit long. Live albums are notoriously bloated and Live on I-5 probably wouldn’t be ruined by being a bit shorter but still it’s great to hear the Garden in full bloom again.

Press reviews of Soundgarden's retrospective set Telephantasm:

From Amy Jones of Riot Magazine:

When Chris Cornell announced at the beginning of this year that Soundgarden were to reform after a staggering 12 year break, you could almost hear the celebration by fans the world over from behind their Twitter pages.

Since then the band have not disappointed, by releasing this compilation (both through the recent Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock game and in stores), playing a secret reunion show and headlining America’s prestigious Lollapalooza festival this summer.

Current offering, Telephantasm is the epitome of what a good retrospective compilation should be … and then some. With an impressive 24-song track listing that includes all the original hits as well as previously unreleased songs and live versions, the fun doesn’t just stop there. This also includes a DVD with bonus videos on to boot. A great showcase of the band’s impeccable talent spanning their 14year career until their untimely demise back in 1997.

From listening to Telephantasm, there are no two ways about it; Chris Cornell is something of a genius. This is just a small reminder of just how amazing Soundgarden were back in their day. Songs such as ‘Black Hole Sun’, ‘Spoonman’, ‘Blow Up The Outside World’ and (personal favourite) ‘Burden In My Hand’ may now sound slightly dated and have more of a nostalgic sentiment attached to them for the listener. The band may not pick up many new fans with this album, but then again that doesn’t seem to be what this was released for. Soundgarden have their loyal fans, and that’s all that matters to them.

Let’s hope they can continue to churn out songs of this calibre and magnitude if and when they finally get into the studio for a follow-up. Although, at the moment it seems to be more a case of when than if. Just how it should be.

From Derric Miller of Hardrock Haven: 8.2/10

If for no other reason than to own a copy of the obscenely hilarious track “Big Dumb Sex,” you have to purchase a copy of Soundgarden’s era-spanning compilation Telephantasm. Approximately 99 percent of these kinds of compilations — especially when coming from bands like Motley Crue or KISS or Bon Jovi — are purely marketing gimmicks. There is absolutely nothing to gain from owning them. Conversely, Telephantasm brings you back to the days when Soundgarden was at their most unpolished and rawest yet flaunted the most potential out of any band on the “Seattle scene,” and listening to an older song like “Hands All Over” next to a hit like “Black Hole Sun” proves evolution actually exists, no matter what Tea Party pundits argue.

Disc 1 is the better of the duo on this two CD-set, mostly because it houses the lesser known tracks. Disc 2 is riddled with classic compositions like “Birth Ritual,” “Spoonman,” “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell on Black Days,” “Pretty Noose,” and “Blow Up the Outside World,” but that won’t teach you anything new. Hearing where they came from into the legend they are today is the draw of this compilation.

You get a simplistic punk vibe from the opener, “All Your Lies,” and the male version of the banshee — Chris Cornell — opens his maw and you hear talent just discovering itself. Repetition was the name of the game for Soundgarden early on, especially when the recurring “All your fears are lies,” line, and they do it to comical levels on the aforementioned “Big Dumb Sex.” There is a palpable corrosion to this composition, something they wrote specifically to be jagged and unfriendly, but it’s somehow still catchy.

“Hands All Over” is the perfect example of Soundgarden milling around in that radio-friendly gray area between mainstream acceptance and sticking to their roots. The sexual drive of the song, from the churning bass of Ben Shepherd to the quirky guitar riff from Kim Thayil shows musical growth, but the lyrics step up into a darker poetic and visual onslaught, and Cornell wails on lines like, “Got my arms around baby brother; put your hands away, you’re going to kill your mother!” The less repetitive the band became, the more creative songwriters they discovered within themselves.

Of course, Soundgarden is a live animal, and you will get plenty of chances to feel their venom live. “Get on the Snake” is the first one, sort of a wailing, plodding song that is mostly effective as a “sign of the times,” although Cornell’s vocals show a vaster flexibility than their ilk like Nirvana, obviously Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, and basically every other band from that era. Layne Staley was the only singer even close to meeting Cornell’s talent, but didn’t stick around long enough for the end game.

“Black Rain” is the unreleased song Telephantasm brags about. It’s a demo version, and rides that weird, chugging rhythm Soundgarden trademarked back in the day. Soundgarden’s earlier songs, like “Full on Kevin’s Mom” (not found on this compilation) was pure chaos, and the vocal rhythms on “Black Rain” are shrieking and nearly un-rhythmic; you don’t know when they are cutting in for sure. That’s not a negative by any stretch; Soundgarden is relevant because of their ability to be musical innovators, and “Black Rain” is one of those songs that if you never heard, you’d know it was Soundgarden after just a few introductory notes.

With 24 songs, some buried treasures and a bevy of hits, Telephantasm is more than worth your time. If the band can still funnel this freakishly sexual, ominous yet melodic concoction of Hard Rock into new music today, they should do it. Only the entire planet would be better off for it.

From AJ Ramirez of Popmatters: 9/10

The story hasn't gotten old now

When Soundgarden split up in 1997, the press didn’t canonize the band like it did to fellow ‘90s grunge casualty Nirvana. The group’s demise was merely mourned with sad platitudes, marked as yet another nail in the coffin that was alternative rock’s declining mainstream power at the end of the decade. Since then, it’s been easy to take the band’s existence for granted, reserved for obligatory acknowledgment in grunge histories and by the continued presence of select Soundgarden hits on rock radio stations. However, steps are being taken to rectify that, as earlier this year, the group’s classic quartet of Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron has taken cues from other major alt-rock bands that imploded around the lean years where nu-metal and teen pop dominated popular music (Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Blur, etc.) by reforming for a spate of touring.

To commemorate (or cash in on, depending on how cynical you are) this development, A&M has issued a new deluxe-sized retrospective, Telephantasm (a bare bones 12-track single-disc edition is also available). The immediate question raised is whether or not there is actually a need for a second Soundgarden compilation. After all, the 1998 singles collection A-Sides issued following the group’s initial demise hit pretty much all the high points one would expect a Soundgarden collection to cover. Ah, but what people often forget when it comes to compilation albums is that context is key. By stretching out, roping in key non-single cuts, and providing a bonus DVD loaded with all the group’s videos, Telephantasm not only supplants A-Sides as the definitive Soundgarden compilation, but it emerges as one of the most thrilling, effective band retrospectives to come out in years.

I like Soundgarden as much as any other rock fan probably does (tracks from the band’s 1994 masterpiece Superunknown still figure into my personal listening rotation), but what’s astounding about Telephantasm is how its presentation of the band’s material makes it compulsively listenable. Upon first receiving a copy of the album, I popped the second disc into my computer merely to see if the live version of “Jesus Christ Pose” included was really worthy of replacing its studio counterpart (which, in my mind, is one of the most confounding, yet exhilarating, singles ever released by a major record label) on the record’s running order. Five or six tracks later, I had to forcefully pull myself away in order to complete my errands for the day. Once this record starts, you do not want to hit the stop button. Furthermore, the record never lets up in regard to either infectiousness or visceral-ness: akin to my first experience listening to the 1997 remix of the Stooges’ classic album Raw Power, the thought that constantly ran through me during my initial examination was “I think this album is actually trying to murder me”.

The deluxe version of Telephantasm stretches from “All Your Lies” from the seminal 1986 Deep Six compilation, on through to the new single “Black Rain”, which is actually a previously unreleased song recorded during sessions for Soundgarden’s 1991 breakthrough Badmotorfinger. Early on, Soundgarden was already compelling, even if a little too conventionally metal in places. Built out of spiraling hypno-riffs, “All Your Lies” showcases a raw, sinewy Soundgarden featuring vocals by a fresh-faced Cornell that surprisingly recall Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. Although one of the founders of grunge in the mid 1980s, Soundgarden was always more complicated than the conventional shorthand description of the genre as a simple mash-up of punk and heavy metal: aside from an audible Black Flag influence, the group evidenced more of a desire to mix arty, dissonant post-punk (Bauhaus and Gang of Four) and “pigfuck” noise rock (Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers) than standard hardcore with its ’70 metal riffing.

“All Your Lies” is a hell of a start, and Telephantasm continues to impress over the course of the first disc as the group finds its voice and hones its attack. Even as early as “Beyond the Wheel”, Soundgarden was demonstrating how adept it was at delivering awe-inspiring apocalyptic doom dirges. Another important development was the gradual introduction of psychedelic influences, which added color to Soundgarden’s monochrome angst. Relative weak spots like “Fopp” (wah-wah pedal heavy-funk that only really clicks whenever it gets to the chorus) and “Big Dumb Sex” (a crass pseudo-anthem that isn’t really good enough to make up for its ham-fisted attempt at irony) do emerge, but these are minor concerns as the disc is able to regain its momentum after each misstep, and the disc ends stronger than it begins as it concludes with A-rate cuts from Badmotorfinger like the downer-than-down rock radio staple “Outshined” and the appropriately-descriptive “Slaves and Bulldozers”. While the initial major label positioning of Soundgarden as the next Guns ‘N Roses seemed at odds with its roots in the Sub Pop-dominated Seattle alt-rock scene, there is no such ideological conflict contained in the music itself, which posits the group as a perfect mixture of metal and alternative sensibilities, able to straddle both genres as if they were one integrated whole.

If the first disc made the case that the band hit the ground running creatively from the outset, by the second disc, Telephantasm convincingly argues for the band’s place alongside metal icons Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the two bands it was most often compared to. Kicking off with the phenomenal 1993 live rendition of “Jesus Christ Pose” (a superheated cauldron of metal and alternative rock that constantly threatens to scorch your face off, ending with over a minute of post-trauma guitar feedback), the disc runs through the Singles soundtrack contribution “Birth Ritual” before making its way through a hefty chunk of Superunknown. When the band’s biggest hit, “Black Hole Sun”, finally shows up, the mood is serene yet disconcerting, like being passed over by the eye of a devastating hurricane. As the album reaches the cuts culled from the band’s final album, Down on the Upside (1996), the group has finally shaken off its remaining Zeppelisms (aside from Cornell’s eternally Robert Plant-flavored wail) in favor of casting itself as a sort of grunge Beatles, all Lennonesque melodies intertwined with Soundgarden’s customary detuned, odd-meter riffs. It’s certainly more melodic than what have come before, but the intensity remains. After all that, the newly-released “Black Rain” has a lot to live up to. Refreshingly, the track is vintage Soundgarden, a perfectly acceptable addition to the set even if its psychedelic Sabbath-isms become a bit repetitive.

If that wasn’t enough, the bonus DVD rounds up every Soundgarden promo video, including alternate and uncensored versions. The visuals are less cohesive than the musical assemblage, as the rock vid clichés of the Louder than Love promos (large spot-lit soundstages and lots of hard rock posturing) stand at odds with the seemingly mandatory surreal imagery of 1990s alternative rock videos that dominates the rest of the clips. Nothing exemplifies this aesthetic shift better than how Chris Cornell (grunge’s only true sex symbol) appears in full bare-chested and long-haired glory up until the Superunknown era, where he opts for a more post-Alternative Nation-friendly messy crop and t-shirts. If you can forgive the dated computer special effects (particularly on the “Superunknown” video included in the Bonus section), many of the videos still hold up to a modern viewing.

What prevents Telephantasm from being absolutely perfect is some rather boneheaded tracklist decisions. The biggest omission is the harrowing Superunknown single “The Day I Tried to Live”, truly one of the band’s bleakest and most powerful moments. Several tracks see their studio incarnations replaced by previously-unreleased live renditions. The material is certainly appreciated, but not at the expense of the regular versions. While the live version of “Jesus Christ Pose” unequivocally earns its keep, other substitutions don’t fare as well, being hampered by poor recording quality (“Get on the Snake”), subpar performance (the Saturday Night Live broadcast of “Pretty Noose”), or utter pointlessness (why include the music video take of “Fell on Black Days” when the video itself is included in the set?).

There’s so much exemplary material stuffed inside the dodgy artwork that adorns Telephantasm (seriously, it looks like something befitting a Creed album) that the overall picture that emerges makes up for any smaller slights that can be found within. Here is a compilation that moves from strength to strength, constantly ratcheting up expectations and delivering on them. There are several points throughout the set—be it “Beyond the Wheel” or “Rusty Cage” or “Birth Ritual” or “Superunknown”—where it feels as if you have just heard the ultimate Soundgarden song, and that the band couldn’t possibly produce anything that could top what has come before. And then it does. Telephantasm is a profound argument for Soundgarden’s mastery of writing heavy rock music, where song structures are engagingly unconventional and every tune has at minimum two classic riffs. Furthermore, Telephantasm is a potent reminder that heavy music can be brutal yet intelligent, that music that’s dissonant and gnarly can achieve mainstream acceptance, and that it’s been far, far too long since most alternative/indie rock has rocked this hard so well. Whatever the reformed Soundgarden is currently cooking up is ultimately irrelevant, for Telephantasm is an astonishing document that effectively summarizes the group’s past career and subsequently confirms its status as a true legend in modern rock music.

From Michael Melchor of 411mania: 7.5/10

Reuniting with a greatest hits set after previously releasing a greatest hits set? That takes some guts.

For newer fans - or those that may have not have heard a lot of the band until they got their copy of Telephantasm included with the Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock game, this is going to be real short and sweet: consider Telephantasm your recommended Soundgarden 101 course. If you like what you hear on the disc and the game - and if you like dirty, no-nonsense rock and roll, it stands to reason there’s no reason you shouldn’t - then proceed with picking up a copy of A-Sides and enjoy your beginner’s course. After that, feel free to seek out the 2 CD/DVD edition for more before going through the catalog proper. Go forth, discover, and have a nice day.

Now, for those left that know and remember Soundgarden, any trepidation in picking up Telephantasm can certainly be understood. After all, quite a few long-time fans of Cornell, Thayil, Cameron, and Shapherd probably didn’t need to pick up A-Sides because they already had the best cuts from it. When the tracklisting for Telephantasm was revealed, it seemed part-retread and part-letdown. After all, A-Sides was the last release - in any form - from Soundgarden.

It is a pleasure to report, then, that Telephantasm - in its expanded form, leastways - is much more than a retread of A-Sides. Sure, much of the main tracks from the greatest hits set they released last is still here, but there’s quite a bit of bonus material that wasn’t there. The first four tracks alone - “All Your Lies”, “Hunted Down”, “Fopp”, and “Beyond The Wheel” - were all really early tracks that were absent from the A-Sides set. The first one that was on it that’s also on Telephantasm - “Flower” - is on the new collection, but it’s a BBC Session recording.

The constant comparisons to A-Sides may be a little infuriating. It even comes across that way as it’s being typed. Totally understood. However, it seems necessary because it’s really difficult to remember when the last time a band released a “greatest hits” set as their final release, and then reunited with...a “greatest hits” set. It’s unclear whether or not Soundgarden is working on newer material, and Cornell has made it pretty clear that the band has no real designs on sticking to a schedule or going back to the usual grind. They’re set to do this on their own terms - admirable, but frustrating for fans who would like to skip the nostalgia angle and get straight to hearing the band get back to writing the sort of songs that hammered their name in to music history in the first place.

Until such time, however, Telephantasm makes for a good tie-over - even for a nostalgia package. The band went out of their way to include some rarities, such as live versions of “Get On The Snake”, “Jesus Christ Pose”, “Pretty Noose”, and “Blow Up The Outside World”. One of these, however, may have been a mistake; the reading of “Pretty Noose” from “Saturday Night Live” is far from one of Cornell’s finer vocal moments. In fact, it could be cited as the starting point for many noticing that Cornell’s voice wasn’t what it was back when Soundgarden was at their bombastic peak.

For those desperate for new(ish) material, there is one track here that hasn’t been released in any form - “Black Rain”. An unheard track from the Badmotorfinger sessions, the track is very reminiscent of “New Damage” a song that’s sorely missed from Telephantasm, particularly the version featuring Queen’s Brian May heard on the Alternative NRG collection. That being said, it makes sense to leave off “New Damage” in favor of a similar-sounding song that’s never been heard before on a set such as this.

The 411: All in all, Telephantasm stands as a pretty good introduction to Soundgarden (as included with the new Guitar Hero game). The expanded edition, however, comes off as a condensed boxed-set. Rarities, classics, live songs, warts and all...and with a cheaper price tag. A pretty good deal, all in all, for fans of Soundgarden, Seattle rock, and rock music as a whole.

From Scott Kara of the New Zealand Herald: 4/5

In a world first, this Best Of compilation by reformed Seattle arty grunge heavyweights Soundgarden initially came out with the Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock video game last week before its traditional release on Monday. It takes in early songs like Beyond the Wheel off grimey yet grand 1988 debut Ultra-Mega OK, through big songs Rusty Cage and Black Hole Sun, and some alternate versions, including a thundering and primitive live take of Jesus Christ Pose. While some of the early songs are heavy going, and Dusty from last album Down On the Upside is dodgy, with 24 tracks on two discs, a DVD of 20 videos, and a history booklet, fans can't go wrong.

From David Raposa of Pitchfork: 5/10

Unlike a fair number of their PacNW peers, Soundgarden suffered through some growing pains. The problem wasn't so much that the band was trying to find its own voice, but that Chris Cornell wasn't always sure how to best utilize his. Cornell's apocalyptic shriek is the sort of weapon of mass destruction that needs to be implemented with care and precision. Letting it run free on the sludgy metal-punk of "All Your Lies" or faking the funk on a cover of the Ohio Players' "Fopp" were baby steps. And yet, getting to hear songs like these-- and, more importantly, to hear the band hit its stride on "Hunted Down" (from the Screaming Life EP) or "Beyond the Wheel" (from their first full-length, Ultramega OK)-- alongside the alt-rock standards, is a big part of the hook for Telephantasm.

This new career-spanning collection comes in a few packages-- the woefully skint single-disc version that will be packaged with copies of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the collector-baiting 2xCD/DVD/3xLP/book-and-pictures version, and a 2xCD version that serves as a somewhat serviceable overview of Soundgarden's career. For most people, the one to consider is the 2xCD version, and if there's one thing it does better than its best-of predecessor (1997's now-deleted A-Sides), it's acknowledging that the band released a fair amount of music before signing with A&M Records.

The potential displayed in their early years, coupled with the group's impeccable pedigree-- not many bands can say they released records on both Sub Pop and SST-- made that major-label jump a foregone conclusion. When Soundgarden did issue their A&M debut, 1989's Louder Than Love, they were still trying to figure things out. A track like "Hands All Over" has Cornell and friends striking the sort of po-faced martyrs' pose they'd later mock mercilessly, while "Big Dumb Sex" (the "I wanna fuck fuck fuck fuck you" song) seems to confuse being a parody of overblown cock rock with being the real thing. Group those two tracks with a half-decent live version of the half-decent "Get on the Snake" (speaking of cock rock) and a sloppy pre-Badmotorfinger take on "Room a Thousand Years Wide", and that's a third of Telephantasm out of the way without much of note happening.

Thankfully, the Telephantasm compilers (mostly) get out of their own way when picking what to include from 1991's Badmotorfinger-- they simply run with the album's first four tracks, and it's by far the best stretch of music on Telephantasm's first disc. By now, Kim Thayil's thick yet fluid guitar leads meet up with an equally heavy and flexible rhythm section to create a menacing backdrop that's perfect for Cornell's ungodly holler. Even better, Cornell's learned that the nuclear option works just as well as an implied threat-- and that makes his shriek that much more effective when it's let off the leash. On tracks like "Outshined" and "Jesus Christ Pose", Soundgarden figured out how to balance their messianic metallic tendencies with both a sizable helping of self-awareness and a fondness for off-kilter time signatures. The addition of bassist Ben Shepherd gave the group both a strong foundation and an off-kilter songwriting voice to add to the mix.

Alas, Telephantasm aims to bait fans by including a live version of "Jesus Christ Pose" instead of the album cut-- a pattern repeated too often on Disc Two, which (aside from the group's contribution to the Singles soundtrack, "Birth Ritual") covers Soundgarden's final two albums. 1994's Superunknown is, of course, the record that transformed the group into alt-rock superstars, so of course "Black Hole Sun" and "Spoonman" are here. Two of the album's other singles, the surf-flavored "My Wave" and the fittingly pessimistic "Fell on Black Days", are also in the mix, though "Black Days" is represented by its lesser video-edit version. Down on the Upside-- Superunknown's gentler and more unfocused sibling-- has both of its most notable singles ("Pretty Noose", "Blow Up the Outside World") repped by live versions, the former represented by its performance on "Saturday Night Live", a venue infamous for making almost every musical performer that's graced its stage sound like ass. Also here is the album version of "Burden in My Hand" and "Dusty", an unremarkable album track that gave their final record its title.

Finally, as with every career-spanning compilation looking to make a buck, there's the rare or unreleased track: Where A-Sides offered an import B-side ("Bleed Together"), Telephantasm unearths a Badmotorfinger outtake, "Black Rain", which sounds exactly like... a Badmotorfinger outtake.

Even if you're not specifically on one of the group's many wavelengths, there's plenty to enjoy on Telephantasm-- fans whose tastes lean towards heavier stuff might find something to like in the Badmotorfinger tracks, while folks whose rock sensibilities are more melodic can dip their toes in the Superunknown. That said, for one extra dollar, curious iTunes shoppers can bypass the middle man and just buy copies of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown-- those albums' deep cuts are much better than most of the tunes on Telephantasm, and you'll get studio singles rather than cut-rate bootlegs.

Telephantasm was an opportunity to redefine Soundgarden's somewhat disparate career: to better illustrate the stylistic throughlines that connect Screaming Life to Down on the Upside; to take cuts from their neglected albums and place them in a more forgiving context; to breathe new life into well-known singles. It's a trick the band itself managed to turn with its first post-reunion gig. Performing as Nudedragons, the group took the stage at the Showbox in Seattle this past April and played a set that showed as much love to Louder Than Love and Ultramega OK as any other album in their catalog, giving each portion of their career equal respect without resorting to simply playing just the hits. Succeeding at this sort of task is easier said than done, but it would've been nice if Telephantasm at least tried.

From Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com: 4.5/5

Since so much of Soundgarden’s legacy lay in the years before their superstardom, their major label-oriented 1997 A-Sides compilation didn’t quite do them justice. Although it contained cuts from the years before they signed to A&M, A-Sides downplayed the first act of their story, so the 2010 compilation Telephantasm is quite welcome, at least in its double disc incarnation where there’s enough room to capture the entire arc of the group’s career. Not only is there a heavy dose of their SST and SubPop recordings but there is a strategic deployment of live cuts, BBC sessions, single versions and rarities, including the previously unreleased outtake “Black Rain,” all of which capture the band at their heaviest, a shift that’s particularly notable toward the end of their career, with “Pretty Noose” and “Blow Up The Outside World” present in rawer versions than their studio incarnations. This may not satisfy a casual fan who wants to hear versions played on the radio, but the entirety of Telephantasm winds up being something better than a hits collection: it captures the essence of the band, why they were important and why they still sound powerful some twenty years later. [This deluxe set also includes a bonus DVD containing all of Soundgarden’s music videos, including several alternate versions of familiar clips.]

From Chris Carle at IGN: 9/10

This jam-packed collection offers all the hits, interesting alternate recordings and new music. What more can Soundgarden fans ask for?

You know the winds of musical change have shifted when a band's compilation CD is timed to the release of a new videogame. That's exactly what has happened with Soundgarden's latest greatest hits CD, Telephantasm. Released to coincide with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Telephantasm also contains Soundgarden's newest cut "Black Rain" (the single is also playable in-game).

