What's Wrong with "Scream"

As small a victory as it is, I'm proud that, as of right now, the highest rated review of Chris Cornell's single "Scream" is mine. I rated it one star and sarcastically titled it "Congratulations Timbaland" and went on to admonish him for making one of the strongest, most unique voices in Rock and making him sound like a really sulky Justin Timberlake.

I still stand by that, by the way. It annoys the crap out of me because, I'm a fan of Cornell, and I'm also a fan of innovation and something as counter-intuitive as a Grunge Lord with an electric R&B pop mastermind sounded at least as promisingly nutty as a rock god and a bluegrass angel, and that latter pairing produced something exquisite and utterly unique. I'm a staunch advocate of taking brilliant people out of their comfort zones and seeing what they come up with. So believe me when I say that I WANTED to like it.

And it breaks my heart because I read the touching, insightful blogs Chris has written about how much he appreciates fans going along with this new thing he's doing and I just wanna tell him just because it's new TO HIM doesn't make it NEW. I wanna tell him that the reason why he keeps having to insist that he actually contributed to the work in the press is that even his most ardent fans can't HEAR him under all the layering. Oh they hear the voice, sure, but there's almost nothing of Chris discernible in there. He could be anyone of the many singers Timbaland's worked with over the years.

Chris and Timbaland set out to revolutionize a genre and make a great record. And in doing so, they got caught up in their own egos and now the work languishes in limbo for unknown reasons. Release it already to the world can buy like eleventy billion copies, Cornell becomes an "overnight" pop sensation, he goes on to make sixty more records with Timbaland and rock is killed just that much deader. We all know what's comming, so lets just get it over with.

There's one thing that gives me hope though. Cornell played a couple of the "Scream" songs LIVE when I saw him perform a few months ago. And I gotta say, when they're played live, by a real band, with real instruments, they're not that bad. That's a hopeful sign.