Al Byrne
Chris Cornell certainly has plenty to be screaming about today – his upcoming, Timbaland-produced record leaked yesterday, giving the entire internet a chance to experience the end product of this unusual and much-maligned collaboration.
In a completely unrelated turn of events, we can offer a preview of some tracks you might not have heard previously. We all know Long Gone, Ground Zero and Part of Me were breaking new ground for Cornell, even if they were the kind of thing Timbaland produces in his sleep. So how do some of the other tracks fare? Better? Worse? Tolerable, at least?
Well, I’ll refrain from giving any value judgements as of yet. But I can say that tracks like Time and Other Side of Town continue in a similar vein of Timba-pop-hop, with little or no trace of Cornell-brand rock to be found. I can tell you that Take Me Alive offers an interesting Eastern vibe that at least makes it stand out from the rest of the songs, and that Enemy is probably the most intense, dance-oriented song on offer. And I can tell you that the little bits of music linking the songs together aren’t really that big of a deal, so don’t pin any great hopes on them.
As for the leak, response from the various corners of the interwebs has been mixed to say the least: some think it lives up to the hype, others think it’s a new low for all involved. Whether Tim and Chris will give Scream a rushed release now that it’s been leaked remains to be seen, but we’ll be sure to give you the full review as soon as possible.