"Black Rain" is the first Soundgarden track in quite awhile and it fits comfortably in the pantheon of their music. While it not be as vital or catchy as "Outshined," "Rusty Cage" or "Fell on Black Days," it's a welcome gift to fans who have missed the band.The rest of this set is a tour through the history of Soundgarden's biggest hits, and a good sampling of music that casual fans might not have explored. What stands out is how consistently amazing the band has been through the years.

The early stuff is a little rough around the edges (which is not necessarily a bad thing), but by Badmotorfinger, the band was at the height of their powers. During the Nineties they were one of the most impactful and hardest rocking bands around, and this collection highlights the songs that led to their legacy. For the most part, it's a sequential look at Soundgarden's essential catalog, beginning with selections from 1988's Ultramega OK through Down on the Upside and concluding with "Black Rain." With two discs' worth of music, there is ample space to showcase the biggest and best, and everything from "Big Dumb Sex" to "Spoonman" is included.

A majority of the tracks are recordings straight from their discography, but there are some surprises as well. Instead of releasing the album version of "Fell on Black Days," they opted for the softer, more pensive video version. "Get On the Snake" and "Jesus Christ Pose" offer live versions which are inferior to the disc recordings, but give fans something different. There is also a BBC Session version of "Flower" and the SNL performance of "Pretty Noose," both welcome additions.

It's likely that Soundgarden super fans will already have a good deal of this music, with the exception of "Black Rain." But this is the perfect compilation for casual fans who are looking to round out their collection, or the nostalgic masses who knew and loved Soundgarden during the grunge days. It stands as a testament to the band's sustained awesomesness and is one of the better greatest hits offerings of recent years.

From Steven Fanning at Subba-Cultcha: 9/10

Out of the Rusty Cage, Soundgarden run...
The announcement last year that the Knights Of The Sound Table were to ride again was met across the globe with universal excitement. In the early nineties, when grunge ruled the airwaves, alongside Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees and Alice In Chains, Soundgarden were one of the biggest hitters to come out of the dominant Seattle scene, and in Badmotorfinger and Superunknown recorded two of the period’s defining albums, before releasing the somewhat tepid Down On The Upside. Telephantasm is a career retrospective, taking in the Soundgarden’s formative years right through to their final work for A&M and consequent implosion.

Originally signing to Sub Pop in 1986, the band’s first two EP’s were raw, skittish metal, notable for the heaviness of Kim Thayil’s guitars and the screaming tunefulness of Chris Cornell’s vocals. ‘All Your Lies’, ‘Fopp’ and ‘Hunted Down’ all make the cut here, ‘Hunted Down’ being currently notable after its re-release on 7” vinyl for Record Shop Day. Ultramega OK, Soundgarden’s first full album release, is generally overlooked in their career, but the inclusion of ‘Beyond The Wheel’ is fitting, the session version of ‘Flower’ maybe not so; it’s slow and droning and is more a notional catalyst for what was to come rather than a pivotal part in the story – the space on the CD could’ve been better used.

From ‘Hands All Over’ onwards we begin to enter Soundgarden’s heyday. After signing a major label deal, the Soundgarden we remember truly begin to take shape. Louder Than Love was not, in its entirety, a great record, but it sketched out the Soundgarden of the future through the quite sublime ‘Hands All Over’ and the beautifully raw, yet sadly overlooked for this collection, ‘Gun’. A running theme throughout Telephantasm is the poor representation of the band from their live recordings, and ‘Get On The Snake’ live here adds nothing that the original wouldn’t have.

Then we come to Badmotorfinger and Soundgarden begin to realise the promise their earlier work screamed of. ‘Rusty Cage’ and ‘Outshined’ are flawless, and brilliant. Thayil’s guitar work hints at the East yet delivers a sound that becomes so synonymous and vital to its time in the West, it’s almost without compare, yet without Cornell’s creativity and vocals, Cameron’s frenetic drumming and Ben Shepherd, the final part in the Soundgarden jigsaw, completing the set, we wouldn’t be looking back on and lamenting a great band that could’ve been. Cornell alone has hardly set the world alight.

And so we come to ‘Jesus Christ Pose’. In this one song, we hear the depths of despair augmented with deep, dark, energising guitar and the simple notion of a perfectly crafted, vital piece of grunge lore in the snappy, sharp vocals that Cornell lays down, which unfortunately they never could capture live. Why they would choose to use an unremarkable and hugely disappointing live recording of such a crucial and pivotal part of the story on this retrospective is frankly baffling. Beyond hawking this to the existing fanbase with something they probably don’t already own, the commercial aspect to Telephantasm comes to the fore above that of really providing something for the fans. And throughout Telephantasm this is a consistent complaint.

Superunknown was arguably their finest work, it was the final breakthrough record and the purists will maybe argue that ‘Black Hole Sun’ and ‘Fell On Black Days’ pandered more to the MTV (as proved by the inclusion of the ‘video version’ of FOBD) world than the true fans Soundgarden had coveted throughout the years, yet Superunknown will forever reign supreme as their most accomplished work. The inclusion of the afore mentioned tracks alongside ‘My Wave’ and the title track ‘Superunknown’ are all perfectly fine, but there could’ve been room for ‘Limo Wreck’ or ‘Kickstand’ here to make it seem a little more considered.

As Superunknown gave way to Down On The Upside, Soundgarden began to lose their way. They started to sound disconnected and ultimately stagnant. ‘Pretty Noose’ and ‘Blow Up The Outside World’ were never any more than simply passable, and the remainder of the album nothing more than career filler. The subsequent split was no real surprise.

Telephantasm is an anthology of two parts; the sublime and the not so. Soundgarden were, and are, a band of incredible reach and talent, and their fans will always endure, and here the cynicism over Telephantasm arises. This isn’t something for the fans, it’s something for the fans to buy. There’s nothing on here that you really need apart from the previously unreleased, and quite brilliant, track ‘Black Rain’, which captures the Badmotorfinger years perfectly. It shows the band Soundgarden were, and are, quite succinctly, and stands heads and shoulders above the latter era of their career together. To truly experience Soundgarden, however, your money could be much better spent simply buying Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, as these are two almost perfect records. The less impressive junctures of their career will always taint their greater achievements, but overall, you can’t really go wrong with this. On their day, there are fewer better bands, and this is how they’ll always be remembered. Soundgarden are an undeniable 10/10 band, but the weaker, more cynical moments, of this comp disappointingly cost them a point. It’s great to have them back though, here’s hoping it sticks, there always was another great album in them somewhere...

from Jack Foley at IndieLondon: 4/5

SOUNDGARDEN are one of the great acts in American music history. Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron collectively redefined rock music for a whole generation and had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history. As one of the first bands to release music on the venerated Sub Pop label, and the first band to come out of the 90’s Seattle music scene to later sign to a major label, they have cemented a place in the record books as one of the biggest rock acts of all time.

Their greatest hit, arguably, remains Black Hole Sun, a seminal offering that actually marks a departure from their more trademark sound… but also a highlight in a career that saw them emerge from underground renegades to kings of the K-ROQ radio waves. Throughout their history, whether preaching dirty sex or teen rebellion, they fitted into scenes: whether surfing, grunge rock, the sound of the American summer…. you name it. It’s pretty safe to assume that whether you call yourself a fan or not, one of their songs has touched you in some way, or been part of your record collection.

Telephantasm is an all consuming career retrospective that, in its own way, makes further history for the band. For, in addition to releasing the LP in conventional formats (ie, record shops and download sites), the band has also announced that they will be partnering with innovative gaming publisher Activision Publishing, Inc. to release the album simultaneously inside 1 million copies of the new videogame Guitar Hero®: Warriors of Rock. It’s a shrewd move that should guarantee they reach out to a whole new army of fans.

For the purposes of this review, however, we’re content to mull over their achievements thus far… and pick out the best bits of what is, unquestionably, a great, multi-label spanning career retrospective. Admittedly, the band’s earliest stuff veers more towards the Guns ‘N’ Roses heavy rock sound than the Seattle scene that would become their trademark. But even then, there were moments to savour, with Fopp, Beyond The Wheel, Hands All Over and Big Dumb Sex standing out on the first CD (of 2). A previously unreleased BBC Session version of Flower also rates as a real buzz cut for Soundgarden fans coveting something new to listen to, while a single version of Room A Thousand Years Wide and a live rendition of Get On The Snake are two more picks from the previously unheard material.

CD2 is where the band really come into their own, however, with Black Hole Sun standing head and shoulders above them all as the go to track for all-time classic status. It’s as fresh, vibrant and, yes, sing-along today as it was way back when…But My Wave is a great surfing culture track, Spoonman reverberates with some absolutely corking guitar riffs, the video version of Fell On Black Days a downbeat grunge classic and Dusty a punchy mix of stop-start riffing and anthemic choruses. Then come three moments to savour for the patient fans among you: two previously unreleased live versions of Pretty Noose and Blow Up The Outside World and a thrilling never-before-heard track, Black Rain, which mixes thrilling, grunge guitar riffs with a set of vocals that really scream with stadium filling fury.

If we’re being ultra honest, Soundgarden are most definitely a band whose sound is rooted in American values and their latter material far outshines their early work (circa Black Hole Sun onwards), but this is still a great compilation package that does full justice to the legacy of one of America’s greatest and most influential rock acts. You gets your money’s worth!

From Petra Whiteley at Reflections of Darkness:

SOUNDGARDEN was one of the crucial bands on the Seattle grunge scene, at the same time it stood apart from NIRVANA and PEARL JAM. Grunge as a genre itself is self-limiting, one was bound to predict SOUNDGARDEN and ALICE IN CHAINS (AIC) as those that can get on further and not strangle themselves in repetitiveness as these two bands could straddle other styles, but in 1997 SOUNDGARDEN called it a day due to internal conflicts and pressure whilst AIC due to inactivity caused by drug addictions and death of their vocalist. Cornell went off to play with AUDIOSLAVE, which he formed with members from RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (RATM, minus Zack de la Rocha), whilst the other members collaborated with various bands and fellow musicians such as DEAD KENNEDYS singer Jello Biafra, Tonny Iommi, Dave Grohl’s side project, SMASHING PUMKINS and PEARL JAM. ALICE IN CHAINS started again in 2006 and finally in January this year SOUNDGARDEN reunited after 12 years too. Their comeback album is ‘Telephantasm’, a retrospective spanning over 13 years of their career; it includes their best as well as rare songs and also one new track ‘Black Rain’. It comes out as 1-CD edition and Double CD deluxe edition; this is the review of the later.

CD 1 is a trip through their earliest songs, when they forged their sound from BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN to BAUHAUS; building their bridge between metal, hard rock and grunge, with their trademark divergent time signatures and alternative tunings underlined with Cornell’s wide ranging vocals. DOORS and JIMI HENDRIX also come to mind when considering their starting directions and sounds. It is interesting to note that whilst ‘Big Dumb Sex’ with its repetition of ‘I’m gonna fuck you’ presented a controversy to the moralising establishment when it was released in 1989 whilst today it wouldn’t ruffle hardly as many feathers - not because moralising has died off but only moved on elsewhere. Also it might be that the establishment collected some brain cells and realised it was a parody of glam rock’s pussy footing around lyrically and obsessing on the subject of sex all the same. ‘Rusty Cage’ has a hard HENDRIX guitar sound, a bridge between metal and grunge; it was also covered by JOHNNY CASH. ‘Outshined’ is one of their more typically grungy ones, one of their greatest songs. This CD shows a wider diversity of sound and from that point of view makes it as a better one of the two.

Second CD is a showcase of Cornell’s darker, existentialist lyrics, the psychedelic tone is here still, although more lucid, on the other hand the songs are more homogenous in overall sound. ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ reminds one of RATM, the sound quality of the live song is poor, maybe it was untouched to give the listener feel of those times. It’s not a good idea - if one wants to revive memories, one will go to the concert, on the CD it’d have been better engineered. Brave inclusion on the other hand considering it was perceived as anti-Christian, it enraged some so much that the band started receiving death threats at the time. ‘Black Hole Sun’ - melodic, superb lyrics, although grungy it transcends it. Finally, the new track closes the collection, ‘Black Rain’ - SOUNDGARDEN moves on in with progressive metal; Cornell’s time playing with RATM’s members also shows a mark here regarding the guitar sound.

Some of their most loved songs are not at either edition (single or double CD) - such as for example: ‘Nothing To Say’ on neither and ‘The Day I Tried to Live’ on the Single CD-Version though you’ll find that uncensored on the DVD, which would one lead to think it’s not just best of, but also a bait to go back to the catalogue. After all, the 1-CD edition is being released together with new Guitar Hero game to spool even more listeners, be their new or roll call for the old ones. “Punk's not dead it just deserves to die when it becomes another stale cartoon” (DEAD KENNEDYS ‘Chickenshit Conformist’, Bedtime for Democracy LP) - to me it doesn’t only apply to punk, but all the other music trends, so much of grunge came to this so is SOUNDGARDEN an exception? If they keep on expanding their sound, keep exploring the other music paths as they did, but more so - yes.

Although the new song ‘Black Rain’ was not as promising as Cornell’s performance with James Bond’s Casino Royale theme song, ‘You Know My Name’, even with the limitations of the film’s production it was a better song, so I’m still not absolutely sure whether SOUNDGARDEN can create a refreshing new music and resurrect their career successfully, on the other hand I think that they are more than capable of it. As a compilation ‘Telephantasm’ gives a good, comprehensive overview and is essential in order to see the musical paths they’ve followed through their founding to their disbanding in late nineties.

From Steven Hurst at Glasswerk:

The reformation of one of the best grunge bands last sees a continuing trend for bands of yesteryear getting back together for live shows and the prospect of new material. Faith no More have been touring to great acclaim, and now Soundgarden are back too.

Grunge fans rate these bands in varying order. True grunge fans seem to agree that Nirvana is still the most over hyped of the bunch that had the greatest success whilst the likes of Perl Jam had the staying power to keep their music strong. Other bands have taken time out including the likes of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. Most if not all bands have been plagued with stories of drugs and in some cases death. What keeps us coming back is the quality of the music.

And it is in this release that we get to look back on Soundgarden’s output with this mix of singles and rare track releases along with a new single in the form of Black Rain.

Looking at the disc of familiar material we get some live recordings of Jesus Christ pose, Pretty Noose and Blow Up the Outside World. It’s nice to chart how quickly and confidently Chris Cornell’s voice has matured. It’s no wonder he sought to do other things with his voice. Yes not all of these have been successful but they are worthwhile ventures for a voice that needs no restraint.

But of course Soundgarden are three other guys as well and together they are arguably the better of the grunge bands. Quite simply cause they never offered up an album that sucked. Their last effort "Down On The Upside" brought us some tremendous singles. Perhaps the album was jam-packed full of some other filler material, but overall it was still a worthy effort. But the argument to this day seems to be whether the greatest effort by them was their early effort "Badmotorfinger" or the largely commercial hit "Superunknown". Personally I don’t think they got better than the latter as it is an album that can demand hard work. It took me a while before I fully appreciated everything about it – so it was almost like hard work paying off in a big bad way. Take note: this is not the same as being forced to listen to something until you start to like it – it’s more a case of discovering new things each time you listen and uncovering layers. The earlier album though has more purity to it and sees them walking the fine line between the rough beginnings and the refined popularity.

Get back to Telephantasm: I don’t know if this release is a marketing ploy to see if there is still interest in the band. Which considering that all these other bands from the same era are doing so well wouldn’t make much sense. But it’s a long two disc trawl through the very early material on the first disc where you can see the genius roots of the band that could literally have taken off in a very different direction. There are hints of the psychedelic, a large portion of punk with a lot less restraint as raw early records tend to have.

But by the time we are going through the still phenomenally great Superunknown, Spoonman, Burden In My Hand we are ready for something new. A live rendition of Blow Up the Outside World demonstrates Cornell’s power as a live performer, but then halfway through something goes terribly wrong and the disc refuses to play anymore! This is highly irritating as it’s a great song and we have yet to hear the last track on the album, the new song! Black Rain. But it is not to be on this occasion as after the disc is popped there is the discovery of two white round grazes on the disc which is clearly the problem! So it is not to be this time round, left to ponder what might have been, but still happy that one of the better rock acts that ever was is back with the possibility of a future.

It’s been a busy couple of years, but now that we have Soundgarden, Faith No More, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns n’ Roses and Alice In Chains back, Perhaps they can reflect on why they felt the need to go in the first place.

From Mike Diver at the BBC:

Superb 24-track best-of from the reformed Seattle hard-rockers

With the Knights of the Soundtable riding once more after 13 years apart, the time is right for an in-depth retrospective of one of the grunge era’s best-loved bands. Soundgarden, Seattle natives at the epicentre of the early 1990s’ plaid-and-flannel rock scene, already have one best-of to their name, 1997’s A-Sides. But Telephantasm goes further, spreading itself across 24 tracks and two discs, including excellent live performances alongside commercially released singles.

Favourites from these two-dozen numbers are sure to be selected according to listener age. As someone (just) in their early 30s, the Badmotorfinger and Superunknown cuts are instant reminders of my early explorations into what most parents would, at the time, have considered an unlistenable racket. These two long-players – the band’s third and fourth, from 1991 and 1994 respectively – are widely acknowledged to be the band’s best collections, and with good reason: plot a graph of their MTV-assisted mainstream fortunes and it’ll peak between the pair, primarily due to the plethora of brilliant singles from the period. From Badmotorfinger, Outshined and Rusty Cage enjoyed minor success in the UK; from Superunknown, Black Hole Sun reached number 12 in the UK and topped the chart in the US, while Spoonman and Fell on Black Days were also stateside top ten hits.

This can be seen as something of a surprise, as while association with the scene that spawned the globe-conquering Nirvana didn’t harm Soundgarden’s chances of breaking through, their sound owed much more to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath – battleship-sized basslines, belt-it-out vocals – than it did the scrappy punk outfits that appealed to Cobain and company. Soundgarden were old back when they were new, meaning that much of Telephantasm doesn’t sound horribly dated. Its raw charms may have aged, but they’re sharper than same-era cuts from fellow Seattleites Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.

The earliest songs here, from 1988 debut Ultramega OK (Flower, Beyond the Wheel) and the following year’s Louder Than Love (Big Dumb Sex, Hands All Over), lack the production punch of later fare. But the songwriting craft exhibited by frontman Chris Cornell and ex-bassist Hiro Yamamoto (replaced by Ben Shepherd in 1990) is already showing plenty of promise. Cornell would follow Soundgarden’s final LP, 1996’s thoroughly decent Down on the Upside (Burden in My Hand, Pretty Noose), with a string of less-appealing projects which culminated in a truly awful third solo LP, 2009’s Scream. But his various lows can be forgiven by just a single listen to this compilation’s numerous nose-bleeding highs, closed out by a previously unreleased and suitably low-end-centric treat, Black Rain, from the Badmotorfinger sessions.

From Zorro of Sonic Shocks: 9/10

Let me first start by saying how much I love Soundgarden. Chris Cornell has been one of my favourite vocalists from the period and knowing that he can still cut it makes me genuinely excited to be listening to the new release by Soundgarden. Scanning down the track listing, I see a couple of new entries to the mix, alongside classic songs which the guys are famed for. Beginning with ‘All your lies’, you are given a chance to rekindle your love for the band; where Cornell screams with intent and musical content is on point - combining high pitched, quirky screams and deep riffs. I always enjoyed ‘Hunted Down’ from the Screaming Life EP and I loved the dirty, grungy and gritty underpinning that runs throughout. It’s really cool that Soundgarden have opted to include tracks which many people may not have heard before (especially if they only purchased Superunknown). What this collection of songs has given me the opportunity to do is hear songs which I may previously have scanned over whilst listening to full length albums; such as ‘Hands all over’ which I’ve always like, but never gone out of my way to play over some of the other classics. But, as suggested, with Telephantasm, you can just let the album run, safe in the knowledge that every track is a winner.

Hearing the previously unreleased ‘Room a thousand years wide’ makes you question how groups choose which of their plethora of work to let loose on the public. Needless to say, that was a great track and justifies its airing on this album. Rolling immediately into ‘Rusty Cage’, the Telephantasm steps up a gear into a new dimension. Damn, I love Soundgarden. One thing I MUST do is see them live – it’s something I have always wanted to, but never had the opportunity.

Jesus Chris Pose LIVE – YES sir! Sounds phenononononononmenal! 100% solid gold. In fact, it was at this point that I went upstairs and rooted out all my Soundgarden vinyl and filled my stop gap with a heavy vinyl session. Which incidentally sounds ever better with age.

My Wave, Spoonman, Black Hole Sun, Fell on Black days.... need I say more? This album is a total MUST HAVE for any music fan. If you are ever slightly inclined to enjoy this style of music, then you should definitely treat yourself to this album.

From Catherine Yates of Classic Rock: 7/10

With the proliferation of illegal downloading pushing the recording industry towards an ever more uncertain future, so the once straightforward notion of album distribution has seen some creative variations of late: Slash, for example, sexed up te release of his solo album earlier this year by packaging it with a special edition of this very magazine. But what if it's not new material you're selling?

Considering most Soundgarden fans will be more excited about the recent reunion shows in April this year than in a collection of tracks they already own (either in album form or on 1997's "A Sises" best-of) the band have come up with a novel solution: the Seattle quartet are 'bundling' new career retrospective Telephantasm with the new Guitar Hero instalment, as an audio CD and also as downloadable content for the game itself. Which is some cunning marketing: long-time lovers of their alchemical reshaping of the Sabbath/Zeppelin back cats (that clawed at the heavens whuile Nirvana stayed in the everyday) get to try (and retry) their hand at the teeth-rattling metal judder of 'Outshined' or the doomed might of 'Black Hole Sun'; the younger, unitiated can get acquainted thriough repeat exposure, no doubt eventualy concluding that seismic enviro-anthem 'Hands All Over' hasthe best bass line known to man.

For videogame haters and diehard collectors, there's an expanded two-disc and two-DVD special, and also an ultra-mega deluxe edition that throws three LPs and a bunch of collectables into the mix. Each version also contains 'Black Rain', an unl;reeased terack from the 1991 Badmotorfinger sessions - fine by Soundgarden standards, but you wish there was something on this compilation that pointed to where the band might yet go as well as to where they've been.

Still, if it encourages back-catalogue research into all things Soundgarden via iPod, stereo or games console, then Telephantasm has done its ob. Listen to the elementtal sludge might of 'Slaves and Bulldozers' (included in the two-disc version) and then try to forgive Chris Cornell for Scream. Shudder.

[Webmaster: the gibe at Scream is odd considering the same magazine gave it 8/10 on release...hmm, maybe simply listening to it wasn't good enough and they needed to be re-educated by other critics as to the error of their ways..?]

From Austin Tasseltine of The Skinny: 3/5

Serving as something of a commercial first, this career retrospective from Seattle's ageing quartet will be bundled with the next Guitar Hero games package. With Soundgarden steadily acquiring one of the most heinously un-cool reputations in rock - thanks largely to Chris Cornell's narcissistic solo efforts and the clunky, dunderheided Zeppelinery of Audioslave - presumably the hope is that some vitality might return to their recently-risen corpse.

Whilst the multi-disc, limited edition version of the set contains a number of worthy rarities, this single disc boasts a nicely remastered version of their debut Sub Pop single and a powerful unreleased Badmotorfinger outtake (Black Rain) yet is rendered otherwise peripheral by 1997's more comprehensive A-Sides.

Though comprised of some fundamentally great songs, Telephantasm inexplicably omits bona fide classics like The Day I Tried To Live. Combined with the fact that there is no better introduction to Soundgarden than their insurmountably impressive 1994 opus Superunknown, the exercise feels a little redundant.

