Album review: Chris Cornell

Facts about this album:
* Chris Cornell was formerly singer with grunge legends Soundgarden and rock supergroup Audioslave.
* 'Scream' is produced by hip-hop behemoth Timbaland.

Album review:
Rock and hip-hop should not be allowed to mix. Seriously. You can count their effective meldings on the fingers of one foot, and despite the monolithic credentials of Soundgarden top-bloke Cornell and hip-hop knob-twiddler in excelsis Timbaland, ‘Scream’ bellyflops into the same ignominious pool as all the rest. It doesn’t help that ‘Scream’ is inspired by Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ – yeah, we know – but the main beef is that it’s neither rock enough to rock nor hip-hop enough to, well, make your hips hop. There are flickers of funky light on the lush old school soul of ‘Ground Zero’ and the Motown-esque ‘Other Side Of Town’, but for the most part it’s all depressingly castrated. And rock without bollocks, sadly, is just bollocks.

Pete Cashmore

More on this artist:
Chris Cornell NME Artist Page
Chris Cornell website

4 out of 10