Scream (Chris Cornell album)
Encyclopedia
Scream is the third solo studio album
by American
musician Chris Cornell
. Released on March 10, 2009 through Suretone Records
and Mosley Music Group
, it marked a shift from Cornell's previous musical efforts with the exclusion of some guitar and rock elements that were replaced with producer Timbaland
's electronic pop
soundscapes. The album was promoted with the release of five digital singles
and three music videos, and was met with mostly negative reviews. The album debuted in the U.S at number 10 on the Billboard 200
with 26,000 copies sold.
(2007), Cornell first came into contact with Timbaland
. However, the collaboration evolved into the duo writing and recording an entire album in just six weeks, notably with the conceptual direction of "tying it all together musically", which Cornell describes as "[harkening] back to albums that I listened to when I was a kid, where the music never stops" and that it "begs to be listened to on headphones all the way through".
and less that of "the guitar-driven music of Cornell's past with Soundgarden
and Audioslave
". Despite the controversy caused by teaming up with Timbaland
, Cornell insisted that he still played an integral part of the album's creation and didn't do what "Timbaland
told me to do", further noting that they "didn't really have that relationship" and "it wasn't that type of a process. It was more, he would bring in a beat, an idea, I would write to it and sing it, and we would move on kind of to the next thing."
Describing the album as a whole, Cornell compared it to Pink Floyd
's The Dark Side of the Moon
and Queen
's A Night at the Opera
, citing the psychedelic elements that Timbaland
brought into the production.
However, while a majority of the album is an R&B styled album, the hidden track "Two Drink Minimum" sees Cornell playing a blues
-influenced rock
song, with an acoustic guitar
, organ, drums, and harmonica
.
and thus became Cornell's first top 10 solo album. The next week it dropped 55 places to number 65, which was the largest second-week drop for a top 10-debuting album in two and a half years. It was also a commercial disappointment, spending only 10 weeks on the Billboard 200
.
Initial critical response towards the release was mixed to negative. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
score of 42, based on 19 reviews. Scream received positive reviews from Entertainment Weekly
and Hot Press
who felt that the collaboration between producer Timbaland
and Chris Cornell
worked. The mixed reviews were more prevalent, with Spin
stating the album was "strangely appealing in its elaborately empty efficiency." while Billboard
noted that "Sometimes it's good bizarre. Other times it's bad bizarre." Rolling Stone
wrote that Scream "veers between drab–sleek and rock–dude soulful; Cornell's yowl never sounds at home". Among the negative reviews, Allmusic wrote that "Scream is one of those rare big-budget disasters, an exercise in misguided ambition that makes no sense outside of pure theory."
Nine Inch Nails auteur Trent Reznor attacked the album, condemning it as "embarassing" on Twitter.
However, the collaboration seems to have impressed at least one legendary rocker: On March 26, 2010, it was reported that Steven Tyler
, intrigued by the 2009 Chris Cornell
record Scream, would be teaming up with Timbaland
to record a rap album. Guest appearances by Reverend Run
and Darryl Mac
of Run-D.M.C.
, Kid Rock
, and T-Pain
are rumored to be featured on the new project.
, Timothy Mosley and Jerome Harmon
, additional writing credits below.
, which was accompanied by an official music video directed by DJ Skee
's Skee.tv.
The second track to come to light was a "Rock Version" of "Never Far Away". This version was not a remix, but a completely new recording, produced by Jordon Zadorozny
. It has yet to be released for purchase, but has been, with permission from Cornell himself, made available for streaming by Alan Cross
. In October 2009, it was reported that Cornell was working with Jordan Zadorozny and Michael Friedman to rework the entire Scream album but this remains unconfirmed. This now seems unlikely as Cornell has now rejoined Soundgarden.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...
. Released on March 10, 2009 through Suretone Records
Suretone Records
Suretone Records is an American record label established in 2006 as a joint venture by Jordan Schur, former CEO of Geffen Records, and Interscope Records, to release alternative rock music...
and Mosley Music Group
Mosley Music Group
Mosley Music Group is a record label created by producer Tim "Timbaland" Mosley. It operates as an imprint of, and is distributed through, Universal Music Group's Interscope Records.-History:...
, it marked a shift from Cornell's previous musical efforts with the exclusion of some guitar and rock elements that were replaced with producer Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
's electronic pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
soundscapes. The album was promoted with the release of five digital singles
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
and three music videos, and was met with mostly negative reviews. The album debuted in the U.S at number 10 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
with 26,000 copies sold.
Recording history
With the idea of remixing songs from his previous album Carry OnCarry On (Chris Cornell album)
Carry On is the second solo studio album released by American musician Chris Cornell. It was released on May 28, 2007 in the United Kingdom and June 5, 2007 in the United States. This album is Cornell's second after Euphoria Morning in 1999, and his first since leaving his former band Audioslave...
(2007), Cornell first came into contact with Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
. However, the collaboration evolved into the duo writing and recording an entire album in just six weeks, notably with the conceptual direction of "tying it all together musically", which Cornell describes as "[harkening] back to albums that I listened to when I was a kid, where the music never stops" and that it "begs to be listened to on headphones all the way through".
Musical style
Billboard reported that Scream shows Cornell moving "in a much more R&B-oriented direction, with busy drum machine beats, buffed-up chorus vocals and string samples filling the nooks and crannies", comparing it to Gnarls BarkleyGnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley is an American soul duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. Their first studio album St. Elsewhere was released in 2006; along with its first single "Crazy". Both single and album were a major commercial success and have been noted for their large sales by download...
and less that of "the guitar-driven music of Cornell's past with Soundgarden
Soundgarden
Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto...
and Audioslave
Audioslave
Audioslave was an American rock supergroup that formed in Los Angeles, California in 2001. It consisted of former Soundgarden lead singer/rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell and the former instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine: Tom Morello , Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk...