Press reviews of the cover of Led Zeppelin's"Whole Lotta Love" (sung by Chris Cornell) from Carlos Santana's new solo album Guitar Heaven:

From Kevin Zimmerman of Gather.com:

"Guitar Heaven generally suffers from a serious case of over-production, with layers of percussion and rhythm guitar cluttering up the soundscape when all the listener really wants to hear is the combination of Santana’s leads and the guest vocalist on each tune. Thus the opening salvo of Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” despite a rip-roaring vocal by Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, fails to achieve the awe-inspiring heights it’s clearly aiming for; it’s not dull, exactly, but it’s not appreciably better than what your average bar band could deliver."

From Jed Gottlieb of the Boston Herald:

"OK, this release - the guitarist’s first since 2005 - of 12 covers with 12 different guest singers has a few interesting moments. Chris Cornell’s return to “Rusty Cage”-shape on Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” ahead of the Soundgarden reunion will get grunge fans psyched; discovering AC/DC’s “Back in Black” is perfect for hip-hop posturing is cool (thanks Nas). Nearly every other song is a letdown or an epic failure....download “Whole Lotta Love,” but don’t get too hopeful."

From Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone:

"Two big highlights: Surprisingly heavy renditions of AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” featuring Nas and Janelle Monáe, and Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” punctuated by Chris Cornell screaming his head off. "

From Melinda Newman of Hitfix:

"Hands down, our favorite (and, remember, this is based on one listen through club speakers) was Santana’s hard-churning take on Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell on vocals. Cornell is one of the few artists who can take on Robert Plant’s pliant pipes and Benson did a great job producing him here."

From Darryl Sterdan of Canoe - Jam!

"Davis plays eight cuts from Guitar Heaven -- including covers of Zep's Whole Lotta Love (sung by Chris Cornell), AC/DC's Back in Black (featuring rapper Nas), and Van Halen's Dance the Night Away (co-starring Train's Pat Monahan). While the tracks are generally faithful to the originals, most are revamped with Santana's usual Latin grooves and heavy percussion -- plus his distinctive solos, of course."

From Raquel Penzo of XI Magazine

"This review would not be worth its salt without mentioning that Chris Cornell and his sexy blue eyes turned Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” into his own song. He was the absolute perfect choice for this cover. His voice…I have no words…"

Press reviews of the song "Promise" (co-written and sung by Chris Cornell) from Slash's solo album:

“Chris was great. "Promise" was probably the most unorthodox piece of music that I’d written, it was very different. It was one of those things, I don’t know why I thought of him for that song more than any of the others, but I sent it to him and within 48 hours he sent me this great lyric and we were off and running. it was as simple as that. Everybody seems to like this one.” - Slash, MusicRadar.com interview 2010

"It's a song that you would write to either a young friend or one of your children, giving them advice of "don't let the world get you down because it's going to try." It's the nature of youth to have a rosy outlook and feel like you're going to be able to charge through life with a machete and make your own way. But the reality is that a lot of unexpected things are going to crash on you, and the song deals with that." - Chris Cornell, Classic Rock interview 2010

From Wayne Madden of Daily Music Guide:

"The strongest material on this album comes from the established vocalists, such as Chris Cornell's powerful 'Promise' and Kid Rock's 'I Hold On'."

From Michael Dickinson of Clink Music Magazine:

"Promise (featuring. Chris Cornell): Slash’s little flourishes are also starting to come together nicely, driving the song rather than interrupting them. The track has a good epic feel to it. Cornell’s voice seems to get smokier and heavier as he gets older (hopefully at some point he will sound like Al Pacino) but by gum can he hit those notes."

From J.P. Stroman of the Cavalier Daily:

"As an Alter Bridge fanatic, I thought I would be most impressed with the songs that feature Myles Kennedy, but I actually liked “Promise” the best, which features former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell. The main riff is somewhat atypical for most of Slash’s material but still works very well. It has a groovy feel, and Cornell’s vocal line fits the guitar part perfectly. The song should please fans of Cornell that were upset by his foray into the pop world with his album Scream."

From Nick Freed of Consequence Of Sound:

“Chris Cornell’s vocals on “Promise” and Ian Astbury’s on “Ghost” are also some of the highlights of the album along with Stockdale and Deluca’s... Cornell’s performance on “Promise” is solid, and the song itself is a pretty good rock song. I think if Cornell were to tour as vocalist for this album rather than Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy (who is the only one to sing on two songs on the album: “Back From Cali” and “Starlight”), it would be a far better project.”

From Jim Farber of the New York Daily News:

"...Chris Cornell's erotic snarl pairs so well with the star's chunky riffs in "Promise," it suggests he might have started a worthy group with Slash had he not already agreed to reform his classic band, Soundgarden, this summer."

From Paul Colgan of The Punch:

"You get to the fifth track, Promise, featuring Chris Cornell from Soundgarden. By now you’ve basically heard a G’n’R song, a Black Sabbath-esque tune, a bit of pop-funk rock, and a grungy number in Back from Cali with Myles Kennedy.

And with Promise you get something that sounds like Soundgarden after everyone has had a nice cup of tea and is singing a song in front of a mate’s mother. It could be, say, the Manic Street Preachers or Franz Ferdinand. This is a potential frat-house anthem, with its chorus line: “Promise me you won’t let them put out your fire”.

None of which is to say it’s a poor song. Hands-down, it’s one of the best tunes on there – it’s shamelessly written for the masses and I enthusiastically endorse the shameless affront to rock purists who roll their eyes at the hint of a foot-tapping, jangling guitar line."

From Greg Victor of ParcBench:

“Promise” – Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame) captures the “press-the-repeat-button” award for his contribution to this song. Starting out like a song that Lou Reed forgot to write, it explodes into an infectious rock march that has just enough grunge to keep it interesting."

From Dustin Schoof of LeHigh Valley Live:

"The song "Promise" is more Marvin Gaye than grunge. Chris Cornell's smoky vocals float along a bluesy, rustic melody that harks back to Cornell's 2007 solo album, "Carry On."

From Sergio Pereira of Music Review:

"...the decisive moment of the album has to be ‘Promise’, which features a heart-warming collaboration with Chris Cornell. Cornell belts his trademark passion-spiked octaves over Slash’s melancholic axe-work, as tears soak my eyes like a pregnant woman in a size 0 clothing store. Now why can’t Chris do this sort of stuff instead of that dreadful last solo album, Scream, with Timbaland?"

From Aaron Titan of 411mania:

"The Chris Cornell and Adam Levine tracks, “Promise” and “Gotten” respectively, while cool and interesting collaborations in theory, just don’t work and end up sounding like anything else on rock radio, which is where this album will undoubtedly find some decent success."

From Brian Glass of Working Author:

"...Singer/songwriter Chris Cornell from Audioslave and Soundgarden lends his distinctive voice to one of the album’s standout tracks. Set against a rhythmical, syncopated beat, Cornell sings with a restraint missing from much of his other work. The result is an understated, powerful performance and one of the catchiest songs on the album."

From Rocket of The Metal Den:

"...It’s worth mentioning track five’s “Promise”. This gem finds SOUNDGARDEN great Chris Cornell cranking out one of the truly great rock vocal performances in modern history."

From John of Addictive Thoughts:

"...The album’s peak might be the resurrection of Chris Cornell, grunge’s fallen rock god (thanks, Timbaland), who seems to have finally embraced the laidback, soulful vibe he teased us with a decade ago on Euphoria Morning. His “Promise,” a song ostensibly written from the perspective of a father to his child, has a great chorus and a wonderful performance by the singer that makes one wonder what a collaboration between these two men in their prime might have sounded like."

From Allison Stewart of the Washington Post:

"... Cornell's role as frontman of the hair-metal-killing grunge behemoths Soundgarden would have made this sludgy semi-ballad/superpower summit unthinkable a decade ago. Otherwise, it's amiable but unremarkable." [oops, even the Washington Post can't get the staff. Um, Allison, a decade ago he was touring solo album Euphoria Morning - webmaster]

From Tim Grierson of About.com:

"...Interestingly, Chris Cornell is one of the spotlighted vocalists, and in a way Slash is much like Cornell’s 2009 collaboration with hip-hop producer Timbaland, Scream, in that it transplants a known rock commodity into the mainstream pop world."

From Chris DeLine of Culture Bully:

"...Oddly enough, at times [Myles] Kennedy ends up sounding more like Chris Cornell than Cornell himself, who follows with the jagged “Promise.”

"Most of this plays out exactly like you’d figure it would—Slash summons his finest G’n’R/Aerosmith riffs, some of hard rock’s greatest singers do their thing, the man solos with real fire on his trusty Les Paul, and all is right in the universe for a while....Cornell takes the cake with his contribution, though. He remains one of the greatest hard rock singers to ever grab ahold of a microphone. This comes across as far more cohesive than one might’ve supposed it would. Slash seems to be right where he belongs, at long last. Nice."

From Talia Soghomonian of MusicOMH:

"...Promise generates more interest as it features Chris Cornell, one of the greatest voices in rock. This melancholic rock ballad is one of a couple on the album..."

from two French freelances who attended an advance listening party:

Promise (avec Chris Cornell) 4'41
Ca commence par un arpège saturé bien mélodique. C'est beau, c'est riche et ça sonne mais ce n'est pas vraiment dans le style qu'on connait de Slash. Chris Cornell est tellement fidèle à lui-même qu'on ne peut s'empêcher de se demander si ce morceau n'aurait pas pu figurer sur un album de Soundgarden. Le solo est très bien senti et les textures réellement riches. Malgré tous ces éléments, la mayonnaise ne prend pas vraiment à la première écoute. On s'ennuie presque tellement Slash est finalement effacé.

Promise (Chris Cornell)
Une intro calme, un solo harmonisé en guitares, une ambiance pop rock, une voix juste sublime, nous sommes bien dans l'univers de Chris Cornell en solo....un super boulot sur les voix, toujours de petits riffs sympa de Slash qui fera le plus grand plaisir aux guitaristes notamment cette façon d'imiter une harpe par moments; un solo bluesy, un pont "poppy" pour une chanson qui ressemble fortement un à titre solo de Chris Cornell. Un titre parfait pour les radios US.
Petite déception, c'est trop calme !

Pro reviews of Chris Cornell's Scream ...

From Scotland's Glasgow Sunday Post:

Having made a name for himself as a grunge/rock star with the likes of Soundgarden, this album has shocked a lot of Chris's diehard fans because it's a joint venture with top R&B producer Timbaland and sees him combining great rock vocals with a mixture of rock and R&B arrangements.

Conceived as a continuous piece with each track blending into the nest, it's quite simply superb. Occasionally reminiscent of Gnarls Barkely, with stunning songs such as these this is one of the best albums you'll hear all year.

From the UK's Hull Daily Mail:

Chris Cornell: Scream

This is the singer's third solo outing and it's a brave one. The grunge god has teamed up with top R&B producer Timbaland. True, this is not hardcore rock, but what you do get really grows on you. Best tracks are the Eastern-inspired Take Me Alive and Enemy.

From the UK's Classic Rock [April 2009, p.86]: 8/10

Chris Cornell: Scream (Polydor)

Cornell gets his groove on in collaboration with the king of R&B knob-twiddling

The singer who broke up Soundgarden when they were a bigger commercial proposition than they'd ever been, and then turned his back on Audioslave before they'd even had the chance to tour their final hurrah, 2006's Revelations, has once again pulled himself out of his comfort zone and then some.

For this third solo album (following 1999's elegiac and criminally underrated Euphoria Morning and 2007's disappointing Carry On), Cornell has aligned himself to a producer as much a renegade and figure of notoriety in the hip-hop and pop worlds as Cornell is in his. Timbaland's numerous credits include Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Bjork, though his being considered a visionary among his contemporaries doesn't automatically make him a safe bet for an artist like Cornell: a man still revered in some circles as the cleverest and most consistent of grunge's plaid-draped pioneers. Cornell has referred to this album as the highlight of his career while the while the equally upbeat Timbaland thinks that it'll make Cornell "the first rock star in the club". So, over the the hubbub of mutual backslaps, just what is the sound that a Seattle archetype and a man who used to DJ under the name Tiny Tim combine to make?

Timbaland's sublime bells and whistles (not literally, it doesn't sound like Cornell's taken the train) are apparent from the off. "Climbing Up the Walls" might depict lives in crumbling disarray - familiar turf for the former Soundgarden singer - but Timbaland's bubbling, electro rumblings might make an unsuspecting listener flinch like a startled meerkat spooked by the shadow of a bird. Persist and you'll find Cornell in towering form: his voice after years spent growling and screaming at Soundgarden's behest is now finely tuned. Warm, although never quite fuzzy, it bristles even as he croons. Loops and beats run through the undercurrent of pretty much every song and the pace is more sedate than anything he did with either of his former bands, but there are moments of reflection: the tingle-inducing "Long Gone" and the brilliantly haunting "Take Me Alive" could both have found a home on the Temple Of The Dog album, if it had been an electronica record. His ire's evident on the vitriolic yet effervescent-sounding "Part Of Me", while the driving "Other Side Of Town" dabbles in his drink and drug past. Cornell's on a new path now, and you'd be a fool not to follow him. - Philip Wilding

From Germany's Alternative Nation: 8/10

Chris Cornell

Scream

See the guitar that Chris Cornell is wielding on the front of his new album? If you flip over to the back cover, you’ll see that the guitar has been destroyed. This is probably intended to represent his decision to leave hard rock behind in favor of a new Timbaland-produced sound. It’s just as possible, however, that the instrument was damaged as Cornell tried to protect himself from the angry hordes of Soundgarden and Audioslave fans who were trying to beat the living shit out of him.

Scream is the sort of musical reinvention that causes an artist’s fans’ jaws to drop to record depths, only rising again in order to allow them to start screaming, "Sellout!" But it’s an epithet that emerges only because they can’t rationalize any other excuse for their hero to have changed their sound so dramatically. In truth, very few chart conquerors have begun their to-do lists by writing, "Step #1: Alienate all existing fans of my previous work." As such, your best bet is to approach the record with the presumption that Cornell just said, "Fuck it, it’s time for a fresh start."

It’s no wonder that many critics are shredding the record to within an inch of its life, however, since one can scarcely imagine a listener already familiar with Cornell who would put on Scream and, with a single spin, say, "Okay, you’ve sold me." Hearing his voice within such a different musical context definitely takes some getting used to. In the album opener, "Part of Me," he sounds as though he’s putting in a bid to be declared the Justin Timberlake of the grunge generation; it’s such an absurd concept that you may actually burst into laughter when you hear him sing, "She was so friendly / I had one too many / And I let her tempt me / She was rubbing up against me."

But damned if the music doesn’t sound great. Of the emphasis tracks, the title song has a dark sparkle to it, "Ground Zero" manages to be bluesy and danceable at the same time, and "Long Gone" has some surprisingly soulful moments. There are some phenomenal choruses here, too, including "Never Far Away" and "Enemy," both of which would readily fill most dance floors with little remixing required. Timbaland’s production isn’t always as successful as the resulting sales of the albums bearing his credit would have you believe, but in this case, he’s very much at the top of his game, helping Cornell completely reinvent himself and sound great doing it. (Still, you do have to wonder if there’s a single moment on the record that hasn’t been tweaked in some fashion; it might not be sterile, but it certainly isn’t what you’d call organic, either.)

If you manage to survive the Scream experience all the way to the bitter end but still remain a nonbeliever, have faith: although the last listed song ("Watch Out") technically ends at the 4:00 mark, it’s followed by a minute of silence which leads into "Two Drink Minimum," a bluesy rock song where Cornell moans that he’s "no more than two drinks away from crying." Is it an admission of the tears he expects to shed when the album inevitably proves to be a commercial failure – because, really, creative success or not, who the hell is gonna buy this thing? – or is it simply intended as a last-second musical assurance that the album to which you’ve just been listening isn’t a permanent change in sound?

Whichever proves to be the case, one thing’s for certain: Scream is a record that is destined to develop a rabid cult following. Obviously, their numbers won’t come anywhere near reaching the amount of people who’ll loathe it with every fiber of their being, but if you can get behind Cornell’s change in musical direction and aren’t scared of hearing his voice surrounded by an almost entirely inorganic sound, then you’ll quickly find that it’s a very easy album to embrace. - Will Harris

From the international Blogcritics Magazine:

When Chris Cornell announced that this, his third solo outing, was to be a collaboration with R&B wunderkind Timbaland, he was met with a mixture of pessimistic trepidation and outright indignation. It seems that, to many fans, the singer’s move away from the signature wail of Soundgarden and Audioslave is to be regarded as nothing short of blasphemy.

Many critics too have dismissed Scream’s brand of watered down grunge-hop as a sort of musical mid-life crisis with no real purpose other than to perhaps act as a cathartic exercise, allowing Cornell to exorcise his R&B demons. However, to view this record through the eyes of a rock purist is to miss the point of what the singer is trying to achieve, as well as depriving oneself of a rewarding listening experience that delivers more with each revisit.

Although the album opens with an irritatingly obnoxious horn introduction that would sound more at home over the opening credits of a low-budget George Lucas movie, and a worryingly stylised synth voice-over heralding "the Chris Cornell experience..." it soon settles into its stride with first single "Part Of Me" immediately showing off Timbaland’s trademarks — heavy bass-lines, synthesized samples, and dance-floor rhythms, with guitars way down in the mix. The segue into "Time" feels a little forced, as do many of the segue sections that come as part of this concept album premise, but the vocal delivery and catchy chorus ultimately make it more memorable than the opener.

Timbaland’s influence rears its ugly head again in the appalling use of Autotune vocals in "Sweet Revenge" where, instead of capitalizing on one of the finest voices the rock genre has to offer, the producer reduces Cornell’s bark to a robotic drone. Through the album’s finest moments, such as the dynamic, September 11-inspired "Ground Zero," the soaring "Never Far Away," the spacey U2-esque title track, and the closing smoky blues of "Two Drink Minimum," Cornell’s vocals shine through, and even on the weaker numbers remain characteristically strong.

However, the thing that lets this album down is in fact its "unique selling point," and the very factor that had Cornell’s fans all riled up in the first place — Timbaland. The hip-hop super-producer seems to be entirely out of his depth here, and whilst a few numbers possess interesting and full arrangements, for the most part his production is bland, unimaginative, and does very little to compliment either singer or songs. Whilst the tricks of the trade that he constantly reuses may work to great effect in the more electronic based genres of pop, hip-hop and R&B, here alongside Cornell’s edgy rock voice they sound corny, out-dated, and extremely forced. It is also worthy to note that the poetic integrity associated with Cornell over the years is somewhat tarnished by placing him in this most misogynistic of genres, with the usual ethereal images and heartfelt sentimentality somewhat replaced with posturing gibberish.

That said, Scream is not without merit and has a number of extremely rewarding moments amongst the more lacklustre work. This album was never going to equal the heights of Cornell’s glory days but it is at least encouraging, in a time where so many of our ‘pop’ stars find their ‘sound’ and stick to it with a terrified steadfastness, to see such a seasoned artist stepping out of his comfort zone and trying something more left field. Moreover when viewed without pre-conceptions, Scream in fact stands tall within the modern R&B canon. - Rhys Williams

From London's Evening Standard:

Chris Cornell: Scream

Now, this is a strange one. Cornell's is the big, tough voice that fronted Soundgarden and Audioslave. Timbaland is one of the most feted of hip-hop producers. They have - it gets stranger - teamed up to produce an album that owes its inspiration to Pink Floyd's The Wall. It has 13 songs which, thankfully, do not appear to constitute a concept album, rather an experiment in pop-rock underpinned with electro-synth and drumpatterns from the dance world. The record has taken some stick (Trent Reznor described it as "embarassing") but it has some sweet melodies lurking among the electronics. The main problem is that a lot of the material is seriously repetitive and outstays its welcome. A brave effort, nevertheless. - Pete Clark

From the UK's Mizz magazine:

Scream: Chris Cornell

Mega-producer Timbaland works his magic on this dark and brooding album - it was Chris's version of Billie Jean that Austin sang on the X Factor last year. Perfect for when you've had a rubbish day.

From Scotland's The Glaswegian: 5/5

Album of the week: John Martyn, Delta Spirit and Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell: Scream

This is the third solo outing from the ex-Sound garden and Audioslave singer. The grunge god wanted to do "something different" and has teamed up with top R&B producer Timbaland to produce an album that's already had fans accusing him of selling out. Best tracks are the Eastern-inspired Take Me Alive, Enemy and Climbing The Walls.

From the UK's Mojo: 3/5

Chris Cornell: Scream

Erstwhile rocker goes urban at the suggestion of pal Rick Rubin

Volte-face do not come much more radical than this: Chris Cornell, formerly of Soundgarden and Audioslave, here teamed up with Timbaland and Jerome 'J-Roc' Harmon, the production talents behind Pussycat Dolls, Ashlee Simpson and more. Written and recorded in siux weeks, the resulting album is a complex and expensive-sounding undertaking, its exuberant, R&B tropes sometimes conjuring Michael Jackson trying to re-invent Bad for the Z generation. Surefire radio hit "Long Gone" succeeds by reining in some of the production/arrangemens excesses that can make Scream sound unwieldy, and with Justin Timberlake guesting on the eastern-flavoured "Take Me Alive", Cornell's stab at mainstream pop success is clearly signposted. At 44, he may have left it too late, and the Cher "Believe"-like vocal tweaks employed on "Sweet Revenge" won't thrill every grunger. But Scream has balls, Cornell vacating his comfort zone with admirable readiness. - James McNair

From the UK's Mail On Sunday (Live Magazine)

In Demand: The Album

Scream

Chris Cornell shrugs off the black cape of his rock music past and sprays himself gold with the pop flavour of Timbaland for Scream. Fans of his grunge output during the Nineties may wish to hide inside their Kurt Cobain shrines, but there's a lot to like here.

From Men's Health:

Album of the week: Scream

A different musical direction for Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell - Scream

There’s something oddly endearing about the ex-Soundgarden and Audioslave singer.

The grunge god wanted to do “something different” and has teamed up with top R&B producer Timbaland.

True, this is not the hardcore rock his fans might expect and it’s an ironic title as there’s very little screaming, but the results are definitely worth a listen. - Jade Wright

From the UK's Music Magazine:

Chris Cornell: Scream

Ever wondered what it would have been like if Michael Jackson had formed Audioslave? OK not quite, but it was the first line that came to mind on the first listen and it stuck. The idea of rock God Chris Cornell and rapper/producer Timbaland teaming up for a new album should make even the most open-minded fan of either run for the hills. Sometimes the meeting of two great minds results in a total mess (Spielberg+Kubrick=AI anyone?) but occasionally it works. And thankfully, and against all the odds, Scream is one of those times.

If anything, opener Part Of Me is a very subdued introduction. Any song (let alone a lead-off album track) that starts with a fanfare, followed by demonic vocals pronouncing your arrival, makes you stand up and take notice. But what emerges is a controlled, well thought-out slice of modern bouncy electro-pop (none of this retro 80s nonsense). The combination of rock voice and dance production, coupled with a slightly misogynistic chorus, is not quite the song we were expecting. At over five minutes it rolls along into a messy outro… until you realise that we have now slid effortlessly into the next song: Time. One of the perfect things (and a simple yet sometimes overused idea) is to connect all the songs together into one glorious mix. Scream is a perfect example of how to do it well.

This first part of the album builds to a magnificent central point. Sweet Revenge has a wonderful R&B swagger without sounding soulless even if it does overuse the vocoder, and then all gets a bit old fashioned - the only time Scream ever does. Get Up plods along like it’s being played at half-speed and never gets moving, until we enter the squeaky political stomp of Ground Zero. The arrangement is absurdly weird, adding to the intrigue. The link into Never Far Away is like falling into madness before the real style begins and things start to settle down. This is one of the best songs on Scream - shimmering with electronic wonder and evolving in the last minute and half as grinding guitars come in to announce an interlude.

