Spring Break
Play it by Ear - Timbaland helps rock star Cornell 'Scream' into the pop scene
Jesus Butler
Issue date: 3/16/09 Section: Culture
|
It sounds like the perfect setup to a joke.
But rest assured, grunge-era head banger Chris Cornell and modern day hit-maker Timbaland are hoping their collaboration on Scream, Cornell's most recent solo record, is anything but a laughing matter.
Fans and critics alike were taken aback when the duo announced they would be joining forces for Cornell's third attempt at jumpstarting a solo career (after 1999's criminally overlooked Euphoria Morning and 2007's criminally mediocre Carry On).
But in reality it seems to be a rather logical step for each of them: Timbaland, who has worked with artists ranging from Rihanna to OneRepublic, clearly sees Cornell as a new challenge, while Cornell, never afraid to reinvent himself, sees Timbaland as the key to regaining the success he had with his last collaborative project, Audioslave (former Soundgarden singer + former Rage Against the Machine members = sold out stadiums).
So the plan makes sense; now the question is, did it work?
The answer: not as well as it could have.
The whole thing starts off rather hyperbolically, as an opening theme reminiscent of something from a late '90s videogame gives way to Timbaland's vocoder-cloaked introduction.
"Some of you know him, some of you don't," Timbaland warbles like an electric specter. "But after this, you'll get to know him: Chris Cornell."
But the Cornell we're getting to know has been repackaged, maybe even completely re-imagined, by Timbaland.
The result is an artist who has shed his rocker pedigree to play the part of a synth-pop crooner.
Cornell's voice, which has earned him a top spot on almost every list of greatest rock singers of all time, has been necessarily subdued in order to give Timbaland's beats some headroom in which to operate.
If you can forgive the producer for restraining Cornell's legendary vocal cords so he can share in the limelight, you will find the tradeoff isn't quite as offensive as it may at first seem.
Whether it's the groovy "Time," the sitar-infused, Indian-music-inspired "Take Me Alive" or the ballad-esque "Long Gone," every track is slickly produced.
Be the first to comment on this story