Sell Out or Pure Genius?

So I'm a huge fan of Chris Cornell, I think he has one of the most... if not the best rock voices ever! (aah Jon Bon Jovi just sprang to mind, joint 1st!) The man could sing the phone book and it would be music to my ears! Until I heard the Bond track for Casino Royale in '06. I must admit I had never heard of him (oh the shame!)and to think he's been around for donkey's years. My only excuse is that I was still discovering all the great music out there, I still am. Anywho, I was familiar with the whole Grunge thing in the 90's with Nirvana, and I liked some stuff from Rage Against the Machine. So to then find out that Cornell had split from his previous group Soundgarden and had formed a hybrid super-group with members from Rage, to create Audioslave, meant I had to hear their stuff! And out of all the work,whether solo, or with Temple, Soundgarden, Rage, I must admit that the best stuff is with Audioslave! So what else is there for the king of grunge/indie/rock to do!

TEAM UP WITH TIMBALAND!

Now when I first heard this I did the whole 'what the...' 'but he can't...'! Then gradually i came to think that there could be some genius in this. Cornell at the pinnacle of what he does, and Timbaland certainly top dog of what he does, what could go wrong!! Now all over the net die-hard Audioslave/Cornell fans have been up in arms, callin him a 'traitor' or 'sell-out'! But what i realised is it must be harder for those hardcore fans who probably only listen to that genre of music to accept the change. I love my Hip Hop as much as I love my Rock, my mood can change on any given day and either genre can become more appealing than the other, so for me it wasn't such a big stretch hearing this concoction of flavours and styles! Cornell said in an interview, something along the lines of not wanting to do another record where he was in his comfort zone, doing what we all know he can do well, so he took a risk and for me it paid off! Although I have yet to hear the whole record, I have heard a few songs, and by far my fave is 'Long Gone'! 'Part of Me' is great as well, and has more of that Timbaland stamp on it. Overall the songs are not that surprising, in that you get exactly what it says on the tin, no funny business! Simply Cornell singing over Timbaland beats! I really hope this record does well and launches Cornell further into the mainstream, (which i think he is obviously hoping it would do, why else would you hire Timbaland!!) so everyone can get familiar with his music, because for me music is not just about the songs, but the voice as well, and his is definately a powerfull instrument!

Long Gone



Part of Me

Y!