A trilogy of songs continue the sublime run of form. To begin, Take Me Alive is dark and mysterious, Cornell recalling the tale: “there’s nowhere for me to go / I’m a long way away from home / I won’t go without a fight / you’ll never take me alive!”. Into Long Gone and things get even more chilled with another soaring chorus and some wonderful guitars - the late break forming an instant highlight. Like the previous song, the last thirty seconds builds into the next song; the title track stutters uneasily into life before taking shape. OK so the chorus “Hey! Why you keep screaming at the top of your head” doesn’t work, and the voice-over is a little cheesy, but this is one of those forgivable moments. Even the repetitive last few minutes glide by into a bizarrely dark outro - bringing things full circle…

…Into Enemy which quickly picks up the pace - diving between quiet verses into thumping circular chorus. Lyrically, Cornell just about gets away with “taking my time to untangle the wires and stare into my sanity / dropping the hammer and pulling the trigger / I know now the bullet is me” thanks to a slick serious delivery. Even the military drum break ending, sliding neatly into Other Side Of Town has enough variation to keep your interest. The song marks a brief lull, and one of the only times the album descends into a too comfortable going-through-the-motions emptiness. Just as it gets predictable, another great hook and chorus drags you back into the fray and the overwhelming embrace engulfs you again. This time it is the excellent Climbing Up The Walls with another repetitive echoing chorus and shining guitars.

Into the last (official) song and Watch Out brings together Justin Timberlake inanity with head banging foot-stomping vocals. The end is sudden and after a minute or so of silence (the classic hidden track link), the album ends with Two Drink Minimum - sounding more like Mark Lanegan, this is a wonderful slice of dance-free no nonsense blues. It is a strangely normal way to end such an insanely fused and entertaining ride.

What Timbaland has done is created a dance album… that is really a rock album. Even though it has been mucked around with profusely, Cornell’s voice is still at the heart of this. And that is the key. It is not soaked with rap as it could well be and Timbaland is on his best behaviour. Rock purists will hate the constant loops and beats (a good thing as there are far too many of them and they can just go away and listen to Def Leppard and keep wishing it was still 1987) but more importantly this will alienate hardcore Timbaland fans. There is always a trade-off but no manner of over-production can destroy Cornell’s wonderful vocals. They shine with the kind of energy Akon is searching for but never finds.

It would be great to say that this is the sound of the future; progression if you will. But it’s not that simple. This has been done before for a start. What is clear is that this is one of those times when it works. Scream is a thoroughly enjoyable ride, from subdued start to strong finish, and those that are saying that the fusion of rock and dance has diluted the qualities of both have not given Scream enough time or respect. In a year when bands like U2 are trying to recapture a past glory, here are two musicians moving forward, taking a risk, reaching out… call it what you will. Trent Reznor should recognise a fellow musician making the same giant steps he has recently and stop feeling embarrassed. Against all expectations, Scream is a triumph. - Chris Sheerin

From The Guardian: 2/5

Chris Cornell: Scream (Polydor)

The controversy surrounding Chris Cornell's decision to collaborate with uber-producer Timbaland has set the rock world's teeth on edge. But what's really shocking is how lazy, bland and humourless Cornell's third solo album is. Timbaland, who has sprinkled his hip-hop fairy dust on weaker voices, rinses away Cornell's inherent dirt and power, and compresses the godfather of grunge until he squawks. Part of Me is old-fashioned and repetitive; tired synths and strings wash over the uninspiring Time and Ground Zero. Guitars are all too rare, and when they do emerge, they're far too polite to fight against Timbaland's box of neo-soul tricks and arbitrary rhythms. Cornell wrestles back control with Enemy and the cosy pop of Other Side of Town. Never Far Away, meanwhile, ironically recalls Aerosmith's Dream On, sampled so succinctly on Eminem's Sing for the Moment, where hip-hop and rock nourished each other. Here, they both starve.

From ArtistDirect: 3/5

Album Reviews: Scream by 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

From the UK's Shortlist Magazine:

Chris Cornell: Scream

Unusual partnership of the week goes to the ex-lungs of hard-rock titans Soundgarden and Audioslave and his beaty, bleepy makeover at the hands of R&B super-producer Timbaland. It's an intriguing, if surreal mix (Justin Timberlake even pops up on one track, which should upset the grunge fraternity), but it somehow manages to tread the fine line, between easy on the ear and experimental, successfully.

From The New York Times:

CHRIS CORNELL
“Scream”
(Mosley Music/Interscope)

Rockers feeling stale can always jump genres. Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish went country last year; now the rocker Chris Cornell introduces electrogrunge on “Scream,” his third solo album. Mr. Cornell, a grunge pioneer with Soundgarden in the 1980s and 1990s, wrote all the songs on “Scream,” but most of the music sets aside big guitar chords to embrace the synthetic pulse and programmed hooks produced by the hip-hop and R&B hit maker Tim Mosley, a k a Timbaland.

“Scream” is Mr. Cornell’s assertive move out of his old niche and toward the sound of the current Top 10. Goodbye, Pearl Jam, and hello, Justin Timberlake (who adds backup vocals in one song, “Take Me Alive”).

Singing about lovers’ quarrels and deeper anger and self-doubt Mr. Cornell remains as sullen as he was in his rock songs for Soundgarden and then Audioslave. In “Get Up” he intones: “You got a losing hand. You built a house of cards. On a hill of sand.”

He still sings with the chesty intensity that lets him project angst without weakness. But his complaints and confessions now arrive in clipped melody lines punctuated by automated arpeggios and snappy beats, as well as Timbaland trademarks like quick, sampled shouts.

Converging on pop from two different directions Mr. Cornell and Timbaland often end up sounding, oddly enough, like Michael Jackson in his semirockers (“Billie Jean,” “Dirty Diana”) or like Gnarls Barkley placing a gutsy voice in an artificial matrix.

Timbaland reframes Mr. Cornell. The first five songs on “Scream” pump along like a club D.J. set, staying at virtually the same tempo. And the whole album segues; each track ends with a transition to the next.

But only half the album aims for dance floors. Some of Mr. Cornell’s best older songs, like Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” were desolate ballads, and Timbaland would never disdain a dramatically ascending chorus. It’s easy to imagine songs like “Take Me Alive,” “Long Gone,” “Never Far Away” and “Scream” itself in smoldering rock arrangements rather than Timbaland’s Bollywood exotica (“Take Me Alive”), layered chorales (“Long Gone” and “Never Far Away”) and chattering double-time beats (“Scream”). The new environment rejuvenates Mr. Cornell for good and bad: he sounds shallower than he was before but pithier too.

JON PARELES

From Entertainment Weekly:

Turns out that cover of Michael Jackson's ''Billie Jean'' on Chris Cornell's last solo album was prophetic; the former Soundgarden/Audioslave frontman's controversial new CD seems like nothing so much as an attempt to create his very own Thriller. What's more surprising than Scream's R&B bells and whistles (provided by überproducer Timbaland) is that Cornell almost succeeds at that goal without tarnishing his hard-rawkin' legacy. Expansive ballads like ''Never Far Away'' and ''Long Gone'' sound like dance-floor cousins to ''Black Hole Sun,'' and ''Time'' is perhaps the funkiest song to bear that title since Sly Stone's. Talk about being alive in the superunknown. B+ - Tom Sinclair

From Spin: 2.5/5

Produced with a heavy hand by Timbaland, the third solo album from ex-Soundgarden and Audioslave singer Chris Cornell is strangely appealing in its elaborately empty efficiency. Gleaming ballads like "Long Gone" and the title track wring mild drama from a combination of Cornell's husky crooning and stacks of portentous Phil Collins–derived synths. As Akon knockoffs go, some of this stuff isn't bad, but the fast numbers ("Time," "Get Up"), with Cornell's angsty rock-god vocals ricocheting off Timbo's skittering beats, are fresher and more enjoyable, at least in a monkey-riding-a-tricycle sort of way. - David Marchese

From The Boston Globe:

Chris Cornell Scream
ESSENTIAL "Take Me Alive"

In theory, this seems like an intriguing experiment: Chris Cornell (above), the golden throat of grunge, teaming up with Timbaland, the maestro producer of au courant dance pop.

In execution, it is an intriguing muddle.

The credit - or blame, depending on the song - lies mostly with Timbaland, who simply plops the former Soundgarden frontman's voice into the sea of burping synths, celestial choirs, and fuzz that are the producer's undeniably funky signature. He rarely stretches more than a little toward Cornell's rock aesthetic, so it feels much more like "Timbaland featuring Chris Cornell" than the reverse. (The exception is a satisfyingly straight-up and lowdown blues rocker lurking as a hidden track.)

This forces the singer-songwriter to find a way to plug his poetic musings into a nightclub wall of sound, a framework that worked better for previous Timbo collaborators such as Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake. (The latter shows up to add backing vocals to the album's most compelling track, the sinuous Eastern-tinged groove "Take Me Alive"). Unfortunately, Cornell doesn't always come up with poetry, especially in opener "Part of Me," in which he endlessly repeats the unappealing phrase "that [unflattering word for woman] ain't a part of me."

Timbaland's beguilingly left-field vocal arrangements work well, however, particularly on the galloping "Time," as does Cornell's always impressive voice. He nimbly exploits his mesmerizing lower register and soars in the stacked harmonies of "Get Up" and the title track.

The resulting dynamic is two distinct flowers from the sound garden that produce an only occasionally sweet-smelling bouquet. - Sarah Rodman

From The Huffington Post:

CHRIS CORNELL - SCREAM

Considering the amount of changes in musical direction Chris Cornell has undertaken during his tour of duty with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave, and his three diverse solo albums, you get the feeling the dude gets bored easily. It's almost as if his creative drive is based on mixing things up at the slightest hint of "comfortable," like some sort of artistic survival response. With every new solo album--such as 1999's Euphoria Morning (his "mature" album), 2007's Carry On (his more aggressive, commercial Rick Rubin rock project complete with strings and Dylanesque album cover), and now the proggy, r&b-driven Scream--there comes a further departure from not only the last release, but from what one would expect from this college radio god. Yes, we've been prepped on Scream for eons, whether it be in months of well-timed press releases, artist statements and interviews, downloadable tracks, or the Alan Furguson-directed title track video. But not everyone has been re-educated, and boy, do you have a surprise coming if you haven't caught any of these appetizers, considering just how far Cornell's pet project pushes pre-conceived parameters.

This time out, it's all about the Timbaland. Sure, throw-in co-producer Jerome Harmon, mixing engineer (and Nelly Furtado hubby) Demacio "Demo" Castellon, and vocal seer and overseer, Jim Beanz...but it's Timbaland's court. All have guided Scream's and Chris Cornell's sonics through a world of elegant but simple drum loops, banks of beautiful-to-wanky samples, a scratch or two here and there, and a jungle of sounds that conjures a visual like the old "Don't Cross The Street In The Middle Of The Block" PSAs of the sixties. Cornell sounds great navigating this cacophony, and Justin Timberlake and Timbaland merely accent the tracks on which they appear, never competing for artist title.

However, this is such a new adventure for Cornell that no matter how comfortable you get with Scream's interlude-laced, rock-soul approach, if you're a long-time fan, you're going to wonder which console fader jammed when it came to the guitar mixes. Yeah, they're in the stereo spread, but only occasionally poke their heads through the layers of lush keyboards, percussion and processed effects. But does it matter? Nope, not at all. Remember, this album--that Cornell suggests we listen to like Dark Side Of The Moon (Pink Floyd) or A Night At The Opera (Queen)--is supposed to blow your mind, especially though headphones. Plus this is a successful melange of concepts initiated on Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent D'Arby with some Gnarls Barkley served as a side dish.

Though the style has changed, we still get good ol' engaging Cornell lyrics, and some really bite (in the good sense), like those on the hook-laden, semi-rocker album opener, "Part Of Me," that begins after a cute faux movie-studio logo prelude. Floating amidst block vocals and minor key synth sounds that Rick Wakeman and The Tubes would envy is the line "No, that bitch ain't a part of me." It's repeated so often and matter-of-factly that it ends up being a misogynous anthem that's, thankfully, delivered without a ridiculous cookie-monster voice (a trend that needs to die quickly). The song's aggressive tone sets up the rest of the project, an exploration of stressed or failed relationships (including global).

"Time" features the smart lyrics, "The perfect present...is no longer the future," but an unexpected channeling of Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" in the bridge section gets more of your attention through bouncing phrases such as, "Make a little love, make a little war" and "have a little laugh, have a little cry, each moment gets us closer to saying goodbye." "Sweet Revenge" discusses just what the title implies, despite its melody clipping a wee bit of Michael Jackson in the verses (nothing to see here folks, it's quite appropriate on an album like this, move along). "Get Up"'s chorus teaches us how "You need a backbone to roll with the world, you need one to run with the bulls," and "Ground Zero" asks, "When it all falls down and laws don't count...where in the world you gonna go?" This track, with its seventies-ish string arrangement, top and bottom interludes, subject matter, and soulful melody, seems to have been inspired by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album. (Again, that's a good thing.)

After a much needed tempo change, the beautiful alty-gospel "Never Far Away" appears, and rock guitars finally assert themselves in the end sections. Cornell sings, "Give me definition for the words I know" as the melody suggests The Thomspon Twins have stopped by for beers. Sitar and a moody caravan tempo permeate verses of "Take Me Alive" (with guest Justin Timberlake), while the chorus evokes Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast-era vocal arrangements that bring home this tight sarcophagus that is wrapped in middle-east trappings. And though it sounds quite contemporary, "Long Gone"--if it had a monsterously fat, reverberated snair (and no audible Timbaland)--would be the power ballad most eighties hair bands would have traded their souls for had it been incarnated in that decade.

And that brings us to the title track, "Scream." With Mars Lazar meets Yes synths and drum machines this side of Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)," Cornell's hook-filled meditation on composure asks the girl, "Why you keep screaming at the top of your head?" But you almost want to ask if the relationship is that damaged, why aren't you screaming too? The dysfunction continues with the line, "Throwing out the blame when you know it ain't my fault," but something hits home by the end of the song when Cornell sings, "I used to think that silence was golden." The lyrics question the surface meaning of all that preceded it, and that might be confirmed in the song's video that starts with relationship anger that eventually leads to everyone brawling. So is the message that "screaming" is what is contagious and damaging or possibly the ignoring of it--Cornell's first coping device in the vid?

This equation continues through the rest of the album, finally reaching "Watch Out," just a great classic rock piece whose arrangement and vocals are like a "Shout Out" to David Coverdale (no, Cornell's still not screaming). The song cleverly ends with what sounds like a tape reel spooling off of a Studer recorder, but don't be fooled, Cornell fans. We're served one more round in his hidden bluesy co-write with John Mayer titled "Two Drink Minimum," an after hours slow burn with smoldering harmonica and, presumably, Hammond B-3. (Note to John Mayer: Don't even think about a Timbaland collaboration.)

Overall, Scream is one of those albums in which you really lose yourself in the environment without questioning who it is you're listening to or the artist's history. Mission accomplished, that was the creator's intention...and that you listen to it top-to-bottom like the great concept albums of yore. But given his rock history, it is surprising that Cornell is not really doing a lot of screaming here except for within the lyrics. And all of his co-writing with Timbaland and posse has forced his music to leave behind a street of raucous, in-your-face stickball and hockey for one where he now has to gain a different kind of cred. Pretty brave, and it's nice that Timbaland has his back. But as good as Scream is--and let's wish it well--it would be a shame if the Chris Cornell we followed over all these years decides not to rock again because of its success. Now THAT would be a reason to scream. - Mike Racogna

From Rochester City Newspaper:

When Weezer's last album opened with a dig on rockers who work with Timbaland, it probably wasn't intended for Chris Cornell -- but does the shoe fit? To their credit, Cornell and the celebrated hip-hop producer could have just tossed off a few flashy singles, but they both insisted on making a bona-fide album. Cornell had been veering dangerously close to pop-lite territory anyway, so only stood to benefit from Timbaland's visionary sonic touch. As expected, the producer provides sparkling, beat-driven soundscapes, but his master stroke comes in his ability to extract positively addicting hooks out of the least obvious of instruments. He also capitalizes on the latent R&B tendencies Cornell has shown from day one. Cornell's days as a brooding alt-rocker with a sharp poetic edge may be long gone, but at least he's found the nerve to show a completely new side of himself. - Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

From Rolling Stone: 2/5

Hip–hop production god Timbaland oversaw Chris Cornell's third solo album, which begs a question: Can digital–age beats party successfully with rock–god howling? The answer: Only if good tunes are invited. Scream veers between drab–sleek and rock–dude soulful; Cornell's yowl never sounds at home — especially on the "bitch ain't a part of me!" chorus on the lead track. Timbo lays it on thick - piles of guitars, dramatic synths and percussion that at their best achieve a meticulous heaviness. With the exception of the taut "Ground Zero," Scream feels like it belongs in a time capsule, a strange mutation that could only have been born this decade — Christian Hoard

From Billboard:

Scream

The oft-delayed blend of Chris Cornell's trademark grunge-soul growl and Timbaland's percolating computer grooves, "Scream" is no less bizarre than its team-up suggests. Sometimes it's good bizarre: "Never Far Away" throbs with a dark drama not unlike the kind Cornell brought to his 2007 cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Other times it's bad bizarre: With its layered harmony vocals and chintzy Middle Eastern trimmings, "Take Me Alive" sounds like it should be credited to the Pussycat Dudes. Throughout "Scream," though, you have to admire Cornell's and Timbaland's conviction: This music never gives off the whiff of desperation, even when it probably should. — Mikael Wood

From Ireland's Hot Press: 4/5

Chris Cornell: Scream

Unlikely But Rewarding Hook-Up Between Grunge Anti-Hero and Justin Timberlake Guru

Chris Cornell is the dusty-lunged belter from Soundgarden and Audioslave. Timbland steered R 'n'B's progression towards glitched-up minimalism. Lock them together in a studio and you get a very expensive bus-wreck, right?

You'll be surprised to hear the answer is mostly "no". Though this hook-up frequently pushes at the boundaries of plausibility, there's lots about Scream that makes perfect sense.

Exhibit A is the single 'Ground Zero', a bluesy chiller that dispenses with high-end trickery and pairs Cornell's growl with a spare drum-tap. Elsewhere, 'Sweet Revenge' slices and dices Cornell's vocals and juxtaposes a yammering synth line so that it sounds as if he's struggling to be heard over the death-squawks of a chorus of quietly malfunctioning robots. Alas, there are momennts when the innovation spills over into indulgence: 'Never Far Away' is unabashed stadium pap which not even a tumult of Timbalnd FX can save from sounding like an out-take from Bon Jovi's country phase. - Ed Power

Key Track: Ground Zero

A preview from Ultimate Guitar:

Fans of Chris Cornell’s Soundgarden days may be in for the shock of their lives with the singer’s new solo release, Scream.

Sound: For those of us who grew up with the early, grunge-fueled days of Soundgarden, you’re about to be in for a shock. Many of us know that Cornell has been branching out toward a more radio-friendly sound since splitting with Audioslave back in 2007, but the singer’s latest effort is a huge leap into unfamiliar territory: dance music. Scream, Cornell’s 3rd solo studio album, is rooted heavily in synth, sampling, and dance grooves. It’s a logical result, considering that Cornell chose Timbaland (the man behind many Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado songs) to act as one of the main producers of the album. Long story short, the best way to go into listening to Scream is with a completely open mind.

Listening to the 1st track on the record, I seriously thought I had put in the wrong CD. There were no crunchy guitars, or even acoustics for that matter. The song “Part of Me” begins with majestic horns (or at least samples) and soon after a crazy and indecipherable voice that sounds like a cross between a robot and a demon. It’s not really the way you expect a Cornell album to kick off, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing – just extremely unexpected. After the elaborate intro, “Part of Me” morphs into what is essentially a dance song. Drum beats and samples drive the song, and it is actually infectious in a clubgoer sort of way.

The dance/R&B vibe stays consistent throughout, and Timbaland certainly has a way with creating some unusual mixes. Between the Middle Eastern vibe and rich vocal harmonies of “Take Me Alive” to the computer-like synth solo of “Sweet Revenge,” the creativity isn’t lacking. “Scream,” which has a title that begs for some musical insanity (possibly of the metal kind), is actually one of the most laid-back songs on the album. Once again, Cornell knows how to raise a few eyebrows.

In the latter part of the album things tend to get a little repetitive. Granted, club/techno hits often rely on choruses that repeat the same line over and over again, and given the content on Scream, that’s probably what Timbaland and Cornell were going for. If you’re a fan of a more stripped-down sound that gets back to the basics, you’ll have to wait until the final track. “Two Drink Minimum” is a bluesy little number co-written by John Mayer, and while it’s still a far cry from “Pretty Noose” or “Loud Love,” it’s nice to hear instruments in their raw form come through the mix. // 7

Lyrics and Singing: When you compare the lyrics on Scream to Cornell’s past works, it definitely seems like many of them been written to fit the dance genre. “Part of Me” is a prime example with lines such as, “I love the girl, I'm lovin' the dress she wears; She's got a hold, got a hold of me neck, oh yeah.” Not every tracks is as quite as superficial, and there are a few that are more emotionally driven. In “Long Gone” Cornell sings, “I used to watch your flowers grow; Now it's raining and all your petals turns to stone; I've been praying; I turn around and see my rose.” The lyrical content may not be quite as strong as what we’ve heard in some Soundgarden songs, but in comparison to the music it’s nothing too out of the ordinary. // 8

Impression: The cover photo for Scream couldn’t be more fitting: Chris appears to look as if he’s about to smash the living crap out of his guitar. I may be reading too much into it, but it certainly does seem to relay a message that you don’t always need a guitar as the centerpiece to create a quality song. If you don’t like the idea of dance music fueled by funky samples and drum machines, you may be quite angry with the direction that Cornell has chosen. When compared with his last release Carry On, you do have to give him credit for being more innovative. Having Timbaland as a producer could guarantee him success with a whole new audience, and those listeners will likely be the most receptive to Cornell’s new club-driven repertoire. For those who are still mad that he went to a softer style of rock in Audioslave, Scream might be the final straw.

An album preview from LA's Buzzine:

Many of Timbaland’s couplings initially raise some eyebrows, as is the nature of those who are truly avant-garde and visionary.

Scream, however, is raising a lot more than eyebrows. It’s raising angry voices. Many Soundgarden and Audioslave fans, and those who hark back to the raw roots of rock, are showing reactions that range from devastation to disappointment, to disgust. Some are even regarding Chris Cornell as one of the biggest sell-outs of this era. Wherever your loyalties, preconceptions, or grudges lie, the fact remains that this album is going to be chock-full of good music.

Perhaps the fact that I’m a sucker for both alternative rock and heavy, electronic beats makes me a little bit biased. Maybe the promise that this album will have a “psychedelic,” ambient feel strikes my fancy. Still, I honestly believe that Timbaland and Chris Cornell each bring what the other is lacking to the table. Timbaland produced a long string of singles, but I can’t say I know the name of even one of his albums. Scream, in part inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall, is said to be a comprehensive piece that will wrap listeners up in an entire experience. Chris Cornell, on the other hand, evidently could not go on with the same old sound any longer, and nothing forces inspiration to the surface like a change of pace.

The album is set for a March 9th release, and I’m willing to bet that the resulting Scream will be one of approval instead of one of rejection.

From a German article reviewing the Part Of Me video and previewing the album: here, Scream is called a "masterpiece".