". Despite the controversy caused by teaming up with Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
, Cornell insisted that he still played an integral part of the album's creation and didn't do what "Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
told me to do", further noting that they "didn't really have that relationship" and "it wasn't that type of a process. It was more, he would bring in a beat, an idea, I would write to it and sing it, and we would move on kind of to the next thing."
Describing the album as a whole, Cornell compared it to Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
and Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
's A Night at the Opera
A Night at the Opera (Queen album)
A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock group Queen, released in November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, A Night at the Opera was, at the time of its release, the most expensive album ever recorded...
, citing the psychedelic elements that Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
brought into the production.
However, while a majority of the album is an R&B styled album, the hidden track "Two Drink Minimum" sees Cornell playing a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
-influenced rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
song, with an acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, organ, drums, and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
.
Reception
In the U.S, the album debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and thus became Cornell's first top 10 solo album. The next week it dropped 55 places to number 65, which was the largest second-week drop for a top 10-debuting album in two and a half years. It was also a commercial disappointment, spending only 10 weeks on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
.
Initial critical response towards the release was mixed to negative. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 42, based on 19 reviews. Scream received positive reviews from Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
and Hot Press
Hot Press
Hot Press is a fortnightly music and political magazine based in Dublin, Ireland founded in 1977. The magazine has been edited since its inception by Niall Stokes. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it had a circulation of 19,215 during 2007...
who felt that the collaboration between producer Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
and Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...
worked. The mixed reviews were more prevalent, with Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
stating the album was "strangely appealing in its elaborately empty efficiency." while Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
noted that "Sometimes it's good bizarre. Other times it's bad bizarre." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
wrote that Scream "veers between drab–sleek and rock–dude soulful; Cornell's yowl never sounds at home". Among the negative reviews, Allmusic wrote that "Scream is one of those rare big-budget disasters, an exercise in misguided ambition that makes no sense outside of pure theory."
Nine Inch Nails auteur Trent Reznor attacked the album, condemning it as "embarassing" on Twitter.
However, the collaboration seems to have impressed at least one legendary rocker: On March 26, 2010, it was reported that Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the frontman and lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, and occasional piano and percussion. He is known as the "Demon of Screamin'", due to his high screams...
, intrigued by the 2009 Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...
record Scream, would be teaming up with Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
to record a rap album. Guest appearances by Reverend Run
Joseph Simmons
Joseph Ward Simmons , known by the stage name Rev. Run or DJ Run, is one of the founding members of the influential hip hop group Run–D.M.C., and a practicing minister, known as Reverend Run. Simmons was born in Hollis, Queens, New York. He is the younger brother of Daniel "Danny" Simmons, Jr...
and Darryl Mac
Darryl McDaniels
-Video game appearances:*The Warriors - Scopes*Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - Himself- External links :* * * * * http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-people-speak12-2009dec12...
of Run-D.M.C.
Run-D.M.C.
Run–D.M.C. was an American hip hop group from Hollis, in the Queens borough of New York City. Founded by Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell, the group is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture.Run–D.M.C...
, Kid Rock
Kid Rock
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie , known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations...
, and T-Pain
T-Pain
Faheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
are rumored to be featured on the new project.
Track listing
All songs written by Chris CornellChris Cornell
Chris Cornell is an American rock musician best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Soundgarden and as the former lead vocalist for Audioslave. He is also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1998...
, Timothy Mosley and Jerome Harmon
Jerome Harmon
Jerome Harmon, better known as J-Roc, is a Pop, R&B and Hip-Hop producer from Fort Worth, Texas. He is currently with Timbaland. Jerome Harmon has produced for artists such as Chris Brown, Keri Hilson, Justin Timberlake, Ashlee Simpson, Mario, Nelly Furtado, and Jamie Foxx.-Career:J-Roc spent years...
, additional writing credits below.
Bonus tracks
Rock Versions
There are currently two Scream tracks that have had "Rock Versions" of them released. The first being an alternate version of "Long Gone", produced by Howard BensonHoward Benson
Howard Benson is a two-time Grammy-nominated music producer and aerospace engineer.-Biography:Howard Benson has a degree in materials engineering from Drexel University and studied composition at the Philadelphia College for Performing Arts. Later he worked for Garrett AiResearch, where he worked...
, which was accompanied by an official music video directed by DJ Skee
DJ Skee
Scott Keeney , better known by his stage name DJ Skee, is a DJ and entrepreneur operating out of Los Angeles. Skee manages his own new media music, marketing, and production company, Skee.TV...
's Skee.tv.
The second track to come to light was a "Rock Version" of "Never Far Away". This version was not a remix, but a completely new recording, produced by Jordon Zadorozny
Jordon Zadorozny
-External links:...
. It has yet to be released for purchase, but has been, with permission from Cornell himself, made available for streaming by Alan Cross
Alan Cross
' is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music. Alan’s obsession with music began at age six when his grandmother gave him a transistor radio—an old Lloyds—which spawned an all-consuming fascination with things that came over airwaves...
. In October 2009, it was reported that Cornell was working with Jordan Zadorozny and Michael Friedman to rework the entire Scream album but this remains unconfirmed. This now seems unlikely as Cornell has now rejoined Soundgarden.
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austria Albums Top 75 | 47 |
| Canadian Albums Top 100 | 13 |
| Denmark Albums Top 40 | 30 |
| Dutch Albums Top 100 | 61 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 18 |
| German Albums Chart | 46 |
| Polish Albums Chart | 32 |
| Swiss Albums Top 100 | 28 |
| UK Albums Top 75 | 70 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
10 |
| World Albums Top 40 | 35 |