Sometimes You Make Me Want To Scream

I'm really torn. Chris Cornell released his new CD yesterday, Scream, which would normally fill me with glee. I'm a huge Soundgarden fan and an even bigger fan of Audioslave (both bands fronted by Cornell), so when I heard he had a new album out, I was stoked! But then I heard something else about it: it's produced by Timberland. You know Timberland… he's the producer of practically every hip hop and pop record on the airwaves right now. Yeah, that guy.
So here I am, hopefully for something edgy and rockish, maybe even a throw back to the metal/grunge era Chris Cornell made his fortune from. But then I'm told that the man who is basically responsible for the career of every pop tart on the radio right now is going to be directing the record, and I'm scared. The first thought that ran through my head: OMG, Cornell's selling out! I know, that's very alterna-punk of me to accuse someone of selling out, but what can I do? My second reaction is that this is the meeting that will end the world. Metal and Pop are diametrically opposed, it's a scientific fact, so to see the gods of the respective genres coming together makes me worry for the child of that union.

The album released yesterday and I dutifully downloaded it. It helped that Amazon had it on sale for $2.99 for the whole freaking album! In any case, I sat down to listen, fully prepared for the train wreck. After all, it had to be horrible, why else would they only be charging $3 for it? This would go down with Scott Wieland's 12-Bar Blues as the biggest flop of a major rock star, and it would be intensified by Timberland's involvement. And I was going to be there right from the start to watch it all explode, it was going to be glorious!

But then something happened that I hadn't expected: I actually started to like it. Against all odds, and against everything that is in me, I was enjoying the album. I was experiencing the epitome of cognitive dissonance though: Chris Cornell could not do pop music. Period. It was not within him. He eats Pop stars for breakfast. No wait, he's too fucking good for Pop stars, instead he just feeds them to the dogs and watches with sick glee as they flail for their lives. But here he was, caught in the act, in bed with the Enemy. Even worse, I was enjoying it! To top it off, my boyfriend was liking it. My boyfriend, whom I love dearly, actually enjoys the Pussycat Dolls for their musical ability and wears a Madonna wind breaker on a regular basis, and here he was saying he actually enjoyed the Chris Cornell CD. This couldn't be happening.

I've been listening to the CD all day today, and I mean that in a literal sense. The only time I haven't listened to it was when I was on a conference call and when I was at lunch. I've been trying to find something to honestly hate about it, something to prove that this was a disastrous pairing sure to bring on the coming of the Anti-Christ. But I haven't found any of that. What I have found is an extremely polished pop record with some interesting rock infusion. What I've found is Cornell's pure musicianship finds a way to improve upon Timberland's sharp, addictive beats. What I've found is just about one of the most brilliant pieces of off-the-wall art I've heard in a very long time. And I'm enjoying it, against everything that I hold dear about music.

Scream is a great record, and I recommend everyone grab a copy. It really is brilliant, and when I take it for what it is instead of what I wanted it to be, it comes across as a fan-fucking-tastic hybrid of sound. Make sure to download a copy, I don't think I can recommend this enough.