Mit der Singleauskopplung „Part Of Me“ zieht Chris Cornell den Hörer direkt hinein in das Gipfeltreffen der Ikonen und präsentiert ein erstes, alle Sinne berauschendes und energiegeladenes Soundfeuerwerk. „Part Of Me“ erzählt von der sexuellen Anziehungskraft, dem inneren Kampf, sich zu einer Frau immer noch hingezogen zu fühlen, aber genau zu wissen, dass es ein Fehler ist. Diese Zerrissenheit zwischen dem Wunsch, ihr ganz nahe sein zu wollen, und dem alarmierenden Gedanken, dass sie immer noch die Falsche ist, erzählt Cornell mit bittersüßer Erkenntnis: „That bitch ain’t a part of me“. Chris Cornells markante Stimme brennt die Hook des Songs direkt in alle Sinne und vereint sich mit Timbalands Soundwelten zu einem einzigartigen Highlight, das eines ganz deutlich macht: Mit „Scream“ rollt ein Meisterwerk auf uns zu….!

A review of Part Of Me, released as a single (with club remixes) in Germany:

Chris Cornell - Part Of Me [Interscope] New on the circuit and put out as 10" promo via Interscope is Chris Cornell's Timbaland-produced tune "Part Of Me" taken from his album "Scream". Fusing solid rock-influenced song writing on top of slow, electronic beats on the edge of House and Minimal Techno this one will work for mainstream radio as well as for club DJ's - especially the Instrumental cut will be loved by all those jocks spinning (Neo) Disco and Cosmic these days. Check.

An early album preview from The New York Times:

Some Chartmakers to Be: Metal Gods and Idols Past

CHRIS CORNELL Bye-bye, grunge — well, almost. Mr. Cornell, a grunge pioneer as the lead singer of Soundgarden, worked with the producer Timbaland for his third solo album, “Scream,” and their collaboration places his brooding voice amid Timbaland’s synthesizers and samples. The computerized tracks end up somewhere between Justin Timberlake and Gnarls Barkley, but his lyrics and his voice still hold that sullen grunge resentment.

From Rolling Stone's Fall Music Preview:

Scream

Chris Cornell's previous solo album Carry On was on its way to being a footnote until it was rescued from obscurity by American Idol champ David Cook, who performed Cornell's version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" to great acclaim on the show. That melding of rock and R&B informs the onetime Audioslave frontman's new Timbaland-produced album, which was cut in a rapid-fire six-week studio run. "He's somebody who's a musical genius and records in very unorthodox ways," Timbaland has said of his latest collaborator's sessions, which resulted in songs that sound more like Gnarls Barkley than Temple of the Dog.

Reviews of Chris Cornell album Carry On ...

Pop Matters (USA)

Sounding Off

Chris Cornell is so much better off alone. Really.

Take, for example, his first go-around with Seattle grunge-rock mainstays Soundgarden in 1984. While riding the coattails of what turned out to be just another fad in the ever-so-frivolous world of music, Cornell’s first band was enshrined in the mundane world of plaid-rock with such memorable sleepers as “Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman”.

Then came the all-star gala that was Temple of the Dog. While this project combined the limited talents of Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Matt Cameron, and Stone Gossard (any Seattle kid’s wet dream), it never found its way out of obscurity and into any teenager’s empty heart, or record collection for that matter.

And finally, there’s Audioslave. Again, something of a modern-rock supergroup forming in 2001, though it looked awfully good on paper, the combination of Cornell’s crooning and the Machine’s talents never quite lived up to what every alternative rock-music-listening junkie ever hoped for.

Really. Chris Cornell is better off alone.

Even his first solo release, 1999’s Euphoria Morning, peeked at hints of greatness and actual intrigue at times. Songs like Temple’s “Hunger Strike” and Soundgarden’s “Pretty Noose” couldn’t hold half of a candle to Morning lead single “Can’t Change Me”’s eerie feel and odd time signature. The performance itself simply felt much more liberating than anything any of his other projects have ever produced.

Which is perhaps why he opted to leave the world o’ modern rock group again with his second official full-length solo release in almost a decade, Carry On. Here, Cornell shines brighter than ever by ditching the watered-down sound of modern rock and giving the nod to something a little more accessible, and a lot more interesting.

“She’ll Never Be Your Man” is a pleasantly confusing love-torn tale that proves to be indicative of Cornell’s choice to pop things up throughout his latest effort. As the acoustic guitars and tambourines color in the backdrop, the almost-kind of twang-y hook and Cornell’s half-snarl suggest that a tiny bit of southern rock probably influenced this track, if not the entire record.

Then, songs like “Finally Forever” and “Killing Birds” prove to be how good everyone wanted Soundgarden to be. Two of only four tracks on Carry On that feel like they could have fit on a Soundgarden release, these two songs showcase the man’s powerful vocal ability in front of the lackadaisical guitar work that made Cornell’s first band so popular.

But Carry On is at its absolute best when Cornell visibly sheds any aforementioned desire to continue as a hard-rock artist. “Arms Around Your Love”, the best piece of songwriting Cornell has ever been a part of, is a three-and-a-half minute pop-rock single that needs to be everybody’s favorite guilty pleasure. The blatant pop-rock acoustic guitar backdrop and catchy electric hook make this song a damn good play for pop-radio domination. While he has never seemed any more generic, he has never sounded any better.

The only blemish throughout this colorful painting comes when Cornell tries something he obviously wasn’t sure he should do in the first place: A crack at Michael Jackson’s super-duper-mega-hit “Billie Jean”. While the performance itself feels forced and stiff, Cornell’s arrangement is sobering at best. It simply never picks up, making the song a harsh reminder that, yes, he can still be humdrum.

But one slip-up out of 14 opportunities really isn’t bad. Even songs like the predictable “Safe and Sound” and the Audioslave throw-away “Poison Eye” aren’t just not bad, but really kind of good. Before “Safe and Sound”’s balladry qualities become watered down, Cornell surprisingly takes a hold of the performance and commands attention with what turns out to be a shockingly soulful performance (the horn section helps too). “Poison Eye”, a song that may have fit better on his latest band’s second release, is more than tolerable and certainly more advanced than what Rage Against the Garden was ever going for. It keeps Cornell’s aggressive side intact enough to not override the idiosyncratic maneuvers his band displays.

And maybe that’s his secret. The common denominator in all of Cornell’s solo ventures lies within the limitations he puts on his insistent qualities, and that’s a good thing. Because with Carry On, an effort that shows exactly how simple and light Cornell can go, he proves that sometimes being alone isn’t all that bad.

- Colin Maguire, Pop Matters

The Freelance Star, Fredericksburg (USA)

For those familiar with the rock genre, Chris Cornell's name carries a lot of weight. Cornell is most famous as the frontman for the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. On the heels of his recently announced departure from Audioslave comes "Carry On," Cornell's second solo album following 1999's "Euphoria Morning."

In the song "Ghosts," Cornell uses moving to a new house as a metaphor for a person growing, changing, moving forward with his life and leaving others behind. That seems to be a recurring theme throughout the album, representing his growing and maturing as an artist.

While most of his earlier work is fast-paced and edgier, this album is much more mellow and laid-back--and much easier to digest. Songs like "Finally Forever" and "Safe and Sound" benefit from Cornell's sensitivity as a vocalist. It would be easy for him just to uncork a huge scream like he has in the past, but he demonstrates proper restraint and showcases his versatility. Several of the songs have a distinct Beatles influence, most clearly the bouncy-yet-electric beat of "Poison Eye."

Cornell can still rock, however, as he proves on the first and last tracks: "No Such Thing" and "You Know My Name." If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought those songs were off an Audioslave record. Their hard-driving guitar riffs and passionate vocals make them my favorite songs on the album.

In short, approach this record with an open mind. Don't pick it up expecting the same style you're used to hearing with Cornell. Give each track a fair listen, and, like me, you'll probably be impressed.

- J P Stroman, Freelance Star

Freetime (USA)

Chris Cornell: Carry On

The mediocre reviews of Chris Cornell's new effort, Carry On, have been premature. Perhaps his rock-god good looks have blinded me but with Cornell's second solo outing, the grunge pioneer seems to have truly unleashed his creative juices, creating an adventurous romp that finds Cornell's trademark wails tempered by a less angry, and more soulful release. Influenced by his days with Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog, Cornell drew from a more organic place with these bands than with his last group, Audioslave, whose political, anthem-like style made for an unnatural fit. While Cornell rocks with the same passion on Carry On, his lyrics showcase a true romantic at heart, often speaking of love, both lost and found.

One such gem, "Arms Around Your Love," has to be one of Cornell's finest moments to date, as he speaks of what can happened when love is taken for granted, singing in pained fashion, "With his arms around your girl/He'll do all of the things/You didn't do before/You had every chance." Here is a perfect, hard-edged rock ballad that showcases Cornell's best qualities and sometimes recalls Soundgarden's outstanding, "Fell On Black Days." Cornell mixes in a horn section on the gospel-inflected track, "Safe And Sound," with a vocal approach of a true soul singer. That style continues on the more rocked-up "She'll Never Be Your Man," while Cornell's vox is in especially good form on "Ghosts," segueing from falsetto to alto with utter ease. On initial word of a surprise cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," fans may wonder "why?," but Cornell's slow, bluesy version of the track not only leads to kudos for him making the selection, but also somehow gives Jackson a much needed boost of musical credibility.

The former shirtless, boot-stomping leader of champion rock outfits may have softened on his more recent musical approach, but Chris Cornell's authentic artistic appeal is still in full view here.

- Michelle Picardo, Freetime Magazine

75 Or Less (USA)

Carry On is Chris Cornell's first release since the dissolution of Audioslave.

Many of this album's songs possess a vein of neo-southern rock, which might best be heard on the track "Safe and Sound". The songs are more melodic and laid-back when compared with his previous body of work.

The shift in bearing can be somewhat surprising at times, especially during a dawdling rendition of "Billie Jean". This is a solid effort, but may not be considered his best.

- j.p, 75 Or Less

Soldier (UK)

Carry On

Great vocals, great riffs and a great style would surely produce a great album so why did Carry On leave me so unsure?

The ex-Soundgarden front man has combined powerful rock, country blues and a few slow, but sometimes dull, ballads. It has the soundtrack to Casino Royale‚ You Know My Name, and a very dubious cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

Having said that, after the last track had finished, Carry On does entice you to play it again. I may have to have just one more listen.

- Cpl Ray Kalaker, RETDU(B), Soldier Magazine (the magazine of the British Army)

The Star Online (Malaysia)

Metal Machine Music

Lead track No Such Thing, with its sludgy guitars, frenetic pulse and that familiar bellow may just be the best song Chris Cornell’s recorded since departing Soundgarden 10 years ago. It’s no Superunknown or Jesus Christ Pose but it’s harder than anything Cornell’s put out in the last decade, and that includes all the stuff cut with Audioslave.

Even the lyrics – “But my finger’s on the trigger that will turn off the world” – rage with the old fire. The next cut, Poison Eye, is less spectacular but still impressive. It’s psycho funk with an alt-metal bite.

Now, if only the remaining 13 tracks were as good as that opening double salvo, this would have been one of the records of the year. If only.

The problem with Cornell is that while he knows that you know he can do bombastic rock in his sleep, there’s a desire to prove that there’s more to him than meets the eye (or ear). This is the reason behind wimpy ballads like Hover and Finally Forever and the soul-tinged Safe and Sound that makes him sound like ... shudder ... Michael Bolton!

Even worse is that excruciating cover of Billie Jean. Yes, you read right! I do get the fact that Cornell is now in his 40s and probably no longer inclined to tear off his shirt and dive into the audience. But like it or not, that voice of his was built to rock. Hard.

– Edward Gomez, The Star Online

Tsunami Magazine (Brisbane, Australia)

CHRIS CORNELL Carry On

Chris Cornell is arguably one of the best rock singers of the past 50 years. He has an impressive CV: lead singer of one the best '90s grunge groups (Soundgarden), early '90s super-grunge group (Temple of the Dog) and more recently, rocking conglomerate Audioslave.

Now he is back with his second solo record since 1999's Euphoria Morning . There seems to be a bit of a trend going on; at the start of this year, Audioslave called it a day and a few months later we have Carry On . His first solo album came out following the 1997 break of Soundgarden - a bit of musical therapy perhaps?

Carry On is a sort of a neither-here-nor-there album. The 16 songs are more laid back and rock 'n' roll than the grungy vibe we are used to. An up-beat, almost positive feel resonates through this album on songs such as 'Poison Eye', 'Ghosts', 'Today' and 'Finally Forever'.

Standouts are the awesome 'You Know My Name', which featured in Casino Royale , and a darker, bluesy, rock version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean'.

7.5/10

Luke D., Tsunami

knac.com (Boston, USA)

Carry On is the second solo album from former Audioslave and Soundgarden front man Chris Cornell. The popular 90's grunge singer steps into the spotlight and sheds his former grunge roots with an album that is filled with melodic ballads that have a reggae, soulful appeal.

Earlier this year, Chris departed Audioslave due to musical differences. On Carry On, Chris never loses his powerful, soulful edge of reaching his audience with his heartfelt, poignant lyrics and hypnotic vocals. Carry On features an artist who is clearly writing for himself, and not trying to fit into the same grunge genre that has long been passé. Although there are a few tracks that do capture that classic Chris Cornell-Audioslave/Soundgarden grunge sound that he is known for, the majority of the fourteen tracks on the album features a more, melodic Cornell who sings about subjects that he holds true to his heart.

The opening track, ”No Such Thing", features slithering, hard driving guitars, and vibrant vocals that put Cornell at the top of his game in the 90's. Chris generates the anger and passion that is reminiscent of his Soundgarden days. Definitely, one of my favorite tracks on the new release.

Another highlight includes the beautiful ballad, ”Arms Around Your Love". This song features great acoustic guitar work, and lyrics that make you want to fall in love. Chris hasn't lost his touch for taking you into his world and making you feel the intensity of his music.

Next up, the song, ”Safe and Sound", Chris recently said in concert was a song he wanted to write all his life. It is a song that is rich in melody, and acoustic guitar work that deals with violence in this ever-changing world.

"She'll Never Be Your Man", has an Eric Clapton bluesy kind of appeal with sauntering guitar and percussion rhythms, and blues inspired vocals. It sort of takes you down to the Blues and Jazz clubs of New Orleans, where blues is the music by choice, and the artist feels the pain in every chorus. Catchy guitar rhythms and up-tempo vocals are among the qualities that rule this track.

One of the most surprising songs on the album is the remake of the Michael Jackson hit, "Billie Jean". For a moment, I almost didn't recognize the tune, as Chris does a 180-degree turnaround, and turns the previous funky groove of the 80's hit into a compelling, sensual love ballad. Cornell's voice whispers, ”she was more like a beauty queen from a movie screen”, illustrating a real depth and rich quality to his voice, with a vibrant reggae appeal. Chris also pays tribute to all of the lives lost around the world to war and other violence in the politically-oriented song, ”Silence The Voices".

Carry On ends with a song that was in the James Bond movie, Casino Royale called, ”You Know My Name". Fans of the Soundgarden years will enjoy this song. I had the opportunity to hear "No Such Thing", "Arms Around Your Love", and "Safe and Safe", in his recent concert in Boston. I was really impressed how these songs stand up lyrically and musically.

On Carry On, Chris Cornell takes on the challenge of a solo artist, and uses his distinctive, warm melodic voice as his weapon. His vocals are reminiscent of a soulful Bob Marley, painfully honest and real.

- Debby Rao, knac.com

Ultimate Guitar.com (USA)

Sound: 7 /10

Ask 5 different people’s opinions about Chris Cornell and you’ll likely get 5 very unique perspectives. Whether you loved him in Soundgarden and hated him in Audioslave -- or vice versa -- Cornell has made some incredible songs that have spanned almost 2 decades. His latest release Carry On marks his 2nd record as a solo artist, and in similar fashion to his more recent efforts, the results are mixed.

The tracks on Carry On are another huge leap away from his music in Soundgarden and Audioslave, which will probably have some people furious off the bat. While there are guitar riffs here and there that are reminiscent of mellower Soundgarden songs, they are still subtle. The opening song “No Such Thing” is one of the true rock songs on the album, which features a nice guitar line that is carried through much of the song. If you have heard the James Bond theme song “You Know My Name” that Cornell performed for Casino Royale, then you’ll have a good indication what “No Such Thing” sounds like. They have a similar feel and tempo, and are fairly solid pop-rock tracks.

Cornell is actually most impressive when he really slows the tempo down surprisingly enough. “Safe And Sound,” a 1960’s flavored soul song, and his version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” are a few of the best tracks. Cornell’s vocals just seem more passionate when placed against a slower rhythm. There will be rock purists who despise both of the tracks, but if you can get past your adoration for Soundgarden (this reviewer is a big Kim Thayil fan, too) then you’ll discover that Cornell can still be effective at performing a soul song.

A few tracks like “Arms Around Your Love” and “Your Soul Today” just feel like generic rock tracks and seem a bit hollow without guitar backing from Tom Morello or Kim Thayil that often times carried the tunes. This doesn’t necessarily mean the whole CD is full of generic material. The CD contains 14 tracks and there are still some memorable moments like the Beatles-esque intro in “Finally Forever.”

Lyrics: 9/10

Cornell’s lyrics cover a lot of ground on Carry On, particularly considering he’s got everything from a soul ballad to a James Bond theme on the CD. “You Know My Name” does fit the Bond persona pretty well, and it even throws in some nice lines that allude to the gambling in the movie. Cornell sings, “If you take a life, do you know what you'll give; Odds are, you won't like what it is; When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me; By the merciless eyes I've deceived.” Considering he did have boundaries to work within, he did a pretty solid job.

He gets a bit more introspective in “Safe And Sound,” but still manages to not ever get hokey. He sings. “You'll open your eyes; Reading your paper, a drink from your cup; No one was burning down time; While you were sleeping.” Cornell can always pull out an interesting lyric here and there, and that is one of his strengths.

Impression: 7/10

Cornell still has some incredible vocal chops and that’s something that hasn’t faded over the years. Even when he is singing a laid-back track like “Safe And Sound,” he still has a very effective bluesy delivery. Strong vocals are aplenty on the latest record, but underneath the voice are songs that are primarily basic rock tunes that feel a bit lacking. The hardest part for most listeners will be not to reminisce too much about the sound of Soundgarden when listening to Carry On. There was a very unique quality about Soundgarden and some early Audioslave that just outmatches Cornell’s latest material. While there are those who adore anything Cornell performs, there is still something missing on the latest record. There’s nothing wrong with going in another musical direction by any means, but the songs just don’t feel as memorable as his earlier work.

- Ultimate Guitar team review

Inpress (Australia)

Chris Cornell: Carry On

Let's get one thing out of the way to begin with. If you've come tomeet this album with a certain bias toward Soundgarden or a certain bias toward Audioslave, then shed it and come clean.

You have to remember that Chris Cornell is his own person, and fair enough will always be bringing things to his table that will be partially derivative of his old bands, but let's also remind ourselves that Chris Cornell wasn't the lead guitarist in Soundgarden.

The whole album exudes that sense of a musical vision in its wholly initial stages - you know, those moments where you think "Oh! And then we could do this!", and the brilliant thing is that it has been followed through for the whole album, and hasn't fizzled out to the over-produced and perfectionist attitudes of good ideas like these or just ended up turning out shit.

The album covers an amazing amound of ground, from seriously blazing 'bang your head, motherfucker' riffage, to a gritty, jazz/garage-rock-ballad cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.

Aside from his obvious vocal talents, his riff-writing and chord progressions are something of wonder (whether or not he actually wrote them), and keep a listener guessing by making connections and movements that are completely altered as to the expected movement.

Overall, the album hits a home run of pretty much every criteria - and engineering is fairly progressive, with the mixing and production stepping into refreshingly new territory at times - but the standout is definitely Chris Cornell's lyricism, concocting tales of sincerely forgotten souls and underhandedly spiked burns, just as in She'll Never Be Your Man. "She can be your friend/She can be your vision of a mother...but she'll never be your man".

Carry On is in a league of its own, and is the absolute perfect vehicle for Chris Cornell to advocate and carry his individual musical vision outward, away from his weighted past commitments.

- Atticus Bastow, Inpress, Melbourne

Dallas Morning News (US)

Chris Cornell - Carry On

A NEW CHRIS POSE: By now, bringing up Chris Cornell should require a background primer of just two words: Soundgarden and Audioslave. Now divested of the latter, Mr. Cornell is fully his own artist for the second time after fronting a popular band. The first attempt, 1999's post-Soundgarden release Euphoria Morning, was a quivering flop. Does Carry On defy its title and prove a better solo springboard?

CARRYING THE LOAD: Oh, yes. The first single and track, "No Such Thing," is easily the hardest rocker, but the Caribbean tinge of its guitar during the verses hints at the obvious reverence for heartland jazz, acoustic blues and roots rock that Mr. Cornell has learned how to channel. With an award-class production job by Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews Band), Carry On's organic content consistently soothes and enthuses beyond Mr. Cornell's still-prodigal vocals. His instincts are assured and entertaining, from the high-revving harmonics of "Poison Eye" and the upright-bass- and horn-assisted gospel cheering on "Safe and Sound" to the underwater slides of "Scar on the Sky" and even on iffy cuts such as "Finally Forever," which resembles Michael Bolton warming up to cover "Black Hole Sun" in places. But perhaps the best example is a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," which is chopped and screwed into a ghostly ballad straight out of a rain-sopped spaghetti Western's dénouement.

BOTTOM LINE: Bluesy, passionate and remarkably sweeping, Carry On makes Euphoria Morning seem like a pre-pro demo. Few of its doleful and restrained songs will be hits, but as a unit, this is a watershed work for one of this generation's most hallowed rock voices.

Grade: B+

- Mike Daniel, Dallas Morning News

Seattle Weekly

Who does Chris Cornell think he is? Does he even know? When listening to his new solo album, any sense of Cornell's personal identity is lost. He's arguably the best pure vocalist from the grunge-era bands, and this album definitely showcases that, but it's really hard to care.

The first time through, it all sounds great. There's a nice surprise with a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and the inclusion of his Casino Royale number, "You Know My Name," but nothing else stands out.

Listening to it again, the questions about Cornell's identity as a solo act return. At times he sounds like Bowie did on Heathen, and at others he sounds like...Michael Bolton. As a result, every track is akin to a cover song. (Speaking of covers, doesn't this one look familiar?) The rest of the liner notes crib designs from various periods of music history, only furthering the confusion.

We may remember your name, but the rest of your album is very forgettable.

- T.J. TRANCHELL, Seattle Weekly

ContactMusic (UK)

Chris Cornell Carry On

After six years and three albums with Audioslave, the former vocalist of Soundgarden releases his second solo effort, following 1999’s ‘Euphoria Morning’. Having officially called it quits with the ‘Cochise’ band (the remaining members have reformed Rage Against The Machine with Zack de la Rocha), Chris Cornell’s profile has been heightened by his selection to provide the theme tune to the 2006 James Bond movie, ‘Casino Royale’.

Even from opening track ‘No Such Thing’ it is easy to hear why Cornell has decided to pursue a solo career, with a heavy metal riff being mixed with a Latino-style acoustic guitar to give more variation than it possible to imagine Audioslave utilising. Indeed, what follows displays an appreciation for many genres, with ‘Poison Eye’ edging toward funk (and featuring a jagged solo that could have come from Tom Morello), ‘Safe And Sound’ leaning toward blues and ‘Finally Forever’ having a folk vibe. Less experimental is ‘Your Soul Today’ which romps along in classic rock style and ‘She’ll Never Be Your Man’, which has a power chord-charged chorus and a fantastically twisted solo which unfortunately ends too soon.

