Chris Cornell makes me not want to listen to music ever again.

Trent Reznor's Twitter:

"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's record? Jesus."

For over twenty years, Chris Cornell has been a part of music in one way or another. His band, Soundgarden, was one of the penultimate Seattle grunge bands that gained massive mainstream acceptance and their albums weren't half bad, either. Cornell then joined with three former members of Rage Against The Machine to form Audioslave, which had nothing of the quality of Rage, but wasn't a bad band, either. Their music was fine diversions that worked on rock radio, and their first album was even pretty great, as mentioned before in this blog.

Squashed in between that time was two solo records that showed Cornell's evolution (or devolution) as a creative artist. He did a record that became an underground classic in 1999's Euphoria Morning and then did a mostly mediocre record in 2007 with Carry On.

Now this all brings us to this point, to 2009's Scream and to where everything has went wrong at a quick rate. Stifled by creativity, Cornell's best move is to apparently do the same songwriting style, only replacing his rock roots with the sounds...of Timbaland.

I will say this, I have liked a lot of Timbaland's past stuff. Timbaland's evolution of Justin Timberlake from boy band bopper to the modern-day Michael Jackson was amazing and he produced two fine albums out of a guy that seemed doomed to go the Nick Carter route. Timbaland's production on Nelly Furtado's record didn't create an amazing record by any means, but Loose was decent for what it was. Of course, Timbaland lost his way with critics on Shock Value, a disastrous solo record that, among other things, forced the horror of OneRepublic on the world.

So, Timbo's been licking his wounds and Cornell's been directionless since the aforementioned “other three from Rage” left him to his devices. So what do both men do? Cornell lets himself be the backdrop to another Timbaland record where nothing changes. Of course, the project is referred to as a Chris Cornell solo album, despite the fact that this could be any person letting the hitmaker producing his samey beats over the music. Here's a sample of the...failure in store.

Now, I feel going on about the music or its sheer terribility is a little bit redundant. So, I will pose a question...would Kurt Cobain have ever done this? Has Eddie Vedder thought that the last thing his songs needed was a punch of electro? I haven't heard Scott Weiland's last solo record – laughably entitled Happy in Galoshes – but did Weiland think that the big thing missing from his songs was Just Blaze or Scott Storch? Did the lady from Veruca Salt want Lady GaGa's production team? I suspect the answer to all of these questions is no.

Again, I don't hate Timbaland, I just hate Cornell forgetting that being a patriarch of grunge should avert him from embarrassing himself for top 40 play, and especially in such a horrid fashion that completely doesn't fit his voice or style in any way shape or form. I also hope that a bunch of 90s acts aren't up next. I don't need to hear the vocalist from New Radicals being a backup vocalist for Christina Aguilera.