Two songs stand out from the rest on ‘Carry On’, not because the others are bad, but because the duo is stunning. ‘Arms Around The World’ is a mellow track with some wonderful guitar melodies that back a fantastic vocal performance – it’s easy to appreciate why it was selected to be a single. The other track is one that is often the best of the 1980’s, Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. Wisely a reworking as opposed to a simple cover, Chris Cornell turns it into a sombre, acoustic tune that taps into the mournful nature of the lyrics. With more emotion than the original ever possessed, it is certainly worth hearing, even if it will never be as popular as the original. It is a measure of the man’s talent and confidence to successfully take a legendary song in a completely new direction and backs up his decision to go it alone.

- Alex Lai, ContactMusic.com

Washington Times (US)

Chris Cornell: Carry On

All metal singers should age as gracefully as Chris Cornell. The former frontman for Seattle grunge band Soundgarden is a few years north of 40, and rather than exult in rock-and-roll's promise of eternal youth, he imbues his songs with a welcome note of restraint.

That's not to say that the man who once opened for Danzig on tour has gone soft. A few of the songs on Mr. Cornell's second solo album snarl and fume as much as anything on the mega-selling Soundgarden album "Superunknown."

More than anything, "Carry On" is a showcase for Mr. Cornell's prodigious, agile voice. It is the lead instrument on every track. He combines astonishing range with rich timbre that he can vary on the fly. On the soulful "Safe and Sound," Mr. Cornell plays off the guitar with a touch of ragged tremolo, rising octaves above the melody to hit high notes here and there. On the opening track "No Such Thing," he accentuates the driving metal chords and agitated guitar fills with a loud, smooth vocal line.

"You Know my Name" was the signature song for the most recent James Bond film, "Casino Royale." Lyrically, Mr. Cornell offers exactly the mixture of earnestness and camp that the aging film franchise demands, opening with a typical Bondian non sequitur: "If you take a life, do you know what you give? Odds are you won't like what it is when the storm arrives."

He gives a gritty, understated vocal performance that meshes well with the hyper-driving drum line. His voice is perfectly suited to the demands of the Bond song, able to rise and fall effortlessly; to snarl at one moment and purr the next.

Mr. Cornell brings a weird intensity to his cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Slowing the song down to half-time, Mr. Cornell assays the hit rhythm and blues number with the kind of manic passion that Eric Burden brought to "House of the Rising Sun." The arrangement is quite beautiful, with stray acoustic bass notes creeping out mid-measure, against an eerie whistle of synth and a gently plucked guitar, all building to a rumbling, raucous chorus. The tone and mood of the songs range from the arena rockish "Poison Eye" to the plaintive, twangy "Finally Forever" to the alterna-pop of "She'll Never be Your Man." Despite the varied genres and changing instrumentation, "Carry On" has a singular feel, thanks to the constant presence of Mr. Cornell's durable singing voice.

- Washington Times

Mojo (UK)

Chris Cornell: Carry On

Second solo album from ex-Soundgarden/Audioslave singer and 007 hitmaker

Post-grunge supergroup Audioslave was a marketing department's dream - the voice of Soundgarden backed by the musicians from Rage Against The Machine - that ultimately proved anti-climactic.

Now that Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk have been reunited with RATM's firebrand frontman Zack de la Rocha, Cornell has found a hype-free context for his impressively manly pipes.

Produced by Steve Lillywhite and featuring late period Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas (albeit in AOR mode), Carry On is a livelier set than 1999's Euphoria Morning. Sprightly radio rocker No Such Thing and the sweetly melodic Arms Around Your Love should follow Casino Royale theme You Know My Name into the charts, even without the Bond factor.

Points deducted, though, for the lumbering cover of Billie Jean.

3 stars out of 5

- Manish Agarwal, Mojo

CD - Carry On - Chris Cornell

This is the second solo album from Chris Cornell, formally of Soundgarden and Audioslave. Cornell announced his decision to leave Audioslave back in February and has since sung the theme tune for Bond film Casino Royale and written this album.

Carry On is actually a confused album, there are songs that could be from any of Cornell's previous bands and range from sweet and soulful to dirty and grungy.

It's a collection which manages to be both catchy and dreary at the same time. It can go from rocky with a hint of country, to retro with a hint of folk, particularly in tracks like Your Soul Today and Today.

Standout tracks include current single Arms Around Your Love, Safe And Sound and even a cover version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.

Carry On is occasionally good, sometimes bad, but mostly just plain average.

Cornell seems to have lost his rage and his enthusiasm for making good rock songs and appears happy just to be making music.

If you're a fan of Chris Cornell you'll enjoy it, if you're a fan of either Soundgarden or Audioslave, avoid it.

BR, Redditch Advertiser

CB Music (US)

CD Review: Chris Cornell's Carry On

Chris Cornell may have never become the rock god some predicted, but to assert him as anything short of one of the great American rock vocalists of our time is sacrilege. Equipped with the similar larger than life range of David Lee Roth, accompanied with the same embittered soul of Eddie Vedder, Cornell always finds a way to carry on, tackling music the best way he knows how--his way.

Some are writing off Carry On, the Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman’s second solo effort since 1999’s sexily titled Euphoria Morning, as a misfire of rock, fused with blues, fused with soul. While this may not be an album of jaw-dropping brilliance, it’s a positive step for an artist who has a lot to say and invites us along for the ride as he searches for his best way of saying it.

The curtain opens with “No Such Thing,” a track that feels as though it could have appeared on an Audioslave record. Its heavy riffs and blazing vocals are reminiscent of “Show Me How To Live,” and it exists here as the lone rock heavy melody.

“Poison Eye” doesn’t sound so catchy on the first listen, until you find yourself humming it minutes later. This could very well mean the album should be listened to more than once. Patience is always the key, folks.

Cornell nuzzles us into his spiritual side, a side he shows on a few of these songs, on “Safe And Sound”: “Think of a time when a morning will come and you will wake up without the feeling half the world has gone insane/I’ve never seen but I believe in a promised land.” This is the best track on the album, a true testament of his lyrical and vocal graces.

Cornell’s spiritual ponderings continue in impeccable fashion with “You Know My Name,” an affronted reflection on murder. “If you take a life/Do you know what you’ll give?/Odds are you won’t like what it is/I’ve seen angels fall from blinding heights/but you yourself are nothing so divine/Just next in line.”

Not to be outdone, “Silence The Voices” adds a sharp, raw edge to the ever persisting theme: “Where are the songs from the sane minds?/And where are the words from the sound mouths?/I can’t understand how they silence the voices.” This certifies Carry On as a relevant album of rock and soul caliber.

Carry On does, however, offer a minor assortment of filler songs, such as the quirky “She’ll Never Be Your Man” (in love with a tranny?), “Disappearing Act,” “Finally Forever” and “Scar On The Sky.” But the missteps can be forgiven due to the majority of correct steps taken.

Apart from future reunions with Soundgarden and Audioslave, all that can be requested of Cornell is that for his next solo piece, he should try and refine it into a more steadfast, solid ensemble of tunes. His voice has always been more suited for pure rock anyway, yet his propensity toward the soulful is welcome. Carry On, while not a perfect release, further establishes him as a man of unique talent and fury.

- Brendan Butler, CB Music

New York Post (US)

CHRIS CORNELL: "CARRY ON"

Post-Audioslave, Cornell offers a wobbly mish-mash that ranges from Billie Jean to Nashville-pop.

Yet when he clicks on rockers like Poison Eye or the syncopated funk of She'll Never Be Your Man, his emotion-packed vocals still shine.

Download: She'll Never Be Your Man

Rating: 2 1/2

- By Dan Aquilante, New York Post

Orange County Register (US)

Sympathy for the part-time savior: Chris Cornell on his own again

My best friend Patrick, the one who lives in Seattle – where I hope Chris Cornell's name is commonly exalted in pubs and clubs – is the only other person I know who has listened to the only other album to sport the mighty vocalist's name on its cover, "Euphoria Morning." I sometimes wonder just how many people at Interscope ever heard it. It came out eight years ago now, while Cornell was searching for a way to build a solo career in the wake of Soundgarden's lamentable but apparently necessarily demise. But nobody was really buying it – the album or the idea of Cornell being his own rock entity, especially one who (on that album, anyway) sounded so slick, the way Garbage-y rock kinda sounded back in '99.

How little did the disc get noticed? I remember seeing Cornell at the Fonda when it came out, when the Fonda still had seats and was showing a staging of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" from time to time. And there were enough empty seats for me to have had every member of my extended family (and Patrick's) alongside me.

Naturally, Patrick (who at this point may rank a tie with Paul Rodgers as his most favorite vocalist) and I cherish "Euphoria Morning," which sports some of Cornell's most instantly listenable songs: "Can't Change Me," "Follow My Way," "Wave Goodbye," the bluesy build of "When I'm Down." It's an album well worth digging up, in light of Cornell's return with the simply titled "Carry On." Carry on indeed – this solid hodgepodge not only picks up where he melodically (if not lyrically) left off with Audioslave, it also takes him back to the mainstream-ready approachability (not entirely a bad thing) he set out to achieve with "Euphoria." It doesn't end with his recent James Bond theme for nothing.

It also isn't as light as its solo predecessor; he didn't spend all that time with Audioslave for nothing, either. And he comes out hitting hard, with "No Such Thing," which gallops on an STP-infused riff but leaves spaces to dynamically duck into passages straight out of Bowie in the '70s. He also lets you know heavy isn't just for sprinkling: "Poison Eye" may sound a bit like Van Hagar crossed with Gang of Four, which just fits uncomfortably together, but it never stops rocking.

Nor does a bold but ill-advised remake of "Billie Jean" – yes, that "Billie Jean." Overhauling it into a slow waltz might have worked if Jeff Buckley were alive to give it passion in the proper register. Cornell's roar tends to obliterate the song; at times it's so hyper-strained I almost start laughing. But at least it's got bite, thanks in part to a beefy four-man band featuring guitarists Gary Lucas (who worked with Buckley) and Cameron Greider.

Yet what really makes "Carry On" worth hearing – more tenderly rendered pieces like "Safe and Sound" (like Amos Lee joining early Aerosmith) and "Killing Birds" (with traces of the Postal Service) and "Hover" (sweet psychedelia at sundown) – is precisely what may sink it with some people. That's a doubly sad possibility given the quickness to dismiss Cornell in the mad excitement surrounding Rage Against the Machine's return. Cornell deserves better than to be treated like a footnote, and though Audioslave was never the cherry bomb that Rage will apparently always be, its three albums will come to stand among the better hard-rock fare this decade produced.

If nothing else, Cornell's contribution should be valued as a means to hold the skeleton of Rage in place while its flesh fell away. He was a part-time savior, and with luck he benefited, too: If there were any justice, a whole new segment of younger fans that only discovered him with Audioslave will now be game to hear him wail romantically and self-reflectively on detours like "Your Soul Today" and "Finally Forever."

You'd think, in a year in which Daughtry is the biggest seller, that an originator like Cornell would get his due. But I get the feeling, Patrick, that this one just won't seem cool enough, or maybe it'll leave 'em too divided – too hard in spots for some, too soft in others for, uh, others. You and I are gonna be the only ones fanning this one's flame for a while, I bet. I'll start spreading the word down here.

Grade: B

- Ben Wener, Orange County Register

Celebrity Cafe (US)

Ex-guitar and lead singer of Soundgarden, Chris Cornell’s second solo album, Carry On, is a look inside this inscrutable artist who has gone through several life changes since Soundgarden split up in 1997.

Carry On is R&B, blues and rock all rolled into one superb package. Yet, Cornell’s voice still has its haunting melody that keeps fans clamoring for more.

On “No Such Thing,” there is fast guitar work from Cornell, Gary Lucas, Brian Ray, Cameron Greider and Dimitri Coats, and pounding drum play from Nir Z. Cornell emotes on how certain aspects of life just don’t exist and how he has tried to shield himself from the fallout, with such lines as, “It was beautiful, but the rain set in and ruined it all. Then I tried to be invisible but it was impossible even for me.” His voice has a hidden pain that will hit listeners’ way down deep.

“Poison Eye” has a profound rock feel to it as Cornell talks about seeing things in a distorted way, with such lines as, “I saw the light. I heard you singing, I know the song. It’s my turn to write, I put this hook inside…I got the radar and I can see so far with my poison eye.”

With “Arms Around Your Love,” there is keyboard work from Jamie Muhoberac, along with slower guitar work by Cornell, Lucas, Ray, Greider and Coats. Cornell muses about a relationship that doesn’t sound healthy, with such lines as, “With his arms around your love oh no here comes the pain that you can’t ignore…He’ll do all of the things…You had every chance but you closed the door, now you’re just gonna have to take it. Cuz he’s gonna make you pay for it. You’re just gonna have to take it with his arms around your love.” Cornell’s hypnotic timbre is seductive as he croons about love that can strangle you.

“Billie Jean” is of course Cornell’s twist on the Michael Jackson classic. This version is much slower and more spellbinding with Cornell’s evocative vocals and lingering guitar work by him, Lucas, Greider, Ray and Coats. The danceable nature of this song invoked by Jackson is turned on its ear by Cornell who gives the song a creepy vibe.

Carry On, from Chris Cornell, is an album filled with unforgettable songs and introspective lyrics from an artist whose voice will touch and sear listeners’ souls.

8.5 out of 10

- Sari N. Kent, Celebrity Cafe.com

IGN.com (US)

Chris Cornell - Carry On

Even the mighty are bound to make a few missteps

Few will refute the simple exclamation that Chris Cornell has one of the most intense and recognizable voices in all of rock music, at least during the past two decades. He's also been one of the most prolific songsmiths, first with Soundgarden, then Temple of the Dog, and most recently Audioslave. He's gone from underground legend (Soundgarden) and cult hero (Temple) to arena rock superstar (later SG and Audioslave) and he even managed to toss off a solo album in the midst of all that.

After his recent departure from Audioslave and the high profile (though ultimately lackluster) title song for Casino Royale, it should come as no surprise that Mr. Cornell would dip back into the solo pool. This time around sounding a lot less like his early career comparisons to Robert Plant and more like a gentler voiced Ozzy, Cornell delivers up an extremely mixed platter of rock ambiguity.

It's not that Carry On is crappy, it's just that the musicality shifting, lurching, and rolling behind Cornell's patented vocal careen isn't particularly spectacular. Actually it's more schizophrenic or perhaps more accurately it's suffering from a serious case of sonic personality disorder. On the one hand Cornell's band of the moment dishes out pretty standard, paint-by-numbers barroom-turned-arena rock. A lot of it ripples with after effects of late '80s LA metal crossed with a much slicker and less jammy interpretation of Southern Rock thematics. On the other hand it seems to shift without a moment's notice from style to style, often multiple times in a single song and every so often in a single measure. The end result is that Cornell's steady, confident vocals lose their foothold on the loose gravel music beds. Some might applaud such diversity, but in the end it merely serves to create a less streamlined listening experience.

"No Such Thing" kicks down the gates with crunching guitar amplitude that is a cross-breed of Soundgarden and Audioslave, then it morphs unexpectedly into a light samba shuffle of acoustic guitar over which Cornell croons. WTF? Just as you settle into the mellowness the chorus kicks in like some forgotten Ozzy refrain. Each element is captivating, to be true, but smashed together they are just a bit to disparate to actually create a cohesive vision.

Meanwhile "Poison Eye" brings the rage and skirl and sounds not unlike some of the final days music of SG. But ultimately it sounds a bit off, like it's missing that extra je ne sais quoi, you know? Meanwhile "Arms Around Your Love" is a maudlin (for Cornell) song that has a chorus which sounds suspiciously like something Third Eye Blind would whip out on one of their numerous hits. Then it's into contemporary pop terrain, complete with lilting moments of Al Green falsetto on "Safe and Sound," a track that sounds nothing like Chris Cornell (i.e. if you weren't aware it was him you'd never guess it was). It's strangely compelling, but also soft. Granted even the hardest of rockers have a hidden mellow side, but this is bordering on Rob Thomas meets vintage R&B territory.

By far and large "She'll Never Be Your Man" is the strangest tune on the album, lyrically speaking. If I didn't know better it almost sounds like Cornell is outing himself. Or maybe I'm reading too much into lines like "she can be your lover/she can be your friend/she can be your vision of your mother, like the one you never had/she will know your troubles better than I can/but she'll never be your man…" Of course it could just be an Iron John/male bonding/Budweiser drinking/pool playing ode. I'll leave the interpretation up to others at hand.

Raggedly twangy and rusted guitar leads into the shimmering acoustic sheen of "Ghosts," yet another track showcasing the more tender side of Cornell. When he ain't growling and yelping he actually has a pretty beautiful voice, but it's at such odds with his created persona of the raging, howling frontman that it takes some getting used to. That and the fact that the musical backdrop isn't anything that stands out from the rest of the pack of mature crooners (Rob Thomas, John Mayer, and the like) out there today. As much as it sounds like I'm hating on this track, the more you listen to it, the more it will grow on you, mostly because Cornell and the music actually mesh. It's the most consistent track on the album, for better or worse.

The album's real kicker, though, is "Killing Birds." Starting out with snippeted synth syncopation it allows Cornell's penetrating voice to command the track. Lyrically, it's on par with the rest of the album, delivering words that yearn for further dissection, unless of course you absolutely know what "as I'm standing here right in front of you killing birds" means. I certainly don't, but the combination of the liltingly scratching music and Cornell's impassioned plea make for a hypnotic blend.

The album's genuine head cracker, at least in terms of source material, sheds its skin in the form of a Michael Jackson cover. "Billie Jean" as read by Cornell becomes a dusted lament, a sad song of desperation and post-modern country melancholy. Jacko and Cornell make strange bedfellows, that's for sure, but kudos to CC for actually taking a much beloved hit and turning it into his own emotionally wracked masterpiece of slow burning turpitude.

"Hover" [he means "Scar On the Sky" - webmaster] is another quiet number that reverberates with strange, grating country mannerisms. Cornell's voice more or less does what the title suggests, hovering beautifully over the fairly standard slow crawl barroom backing. Yet as streamlined as the two are it's ultimately forgettable. In fact that's a major flaw in much of the music on this endeavor: it's strong and aggressive as well as sweet and emotional, but it's fleeting and fades quickly from memory. The melodies and grooves are there, delivered with competence, but lacking that extra special sauce that makes music memorable and perversely invasive.

A slightly funky, crunching boogie-woogie slant is instilled on "Your Soul Today," the guitars cranking and slinking with blues intoned wrangle. It's Cornell and company's version of mutant blues and it almost works, though the chorus, which kicks back into mock country terrain seems to be pushing and pulling against the rest of the track itself. It's only when Cornell delivers angst dripping reiterations of the title "your soul today…" that the song captures the majesty it was striving for.

Mellowness returns on "Finally Forever," another slow jam in which the smoother side of Cornell again rears its sleepy head. The steel guitar wavering throughout the track bears slight shades of "Blackhole Sun," lending the track a clouded sense of déjà vu. Again, Cornell's vocals mesh brilliantly with the music, but neither has that special something to make it a bona fide classic. There's an overwhelming desire of torch song malevolence and grandiose posturing on "Silence," which features a militaristic snare cadence and an epic stance that's slightly over-the-top. It actually feels epic for epic's sake, if that makes sense at all. It also feels out of time and space, something that might have worked better three decades in the past as opposed to the here and now. Yet just like "Ghosts" it has a hypnotic refrain that works its way under your skin no matter how cheesy your cerebellum tells you it is.

The album wraps up with the acoustic "Disappearing Act," a wonderfully nondescript slice of Cornell crooning with passion over guitar, tambourine, and cello. Then there's the final swan song, "You Know My Name," a track most will recall as being the theme song to Casino Royale. As with many of the more recent Bond themes, it's fairly forgettable. Also, one has to wonder why Cornell included it here. For an artist as prolific as he is one would have figured he'd have other tracks he could have slipped onto the disc rather than re-hashing one that was sold as a single back at the tail end of 2006.

Carry On is a confusing collection of songs that never really seem to gel together as a singular whole. The album never actually feels like an album, yet it contains a few stellar moments of passion and fire that solidify Cornell's place in rock history. Yet these moments are few and far between and even at their brightest they fail to live up to his Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog legacies, falling more in line with the work he did with Audioslave: it's decent but not epic by a long shot. With Carry On Cornell seems to be somewhat aimless, searching for his voice and style like a lost sonic wanderer; this is a journeyman album where a gifted tradesman is trying to pinpoint the perfect intersection of art and emotion that will bring his talents to the forefront and make the most of them. This is an album that you desperately wish to love from start to finish, yet every time you stumble upon a little element that you adore there's another element that you'll despise. This push/pull, heaven/hell, good/bad struggle lingers throughout the 14 tracks and in the end creates a sonic experience that is more exasperating than exhilarating.

7.2 out of 10

- Spence D., IGN.com

Chart Attack (Canada)

CHRIS CORNELL Carry On

Much like Audioslave’s three forgettable releases, Chris Cornell’s second solo album starts off by completely misleading the listener. Its conceit is that the singer has finally heard a copy of Badmotorfinger after all these years and has gone back to writing the riffs and wails that made him famous.

After "Arms Around," the third track and first of many, many ballads, you realize that this just isn't the case. The sad truth is that the Corn is in his forties now, and he’s making the kind of mellowed-out music you’d expect a guy his age to make. It’s still a few steps above the dreck that guys like Rob Thomas spew out, but each song follows the grandiose easy-listening style of last year’s James Bond theme, "You Know My Name," which is also included here.

After hearing the truly baffling cover of Michael Jackson’s "Billie Jean," you'll realize Cornell’s moved on from his past, and maybe you should too.

- Shehzaad Jiwani, Chart Attack

Seattle Post-Intelligencer (US)

Listen Up: Chris Cornell's 'Carry On'

It's been 10 years since the breakup of Soundgarden, an iconic Seattle band of the grunge era that reached its zenith with "Superunknown," an album that sold more than 3 million copies and earned the group two Grammy Awards.

With a powerful voice that is part banshee wail and part raspy, soulful croon, lead singer Chris Cornell used his rock star credentials to launch all-star band Audioslave, which he walked away from earlier this year. Cornell's new solo album, "Carry On," provides a foundation for a solo career that failed to materialize with his 1999 solo debut, "Euphoria Morning."

Produced by Steve Lillywhite (who has worked with the Rolling Stones, Dave Matthews Band and U2, among others), "Carry On" is an impressive, if uneven, collection of soulful, sometimes bluesy rockers that demonstrates Cornell's willingness to experiment.

"No Such Thing," the first single, opens with somber soulfulness before exploding into a full-throttle, guitar-crunching song that should please longtime Soundgarden fans. The song's range of emotions, styles and tempos is representative of a collection of songs exploring varied themes such as heartbreak, redemption and world peace.

Among the more interesting tracks is Cornell's subdued version of Michael Jackson's dance-floor anthem, "Billie Jean." The 1980s classic comes across as a dark, lugubrious tale of troubled romance.

"She'll Never Be Your Man" is tinged with R&B influences, and "Scar on the Sky" has an unexpected country flavor. "Disappearing Act," originally an acoustic song that played during the credits of the horror movie "Bug," receives the full-band treatment on "Carry On." The album closes with "You Know My Name," the song Cornell wrote and recorded with composer David Arnold for the James Bond movie "Casino Royale." But it lacks punch and makes for a tepid final track.

DOWNLOAD: "Silence the Voices"

-- Gene Stout, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Los Angeles Times (US)

Chris Cornell "Carry On"

There's not much need to shout

Context does make the rock star. In Soundgarden, Chris Cornell was a '90s rock god of wailing, grungy heaviosity, equal parts punk and Zeppelin. With Audioslave, he led the remnants of Rage Against the Machine for three albums marked more by dependable hard-rock craftsmanship than real inspiration. All by himself, and on his second solo album (in stores today), Cornell is neither, turning down the volume just enough to find a comfort zone of melody and bristling emotion.

More crooner than shouter now, Cornell can still uncork a raging vocal when the mood is right, but that isn't often. He sets a high standard with the album's opening track, "No Such Thing," erupting with furious electric guitar before slipping into a solemn, romantic vocal melody that is blatantly McCartney-esque and a long, long way from "Black Hole Sun." Later, "Safe and Sound" is the kind of manly, soulful ballad Clapton traded in during the mid-'70s, a sound hinting of romantic loss and desperation. There's also a bit of James Bond melodrama on "You Know My Name," recorded originally for the soundtrack of "Casino Royale" with film composer David Arnold.

Not everything here is so fully formed or satisfying. "Poison Eye" begins with a nice Stonesy riff and then goes nowhere. But a grim, spooky take on Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" is amusing enough, even if it sounds a lot more like Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters." Jacko's mega hit survives the stunt translation. So does Cornell, his days as a righteous hard-rocker may be behind him now, but he remains a singer searing and distinctive, once more feeling his way into a new sound and setting.

2.5 out of 4 stars

— Steve Appleford, Los Angeles Times

Associated Press (US)

Music Review: Chris Cornell Returns To Form On Versatile And Rewarding "Carry On"

Soundgarden fell apart, and Audioslave crumbled under creative differences, so it's fitting that Chris Cornell's long overdue second solo disc is entitled ''Carry On.''

The enigmatic singer-songwriter's first solo effort, 1999's experimental ''Euphoria Morning,'' was celebrated by critics and won him a Grammy, but fans didn't appreciate that it sounded nothing like Soundgarden.

As before, those who disregard his past will see Cornell's latest introspective adventure for the joyously eclectic journey it is.

He brings a light touch but loses none of his intensity, and the disc does rock hard in several places - the versatile ''No Such Thing,'' ''Poison Eye'' and a fantastic ''Your Soul Today'' will please even the harshest critic.

However, he shines brightest on the low-key, personal moments, particularly the bluesy lament ''Safe and Sound'' and colorful acoustic tracks like ''Ghosts,'' ''Finally Forever'' and ''Disappearing Act.''

Cornell's most powerful instrument remains his voice - passionate and commanding but also soft and emotive. His grinding cover of Michael Jackson's ''Billie Jean'' would have seemed an amusing aside in lesser hands, but is sung with such straight-faced conviction it's oddly contagious.

''Carry On'' proves Chris Cornell remains a vital voice. Let's hope he stays on his own for a few more creative outbursts.

CHECK THIS OUT: For a taste of Cornell's softer side look no further than the lush ''Arms Around Your Love,'' with a slick and minimal guitar lead which floats over one of the catchiest hooks he's ever written.

By JOHN KOSIK, Associated Press Writer

Billboard (US)

The cover art on Cornell's second solo album suggests a folk record from the early '60s (and the title suggests a Kansas cover lurking about somewhere).

But the music inside is strictly crunchy, dare-we-say-grungy rock straight out of the '90s Cornell helped shape with Soundgarden. "Ghosts" sports a nostalgically Seattle-ish minor-chord riff and appropriately soaring chorus; "No Such Thing" out-Velvet Revolvers Scott Weiland; and meaty-sounding ballads "Disappearing Act" and "Silence" end the record in unusually strong fashion.

Elsewhere, the headline-grabbing cover of "Billie Jean" is well-intentioned but still a little silly, although it boasts a crazy, Eddie Van Halen-sounding solo.

The best thing here is "You Know My Name" from last fall's "Casino Royale," but that makes sense: This is some of Cornell's most uncomplicated and accessible music to date.

—Jeff Vrabel, Billboard

Spin (US)

Grunge forefather suffers from amnesia-or just bad taste?

Apparently, Chris Cornell spent his grunge glory days wishing that her were in Stone Temple Pilots.

On his second solo outing, the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman dresses down the faux-Zeppelin balladry of 1999's Euphoria Morning with heaps of fuzz and cock-rock posturing that suspiciously recall a certain much-maligned San Diego quartet.

The opener sounds like a rip of radio smash "Sex Type Thing" and is even called "No Such Thing". Maybe this is what living in France does to you.

- Kyle Anderson, Spin (thanks JoAnne)

Entertainment Focus UK

Chris Cornell - Carry On

Former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell steps into the solo spotlight with his second solo album Carry On. Cornell's debut album Euphoria Morning was released in 1999 and despite garnering critical acclaim wasn't a huge commercial success. It should be different this time around as Carry On comes hot on the heels of Cornell's smash-hit Bond theme You Know My Name, which is included on the album.

Carry On is a pretty lengthy album, coming in at 16 tracks long. Across the 16 tracks, Cornell gets the chance to showcase the different sides to his personality and music as well as hint at the direction he may follow on his solo path. It's to his credit that Cornell has decided to take a varied approach to his solo work and take a few chances

. The first thing you always notice about Cornell is his incredible voice. There is no other singer out there like him and his voice is so distinctive it actually sends shivers down your spine. His voice gets a good work out on Carry On. Opening track No Such Thing is one of the heavier songs on the album and allows Cornell to let rip in his usual way. Throughout the rest of the album he gets to show he is capable of a more restrained and melodic vocal.

Carry On touches upon a variety of musical genres. Arms Around Your Love is a mainstream pop song, Safe and Sound has a bluesy sound to it and Scar On The Sky has a hint of country in the mix. Those who hoped, or expected, Cornell to stick to the heavier rock material he usually performs may be disappointed. The rest of us will relish hearing one of the world's best male vocalists turning his hand to every style of music he can.

The oddest, but not altogether unpleasant, moment on the album is Cornell's cover of the Michael Jackson clasic Billie Jean. He strips the song away from it's R&B pop roots and reimagines it as a gently building guitar ballad. It's an interesting interpretation and bound to upset the many MJ fans out there but it's a pretty damn good cover.

Highlights on the set include Casino Royale theme You Know My Name, the beautifully haunting Disappearing Act and the punchy acoustic number Today which features a falsetto vocal from Cornell.

Carry On is a new start for Cornell. He has moved away from the dark, moody material of his solo debut and progresses from the all-out rock of his previous bands. He emerges from Carry On as an impressive songwriter and a promising solo artist. I for one can't wait to see him tour the album.

- Philip Ellwood, Entertainment Focus UK

Daily Utah Chronicle (US)

Chris Cornell Carry On Interscope

Chris Cornell is gifted. Soundgarden declared this. Countless collaborations and songwriting credits confirmed it. Audioslave may have forced some to question Cornell's taste--but never his skills.

Carry On carries Cornell's weathered croon and sphere-scraping falsettos on to even firmer grounds--though his taste is still in question.

"Disappearing Act" invokes the spirit of fallen friend Jeff Buckley as it swells from humble acoustics to symphony-backed anthem. "No Such Thing" is an honest rock jam that'll dust off many a Temple of the Dog record.

But then comes a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Why?

Three out of five stars

- Dan Fletcher, The Daily Utah Chronicle

AllMusic Guide (US)

Chris Cornell's first solo album Euphoria Morning was released just after Cornell had shaken the shackles of Soundgarden and he was making a definitive break from their heavy heavy sound by indulging in bucolic singer/songwriter clichés.

It went nowhere commercially but led him toward Audioslave, where he spent three albums pushing and pulling against the core of Rage Against the Machine.

If Euphoria Morning was breaking from the past, Carry On is about reconnecting to it, returning Cornell to music that feels more comfortable than Tom Morello's staccato riffs. Right from the beginning, he pushes out arena-filling riffs that feel more at home on a Soundgarden record -- not as heavy and certainly not as tortured, but something more mature and more recognizably of Cornell's lineage than much of Audioslave.

It sets the stage for a record that's seems like a rare hard rock maturation, but soon Cornell returns to the singer/songwriter mannerisms that seemed appropriate on his first debut -- he was stretching his legs after Soundgarden, after all -- but now feel anemic, particularly because they're executed with quivering sensitivity and a near belligerent tunelessness.

These are the songs that feel forced -- as affected as his coffeehouse cover of "Billie Jean" -- but when Cornell loosens up and gives the music backbone (and a backbeat), he not only comes alive as a performer but the writing is sharper and better, pointing a way toward an artistic middle age that's richer and more compelling than what's heard on the bulk of Carry On.

- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Guide

Entertainment Weekly (US)

Cornell Mild

Carry On (2007) Chris Cornell

Carry On offers one brief flash of the old roar from the singer's Soundgarden days, then lowers the volume for the rest of the ride.

For people of a certain age and era, Chris Cornell's status is iconic: the wild-haired howler who made Soundgarden more than a metal thing, or a grunge thing, or even just a '90s thing.

After a decent but ultimately underwhelming run with Audioslave, that now-vintage Cornell is back on ''No Such Thing,'' the incendiary opener of Carry On, his second solo release.

And then...it goes away again. There is nothing wrong with a calmer, mellower Chris — after all, he's now a sober, forty-something dad. But it's hard not to pine for the old fire.

Grade: B

- Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

Kerrang (UK)

Chris Cornell: Carry On

Former Soundgarden man goes it alone

If you're mourning the demise of Audioslave, at least console yourself with the fact that Chris Cornell isn't. Whilen his former bandmates revisit old times as Rage Against The Machine, Cornell moves forward.

Carry On, his second solo album, is a peach, a rich and vibrant collection that manages to be both powerful and soulful. There isn't a bad song here, and there are a number that may prove to be great.

This perhaps shouldn't be a surprise; after all, Chris Cornell isn't new to this. But these 16 tracks show that you don't have to burn out OR fade away, and that while fashion is temporary, class is permanent.

4 out of 5

- Ian Winwood, Kerrang

Melbourne Age (Australia)

Carry On - Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell's Audioslave union with Tom Morello and Co was tenuous and occasionally fractious. Cornell is the former Soundgarden frontman with one of the grunge era's most potent set of pipes. In recent times, he has battled drug addiction, fallen in love and married, moved to Paris and set up a restaurant.

That's not to say Audioslave was a total waste of time: their three albums comprise a handful of excellent tracks (and some flotsam, too). Fresh from that band's break up, Cornell returns with his second solo album and it's a mixed bag.

Carry On is mostly an old-fashioned singer/songwriter-type effort replete with earnest mid-tempo rock'n'roll introspection. The fast-paced, hard-rocking opening salvo No Such Thing is a deceptive indicator for the rest of the record. Actually the Morello-aping guitar programming on the first couple of tracks only serves to remind us of Cornell's former bandmates' musical proficiencies.

However, there are too many plodding moments. Some mawkish lyrics are saved only by Cornell's compelling vocals. And what of the bizarre, stripped-back cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean? Like the album itself, it almost works.

3 stars out of five

- Andrew Murfett, Melbourne Age (thanks Mel)

Rolling Stone (US)

Welcome back to another episode of the long-running series Chris Cornell: What Happened?

Last time, we learned that it took only one Rage Against the Machine reunion gig to turn Audioslave's whole existence into a Van Hagar joke.

Now, we tune in to the tasteful pop songs Cornell is singing (and of course songwriting) on Carry On. Shrieking to Kim Thayil's guitar, Cornell was an instrument of awesome. (Listened to Superunknown lately? Even better than you remember. "My Wave," holy crap.)

But his talent is for mindless wailing, hitting money notes in the high-grunge style, and he has no knack at all for the subtle sound he's trying now.

Groaning "Billie Jean" or ponderous originals like "Scar on the Sky," he's nothing without the dumb grunge overkill he's been trying to put behind him since Soundgarden broke up. Hair? Short. Shirt? On. What happened?

- ROB SHEFFIELD, Rolling Stone

2.5 stars out of 5

The Tennessean (US)

Chris Cornell gives solo career another shot

Chris Cornell's reputation as a rock-band front man is a justifiably lauded one — his glassy voice helped propel both Soundgarden's cerebral metal in the '90s and Audioslave's space-age classic-rock in the '00s.

His initial step as a solo artist, 1999's Euphoria Morning, didn't enjoy quite the commercial success those bands did, though, maybe because fans weaned on his muscle-flexing felt too little of that, and too much of the haunting atmospherics that shivered through Soundgarden's Superunknown.

Still, while Euphoria wasn't terribly aggro, those atmospherics were plenty pretty and the songs were plenty affecting, given Cornell's flaming arrow of a voice.

Having recently left Audioslave, Cornell is back to the solo-guy approach, and early tastes of his upcoming Carry On sound like he's found a brawn-to-sensitivity balance that'll grab tighter hold of his band-won fanbase. "She'll Never Be Your Man" is a taut but wriggly post-grunge soul stomp, "No Such Thing" a combination molar-crunching '90s-Seattle throwback and strummy folk-pop serenade.

—Nicole Keiper, The Tennessean

Winnipeg Sun/Sun Media(Canada)

Voice Doesn't Carry

It's becoming an all-too-familiar pattern. First, Chris Cornell rocks out with a killer band for a few years, sells a bunch of records and gets all the fanboys yammering about how he's the greatest frontman in history. Then he gets tired of all that loud music. Or he wants to prove himself as a songwriter. Or he just wants things his own way. Or whatever -- honestly, we have no idea what he's thinking.

In any case, he leaves his successful, acclaimed rock band to make a solo album. And it bites.

OK, maybe that's a little harsh. But let's be honest: Cornell's second solo CD Carry On -- much like its predecessor, 1999's Euphoria Morning -- most assuredly does not rock out.

Instead, it once again finds the gravelly Soundgarden / Audioslave belter foolishly ditching his sweaty leather pants and donning a bland, ill-fitting ensemble of poppier melodies, softer rhythms and more power ballads than a Celine Dion-Michael Bolton double bill.

Before all you fanboys start your e-mail engines, yeah, he's still got some great pipes. But on the vast majority of these 14 samey-sounding cuts, he simply does not put them to very good use. Unless you happen to think acoustic-guitar covers of Michael Jackson are a swell idea, that is.

But there is good news: If Cornell stays true to form, he'll be fronting another A-list rock band in a couple of years. And last time we checked, Van Halen still had an opening.

No Such Thing 3:44 Cornell knows what the kids want. So this opening single is the token rocker, with a hard-driving beat, a chugging low-neck riff and some searing licks on the margins. But the acoustic guitars that carry the verses should be a tip-off of what's to come. Still, when he opens up and cuts loose on the big chorus, all is momentarily forgiven.

Poison Eye 3:57 It doesn't rock quite as hard as No Such Thing, but it does have a decently chunky, clanging guitar line that leaves room for some nimble bass work. If the whole album were like this, it would be OK. But it's not.

Arms Around Your Love 3:34 The first sign of trouble: We're already mellowing out. Admittedly, this jangly midtempo cut isn't quite as wimpy as its title implies -- but still, not a good sign.

Safe and Sound 4:16 This is precisely what we were talking about -- the disc is barely 10 minutes old, and Cornell is already into full-on power-ballad mode. The Memphis horns are a nice touch, but the rest of this song is tailor-made for American Idol.

She'll Never be Your Man 3:24 Another mellow midtempo groove. Another strummy acoustic guitar. And another smoky vocal. The bluesy slide lick and gender-bending lyrics help -- but only a bit.

Ghosts 3:51 What a surprise -- it's a midtempo, acoustic-guitar number. This one's got more of a folk-rock feel, but even so, enough already. Our finger involuntarily twitches toward the skip button.

Killing Birds 3:38 Yet another downtempo track -- this time powered by an insistent drum machine, topped with some twangy guitars and a tense bassline. You wait for it to explode into a big chorus -- but it never does. "It makes no sense to me," wails Chris. Us neither, buddy.

Billie Jean 4:41 Yes, that Billie Jean. Apparently, Cornell thought it would be a good idea to transform Jacko's paternity-suit pop into a smouldering acoustic-guitar waltz. He was wrong. This is just awful.

Hover 3:40 [Webmaster's note: he means Scar On The Sky - this was an earlier title] Again with the acoustic guitar, the downbeat tempo and the Michael Bolton wailing. The swooping-seagull solo keeps us briefly interested.

Your Soul Today 3:27 Hey, what's that? It's an electric guitar -- and not a moment too soon. Cornell finally picks up the pace with this chunky Stonesy rocker. It's no Spoonman -- but at this point, we'll take what we can get.

Finally Forever 3:37 That bit of momentum he built up with the last song? It's gone -- and we are back in the coffeehouse of plodding power balladry. We would pay someone to smash that freakin' acoustic guitar.

Silence 4:27 [Webmaster's note: he means Silence The Voices] This is some sort of anti-war cut that starts off with big ringing chords and some martial snares, and then gradually evolves into yet another overblown power-ballad. Silence? We wish.

Disappearing Act 4:33 At least the acoustic guitars are sorta bluesy and folksy on this one. We are trying to stay positive -- but seldom have we wanted an album to end as desperately as this one.

You Know My Name 4:00 Frankly, when you resort to tacking your six-month-old James Bond theme onto the end of your CD -- and when it's one of the three heaviest tunes on the thing -- you know you have done something very wrong.

By Darryl Sterdan - Winnipeg Sun/Sun Media

BBC Music (UK)

Chris Cornell - Carry On

Back in February, Chris Cornell announced his decision to leave Audioslave on account of ‘personality conflicts’ and ‘musical differences’.

Three months on, he’s releasing his second solo album. Any chance those conflicts and differences could have been down to the rest of the band deciding not to record Chris’ songs?

A listen to Carry On would make you understand why if it was. Let’s get one thing straight from the start: it is possibly the most confused album you’ll come across all year.

Stuck somewhere between Cornell’s initial incarnation in Soundgarden and a curious entry to American Idol, it is a collection that is both catchy and dreary at the same time, shown perfectly in the opening trio of ''No Such Thing''’s grown-up grunge, the MOR stadium rock of ''Arms Around Your Love'', and in the middle, ''Poison Eye'''s schizophrenic meanderings between the two.

The problem is Cornell’s voice. As distinctive as the sound it helped invent back in the 90s, when he stretches away from that grating grunge and rock, it shows an unexpectedly dull edge that lacks an ability to convey emotion. It’s a nuisance that weighs down the lumpen Bond theme, ''You Know My Name''.

Away from that, weirdness rules the roost, from a peculiarly unsettling version of Michael Jackson’s ''Billie Jean'' to the cover artwork, made to resemble the sleeve art of the likes of Miles Davis and Marvin Gaye.

If that weren’t enough, there’s a frankly disturbing ditty about your missus running off with another woman called '‘She’ll Never Be Your Man'’. Anyone who doesn’t shudder at lines like 'she can be your vision of a mother, like the one you never had' needs as much therapy as Cornell appears to himself.

And yet, when the last bars of the soft rock ballad finale, ''Roads We Choose'', rattle to a close, you feel compelled to have another listen. It’s like a drug you can’t kick. No wonder he’s faced some personality conflicts. Carry On causes enough in the listener to last anyone a lifetime.

- Chris Long, BBC Music

Manchester Evening News (UK)

Chris Cornell - Carry On

With his mane of jet black curls and distinctive rock voice, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell was, despite not having quite the wider profile of Vedder or Cobain, the coolest figure in the Seattle grunge scene of the early '90s.

But since those glory days his career has arguably been steady rather than stellar – though Audioslave fans may disagree with this contention. The hair’s a lot shorter now too.

Reviewing the album’s decent but unspectacular second single ‘Arms Around Your Love’ last week, I expressed hope that the album might be a worthy showcase for Cornell’s undoubted vocal talent. And it’s pleasing to report that there is much to like here.

Opener No Such Thing raises hopes with an effective slow-building combination of quiet verses and rock out choruses led by Cornell’s rarely matched voice, while Poison Eye threatens to similarly hit the heights only to be let down at the crunch by a criminally tuneless guitar solo, unusual on an album where the musical backing is otherwise consistently strong.

She’ll Never Be Your Man is an uptempo bluesy workout with duelling piano and slide guitar and album standout Killing Birds is a mellow yet threatening song driven along by a chugging bassline and vocals which recall Cornell’s work on the incredible Temple Of The Dog album fifteen or so years ago.

And in a bold attempt to cover the almost-uncoverable, Cornell takes on Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and turns it into a Nick Cave style murder ballad, slow and doom-ridden. The result is strangely powerful, and though it doesn’t manage to banish thoughts of the original in the listener’s mind it’s still a worthy try.

Carry On is a diverse affair between the rock histrionics of Cornell’s Soundgarden and Audioslave days and the mellower grooves of his work in Temple Of The Dog and previous solo album Euphoria Morning, while also throwing blues and soul influences into the mix for good measure.

Possibly as a consequence of this diversity, the quality of the songs dips here and there across the album’s 62 minutes. But rock music has had relatively few singers who can bear comparison to Cornell. For me, the closest I can come to summing up his sonorous, heartfelt delivery is to describe him as the American Robert Plant.

High praise indeed, and probably blasphemy for some, but that is what holds Carry On together, and he has rarely sounded better.

3 out of 5 stars

- Nick Thompson, Manchester Evening News

IndieLondon.co.uk

Chris Cornell - Carry On

The second solo album from former Soundgarden man Chris Cornell is a really mixed offering. Occasionally good, sometimes bad and frequently just plain average, it’s a frustrating affair that never really ignites as it should.

In the 10 years since Soundgarden’s much lamented split, Cornell has moved to France, sobered up, put out a critically-acclaimed solo album and formed the supergroup Audioslave.

But he continues to be something of an enigma musically – a distinct presence (especially vocally) who continually struggles to realise his early potential. Carry On offers 16 tracks that veer from the harder edge of No Such Thing and Poison Eye to the blues of Safe And Sound via the cinematic scope of You Know My Name and the much talked about cover version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

But as that list suggests, it’s a very mixed bag. Billie Jean, in particular, stands out like a sore thumb. It’s a gritty take that strips away the dancefloor beats in favour of a slower build, almost ballad-style of lovelorn delivery.

You have to take notice of it – but you tend to scratch your head afterwards in bewilderment.

Cornell’s Bond theme, You Know My Name is also a strange offering and much maligned at the time of the release of Casino Royale. I’m all for trying something different but it needed to be harder.

Carry On is on much surer footing when it keeps things heavier. Album opener No Such Thing taps into the harder, more exhilarating edge of his Soundgarden and Audioslave days, featuring some crunching guitars and an equally emphatic set of vocals.

While Poison Eye continues the trend and suggests the album might be a blistering return to form. It’s steeped in the type of classic American rock values of bands like Pearl Jam. But the tender, more commercial nods put things on the back foot, with Arms Around Your Love a surprisingly drippy offering that’s way too sentimental. The melodies seem to be reaching for a Californian sunshine vibe but there’s something about the “lovely” chorus that grates. It’s just not in keeping with the Cornell sound.

The blues guitar of Safe And Sound is a more interesting offering that seems to be taking its cue from contemporary Eric Clapton, while making its impassioned plea for world peace. It works – just. As does She’ll Never Be Your Man, which hints at some R&B flavouring and heralds another interesting shift.

Skip the average Ghosts and you reach Killing Birds, another interesting experiment in alt-rock that finds Cornell resembling Eddie Vedder. It’s a slow-builder of epic scope that gets better with repeat listening.

But then you have to wait until Silence The Voices for the album to really catch your attention again – another epic slow-builder that emerges as a potential anthem for fans to embrace.

Cornell says of the album that he wanted to really stretch himself and experiment – and there’s plenty of evidence of him doing so.

But while the strength of its ambition is beyond doubt and it draws on some excellent talent – including jazz bassist Miles Mosley and legendary guitarists Gary Lucas and Brian Ray – there’s just a nagging sense that Carry On should have been a great deal better. Perhaps Cornell is still haunted by his past success…

Download picks: No Such Thing, Poison Eye, Safe And Sound, Killing Birds, Silence The Voices, She’ll Never Be Your Man

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

- Jack Foley, IndieLondon

The Sunday Times (UK)Chris Cornell, Carry On

Given that he has fought depression and alcoholism, the former Soundgarden and Audioslave singer could have been expected to produce a more involved and involving set of songs than the 14 (including his recent Bond theme and a workaday cover of Billie Jean) that make up his second solo album.

For all that No Such Thing deals with suicide and Arms Around Your Love with paranoia and possessiveness, sonically, Cornell’s new material is frustratingly bland. Too often, it settles back into musical predictability and relies on his extraordinary, sandpapered singing to carry the weight. Flitting between songs aimed at fans of his former bands and those that flirt with a more mainstream appeal, Carry On fails to convince at either.

2.5 out of 5 stars

-Dan Cairns, The Sunday Times

Scotland On Sunday (UK)RELEASE OF THE WEEK

CHRIS CORNELL Carry On

Rating: ***

Having written and performed the theme to the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, the pertinently titled You Know My Name, it was obvious the time was right for Cornell to resume the solo career put on hold when he agreed to front Audioslave.

The rest of that band have returned to Rage Against The Machine, presumably to rake in the revenue that reunions tend to generate. Now Cornell has finally jettisoned all that Seattle grunge-laden baggage, he is free to explore exciting new musical territory. At least that’s the idea.

Then again, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Rather than going in for wholesale changes to the riff-driven success Cornell enjoyed with Temple Of The Dog, Soundgarden and Audioslave, instead there is a tweak here, a cute key change there, all drifting surreptitiously towards the mainstream without getting submerged in it.

Arms Around Your Love is the most obvious example, a well-crafted rock-out pop song that updates the post-Faces feel of Rod Stewart.

While Cornell probably does not aspire to the faintly embarrassing karaoke turn that the great ‘Jockney’ has become, he surely covets the longevity of his career.

There is nothing boasting the rhythmic urgency of Spoonman (from Cornell’s Soundgarden days) or the dark foreboding of Black Hole Sun, but the bluesy menace and intriguing role reversal in the lyric of ‘She'll Never Be Your Man’ is, thankfully, no less compelling.

Download these: Scar On The Sky, She'll Never Be Your Man

- COLIN SOMERVILLE, Scotland On Sunday

The Times (UK)hris Cornell

Carry On

3 out of 5

Cornell's second solo album is as rugged a record as you would expect from the former singer of the grunge chestbeaters Soundgarden and Audioslave.

His hulking voice makes it sound like he is tearing telephone directories in half while singing, whether on the expansively cosmic Scar On The Sky, the almost poppy Your Soul Today or an anguished cover of Billie Jean.

Cornell is clearly a master of his MTV-rock genre - Silence The Voices and Finally Forever show some emotional and musical subtleties - but after 16 tracks , all of which could be described as "impassioned", you could go without hearing another guitar crash or earnest vocal clench for quite some time.

- Victoria Segal, The Times (print edition)

This Is Fake DIY.co.uk

Chris Cornell - Arms Around Your Love

Rating: 2.5/5

Chris Cornell has a formidable musical CV, and after having fronted two huge rock bands, he's now releasing his second solo album, 'Carry On'. The first track taken from it, 'Arms Around Your Love' is a refreshing change to the predictable power-rock of his previous output. However, his gravelly voice wobbles slightly upon the opening of the song, and this mid-tempo ballad stutters upon its own lack of passion.

This is inoffensive, part-acoustic soft rock fare. He may sing with seemingly genuine feeling, but while it's pleasant, it's not different or diverting enough to be worthy of note.

- Stuart McCaighy, ThisIsFakeDIY

The Sunday Paper, Atlanta, GA, USA

CHRIS CORNELL: Carry On

The second solo album from the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman is called "Carry On," and that's exactly what he does.

The disc covers the different facets of Cornell's musical personality, ranging from familiar guitar rock-outs ("No Such Thing") to the widescreen scope of "You Know My Name," the theme to last year's James Bond revamp "Casino Royale."

Along the way, the greatest living screamer in rock dials down his leonine roar, letting the honeyed edges of his voice carry the freight on "Arms Around Your Love," which sounds engineered for mainstream radio appeal, and lend an air of poignant gravitas to a stripped-down cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."

Elsewhere on the disc, he wanders down the back roads of country for the soulful, slightly bluesy "Safe and Sound" and the steel guitar-driven "Finally Forever."

- Kevin Forest Moreau, The Sunday Paper

Uncut, UK

Underwhelming Solo Shot from Soundgarden Screecher

Cornell has spent a long career searching for material to do justice to his formidable vocals, with intermittent joy. Soundgarden and Audioslave both complemented his throaty Gillan-esque roar only occasionally.

The poppy metal of "Carry On" comprises another entry in Cornell’s catalogue of partial successes. There is one tremendous high point - his superb Bond theme, “You Know My Name”, co-written with David Arnold.

There is one jaw-dropping nadir - a baffling reading of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”. In between, there’s a lot of in-between.

- ANDREW MUELLER, Uncut Magazine

In the News, UK

Chris Cornell: Carry On

In a nutshell… The name's Cornell, Chris Cornell.

What's it all about? Cornell is famed for his unique gravelly voice and he is still hitting the right notes on this album. A few tracks reminiscent of Audioslave's Cochise or Soundgarden's Spoonman would have been welcomed but the man who lent his voice to the soundtrack of the latest Bond franchise is getting on a bit now at 42.

No Such Thing begins with a meaty riff that seemingly announces Cornell's intentions and when Cornell bursts into the chorus, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck; such is his vocal dexterity.

Poison Eye follows on from the opening track in terms of offering an infectious hook and this is a typical toe-tapper. Cornell is at his best on this type of track when he is posturing to high tempo rock and roll.

Ballads then become flavour of the month as the album's lead single a distorted, reflective Arms Around Your Love kicks in, followed by the smooth She'll Never Be Your Man.

A stripped down, basic cover version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean is ambitious but just fails to hit the right notes. Top marks for the attempt though.

Casino Royale track You Know My Name is classic Cornell, all talk of dying and other morbid masculine angst as is his forte

Who's it by? Soundgarden were one of the pioneers of grunge and formed back in 1984 in Seattle. They began to see success in the 90s when Pearl Jam and Nirvana hit the big time.

1994’s Superunknown was the critically acclaimed album that launched Soundgarden into the big league and spawned such classics as Black Hole Sun and Spoonman.

When the band parted ways in 1997, Cornell decided to go it alone and released Euphoria Morning two years later.

The supergroup Audioslave was created in 2001 along with three of the members of Rage Against the Machine and enjoyed success with their three albums before calling it a day in February of this year.

Cornell has fought off depression and alcoholism in the past and his new album probably eclipses his first solo effort but certainly doesn't match up to previous output with Soundgarden.

As an example… "Arm yourself because no one else here will save you / The odds will betray you / And I will replace you." - You Know My Name

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys Although there are a few decent tracks here, on a 16-song album that just won't cut the mustard and so in short, there is no chance of a trip to the Grammys for this former Grammy winner.

So is it any good? By far the best track on the album is the Bond theme You Know My Name. It is what the rest of the album should be but isn't - raw, beguiling and effortlessly cool. Cornell seems to be enjoying himself on this well-produced track.

The best of the rest on Carry On include No Such Thing, which is perhaps a little lyrically naive but is a stomping rock song all the same.

Poison Eye is another high point, as Cornell goes for an edgy number about redemption, "I saw the light," he croons. Arms Around Your Love is catchy but unmemorable.

Aside from the She'll Never Be Your Man, Ghosts and Scar on the Sky, it is all downhill. Safe and Sound could have been penned by Wet Wet Wet which is not what you want from one of grunge's founding fathers.

Another sour point is that the self-reflective, personal tracks that Cornell has previously written for Soundgarden appear to have been replaced with nothing lyrics that have no great significance - disappointing considering his voice is still hugely and idiosyncratically powerful.

Cornell should get out his old Soundgarden records and stick songs like Black Hole Sun and Burden in my Hand on repeat until he can come away and write some songs with meaning rather than pedestrian middle-of-the-road album fillers. Cornell's voice works best when there is an edge to the music and that edge is sadly lacking here.

Rating: 6 out of 10

- Adam Bushby, inthenews.co.uk

The Scotsman, UK

Heavyweight contenders ZY OSBOURNE: BLACK RAIN *** SONYBMG

CHRIS CORNELL: CARRY ON *** POLYDOR

This week, two generations of heavy metal figureheads release solo albums. One is a loveable but emasculated old duffer who's lucky to have any brain cells left to rub together thanks to voracious enjoyment of the "rock star lifestyle"; the other is a young(er), buff rock god archetype who looks like he pumps iron with far greater frequency than he ingests illegal substances. So, given their present circumstances, who is the more consummate rocker?

Chris Cornell has recently been introduced to a new audience as the voice of the latest Bond theme, You Know My Name, a pacey number which, in the pantheon of Bond themes, can reasonably claim to be better than Die Another Day but lags some way behind For Your Eyes Only for sheer inspiration.

He first hit the music scene radar as the extravagantly hirsute frontman of Seattle grunge rockers Soundgarden, contemporaries of Nirvana. In recent years, he has joined forces with visionary ex-Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello to front Audioslave, a band who have turned out to be considerably less than the sum of their parts.

Still, Cornell is a formidable rock hollerer. Of the new rock royalty to emerge in the 1990s, only Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder was as much in danger of over-egging his vocal performance, but you might as well flaunt what you've got, and Cornell has a nicely bluesy tone. It's the songs he applies his pipes to that are generally the problem.

Fortunately, Carry On has its share of muscular rock stormers plus some nicely textured rootsier numbers - and lots of stylised shots of Cornell looking mean and moody in the CD booklet. Never one to knowingly undersell a vocal, he is as comfortable spouting chest-beating rock nonsense such as "there's no such thing as nothing" with the conviction of a zealot as he is putting his all into pleasingly hoary ballads such as Silence The Voices or Safe And Sound, proving his worth as a soulful rocker in the Joe Cocker mould.

Poison Eye features a great strutting vocal over a trim, pugnacious backing, and he just about carries off sub-Free stomper Your Soul Today, which asks, somewhat dubiously, "can I visit your arms, can I visit your legs?"

But he stretches our tolerance too far with the constipated, pompous Scar On The Sky and his atrocious, gurning version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. This is utterly superfluous, from an album which eventually outstays its welcome.

Ozzy Osbourne has also reached a new audience in recent times, via the docu-soap The Osbournes, but even prior to his rebirth as a global TV star he was already an entertainment goliath as the frontman of seminal heavy metallers Black Sabbath, with an extra-curricular CV which included urinating on a national monument, onstage livestock mutilation and trying to kill his wife.

Public affection runs high for the incorrigible old dodderer, but anyone who has seen recent footage of him being trundled out on stage to meet fan demand can see how blatantly far past his musical peak he has wandered.

He is pictured on the front cover of Black Rain getting soaked with a perplexed do-I-have-to-stand-here? look on his face. So it is a pleasant surprise to hear him on such combative form on his first new studio album in six years.

Written with his guitarist Zakk Wylde and performed by a band which includes ex-Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, Black Rain checks off plenty of the stock heavy metal themes - death, destruction, damnation, desecration - with some fairly perfunctory lyrics. But, for an old school metaller like Ozzy, it's all in the conviction of his delivery. On opening track, Not Going Away, he puts so much bile into his performance it sounds like he's about to throw up. The band leave him to it - Wylde is too busy mangling his fretboard to notice.

Caveman rocker I Don't Wanna Stop manages to be both brutal and catchy, while final track Trap Door bristles with a Motörhead-like nastiness - and I can think of no higher compliment for a rock track. But it's too much of a task to keep up the momentum, so he takes a breather on laborious rock ballad Lay Your World On Me, and gets all sentimental on Here For You as he remembers friends who "bought a one-way ticket" and pledges to stick around for wife Sharon.

On the title track, he returns to the same territory as Sabbath standard War Pigs, with suitable references to "Judgement Day", and a brattish vocal reminding us war is, like, stoopid. He's back on the same track on Civilize The Universe, but his most amusing political diatribe is God Bless The Almighty Dollar, on which this Beverley Hills-dwelling, jet-setting, multi-millionaire recovering alcoholic former hellraiser rails against the evils of excess and consumption.

Cornell would probably attack such subject matter with stony-faced gravity, but Ozzy somehow manages to have fun - which is probably why he's still at it long after he should have retired.

- unnamed reviewer, The Scotsman

Subba-Cultcha, UK

Chris Cornell: Carry On

A road trip into the unknown: the evolution of a legend

Chris Cornell is an American icon. Through his reign as Soundgarden’s dark grunge god to his stint at the helm of classic rock band Audioslave, he’s never failed to push the boundaries of genre, whether turning base metal into alternative gold or teaching a rap-rock act like RATM the meaning of modulation.

His ornate 1999 solo album Euphoria Morning failed to catch on, with its reclusive creator’s deepening substance abuse problems perhaps contributing to its commercial collapse. Cornell’s certainly not making the same mistake again - clean, sober and solo, he’s touring the world for the next eighteen months.

The songs on Carry On are generally more accessible than those on his former solo effort, but that’s not to say he’s abandoned his old instinct for experiment. With legendary producer Steve Lillywhite behind the desk he’s trying on different styles for size, mixing the all-out attack of opener No Such Thing and the drama of Bond theme You Know My Name, with the wistful pop of lead-off single Arms Around Your Love and the romantic, Rufus Wainwright-ish sweep of Disappearing Act. Although few listeners will take all sixteen tracks to heart, nearly all have something bold to offer.

Then, there’s the much-referenced cover of Michael Jackson’s dance classic Billie Jean - chosen, Cornell says, for its sheer improbability. In his hands it becomes a brooding murder ballad set to a slow-burning blues: depending on your attitude to the original, you’ll either love its dark drama or reject its audacity.

The voice that launched a thousand sonic assaults is as powerful as ever, but Cornell seems eager to use it in new and unexpected ways - the Princely falsetto of Today is a major surprise, Safe And Sound sees him toying with blue-eyed soul and it has a deep, bell-like resonance on anti-war anthem Silence The Voices. Backup comes from a range of musical stylists, including Paul McCartney sideman Brian Ray, jazz bassist Miles Mosley and flamboyant New York guitarist Gary Lucas.

Lyrically the album mingles unusual love songs with meditations on change and loss. One of the most powerful in the latter category is Ghosts, a backward look at our older selves and those who need to invest in them, while the tender country ballad Finally Forever contrasts with a wry look at sexual politics in She’ll Never Be Your Man.

Cornell may not yet have found a defining sound for his work outside the confines of a band, but maybe that’s not the point. Far from showing us a legend content to rest on his laurels, the sheer variation of Carry On is the sound of an artist evolving and exploring. It’s a road trip into the unknown.

4.5 out of 5

- Clare O'Brien, Subba-Cultcha

MusicOMH.com, UK

Chris Cornell - Arms Around Your Love

With this record Chris Cornell goes truly solo - leaving Audioslave and James Bond behind to preview his upcoming album Carry On.

Previous Cornell solo productions have hinted at a sunny, poppier sound that brings out an unexpected soulful quality in his voice, something Arms Around Your Love taps in to. As ever the voice is irresistible, flexing in the bridge passage and taking the chorus in its stride. Occasionally you feel the singer is coasting a little, taking time out from his rock excesses, but when the songs effortlessly evoke a summer weekend, you'll be happy to permit him that luxury.

- Ben Hogwood, MusicOMH.com

Manchester Evening News, UK

Chris Cornell - Arms Around Your Love (Polydor)

Chris Cornell has had a varied career to date, from his life in Soundgarden as the über-cool rock god of the grunge scene to a slightly less successful foray into bombastic '70s-influenced rock with Audioslave. And now, following a Bond theme tune of all things, comes the lead single from the forthcoming Carry On, his second solo album after 1999’s Euphoria Morning.

Produced by Steve Lillywhite, button-pusher for the likes of U2, the Rolling Stones and Morrissey, Arms Around Your Love is a slow-paced rock ballad with a hook. Though not a classic song it perfectly shows off Cornell’s instantly recognisable vocal ability – think of his delivery in the classic Temple Of The Dog cut Say Hello 2 Heaven and you’re pretty close. The song’s nowhere near as good as that marker but the man’s voice sounds as amazing as it ever has. Here’s hoping the rest of the album is worthy of that talent.

Rating: 3 out of 5

- Nick Thompson, Manchester Evening News 18 May 2007

Blender, USA

Grunge godfather falls in love, turns down the volume, does the moonwalk

Though famous for fronting hard-rock institutions Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris Cornell has always had a romantic, introspective side (see Temple of the Dog and the Singles soundtrack). Newly solo and happily married, Cornell further distances himself from arena bravado on Carry On, preferring singer-songwriter sensitivity and woodsy love ballads.

No matter his guise, the constant remains his always-excellent larynx, which has lost some yelp but gained a rugged vulnerability. His relationship songs (“Safe and Sound”) benefit from the added delicacy, but they’re outnumbered by plodding midtempo tunes and pseudo-shamanistic earsores (“We will rip the night/Out of the arms of the sun”). As demonstrated by his tortured reading of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” when Cornell strains for significance, he squeezes the life out of his music.

-Tim Grierson, Blender, June 2007 issue (thanks Di)

Acess Magazine, Canada

Carry On (Universal)

There's no denying that Chris Cornell has one of the great voices in rock. In Soundgarden, he bellowed his way through some of the greatest songs of the grunge era, and as frontman for the somewhat contrived supergroup Audioslave, he seemed to regain, at least initially, some of the exhilaration that was absent from his solo debut, 1999's Euphoria Morning.

Likewise, Carry On (available June 5) is a lackluster collection of rock songs that suffers from tired melodies, banal lyrics and Cornell's distinctly workmanlike performances. The big riffing of 'No Such Thing' opens the album promisingly, as does the follow-up, 'Poison Eye'. But Carry On soon descends into the mediocrity of 'Arms Around' and 'She'll Never Be Your Man'. Cornell's cover of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean', slowed down into an acoustic dirge, is a less disastrous concept than it sounds on paper, but, no, it doesn't work.

At least the album closes on a strong note with Cornell's recent James Bond theme, 'You Know My Name', although that opinion may only be because I'm a fan of the movie it came from, Casino Royale. Time for a Soundgarden reunion, perhaps?

- Sean Plummer, Access Magazine (thanks Mel)

Q Magazine, UK

Soundgarden and Audioslave growler's second solo album

The finest singer of the grunge generation has never really had the material to showcase that talent. Now, he and producer Steve Lillywhite have made the album he should have made post-Soundgarden, rather than the dreary Euphoria Morning.

Cornell's sometimes astounding vocals sound engaged for the first time in a decade and he's writing fully formed songs at last, be it the turbo-charged No Such Thing, the epic Safe And Sound or You Know My Name, the Casino Royale theme that forgot to include the words "casino" or "royale".

More rewarding than promised, he even reinvents Michael Jackson's Billie Jean successfully.

3 out of 5

- John Aizelewood, Q Magazine, June 2007 issue (thanks Ali)

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Change has been a constant in Chris Cornell's life since Soundgarden split in 1997. Sober and over 40 now, he lives in France with his wife and daughter. His first solo album (1999's Euphoria Morning) was lauded in the press, but disregarded by the public. And his supergroup Audioslave eventually fizzled after a trio of albums.

But on Cornell's long-awaited sophomore solo effort, it's obvious something hasn't been altered: the voice, a distinguished instrument still pure and resonant--and authoritative enough to take on Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and turn it from throbbing dancefloor anthem to portentous ballad. The unforeseen cover is sequenced midway through 14 tracks that have Cornell softening the edges of his music without losing the power of the messenger.

No less than a half-dozen songs have hit potential, including "Arms Around Your Love," with its soaring chorus, the R&B-flecked "She'll Never Be Your Man," and "No Such Thing," where restrained verses give way to crunchy-riffed choruses. He uses the bluesy "Safe and Sound" to call for peace, asking "Why can't we pull it together?"

Ten years after the breakup of his pioneering band, Chris Cornell has done just that, and it's evident that the change has done him good.

-Scott Holter, Amazon

PixelSurgeon (UK)

Chris Cornell - Carry On

Heralding from the delta scored shores of Seattle, Washington State, Cornell earned his rock wings as the gravelly voiced front-man of popular grunge band Soundgarden. After several years in the doldrums, the band shot to fame during the early 90's, riding the crest of a wave triggered by Nirvana and the emergence of the grunge movement. Success, however, did nothing to temper the bands exploration of dark and brooding subject matter. Hits like Black Hole Sun and Fell on Black Days explored themes of substance abuse, death and existentialism, and were typical of the bands output at the time. This reflected their troubled and self-destructive nature, applying particularly to Cornell who, as a teen, was prone to bouts of depression and latterly, alcoholism.The band eventually called it quits in 1997, despite continuing ascendancy, attributed largely to conflict within the band.

After the split, Cornell kept himself busy writing his first solo album Euphoria Morning which received critical acclaim but proved a commercial failure. Shortly after, he teamed up with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine, forming supergroup Audioslave. Recording their first album, the band almost came unstuck as Cornell descended into a bout of alcoholism that nearly ended him. However, back from the brink, he cleaned himself up and there followed a very productive period in Cornell's career. With a sound more reminiscent of Soundgarden than Rage..., the group mixed hard rock ballads with cooler, low tempo tracks and proved a popular draw over the course of three big selling albums. The band also toured heavily, playing many notable venues, including a history making first in Cuba (where the gig was free, naturally). In 2006 Cornell began work on his second solo project, Carry On. Suggesting to many that his days with Audioslave were numbered, sure enough, he announced his split from the band in February of this year.

Now in his 40's, sober and free from any group commitments, the Cornell-of-new turns out to be, well, the Cornell-of-old. Indeed, his new tracks blend so seamlessly with his earlier work that one can have trouble differentiating between 'Cornell' eras when heard blind. Soundgarden blends into Audioslave blends into Cornell solo. Whilst the music itself feels a little more light weight than his earlier work (smoother guitar riffs, less prominent drums and higher production values), the lyrics are reassuringly angsty. No Such Thing deals, in a roundabout way, with suicide. The fluffily titled Arms Around Your Love whose tune no doubt intentionally plays reminiscent of a Michael Bolton track (worryingly so, in fact), fortunately subverts with themes of loss and jealousy and proves an interesting distraction, if a little middle-of-the-road.

Also included is the recently released You Know My Name, the theme tune to last year's Bond re-imagining Casino Royale. Cornell, no stranger to supplying tracks for films, was an astute choice for crooning duties on this movie, and he and David Arnold have crafted a real toe-tapper. Given its fullest expression and backed with sweeping orchestral flourishes, Cornell's voice still has the power to impress. And extra points should be attributed to the man for securing the ill-chosen Madonna to dankest corners of Bond history.

Of course, how much you like Cornell's latest work will depend very much on how receptive you are to having some mildly engorged disappointment at the world delivered to you in quite a derivative rock-like fashion. So if all this talk of Soundgarden and Audioslave makes you yearn for some contemporary rock with an early-Nineties, post-Nirvana feel to it, then Cornell's new album could be just what you're looking for. On the other hand, the phrase "Run away" may spring to mind.

6 out of 10