The PR material states, “It’s not often that two legends in music get together to record a full album, and even rarer that they’re from completely opposite ends of the musical spectrum…” Ex-Soundgarden/Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell teamed up with hip-hop and pop producer Timbaland to create SCREAM which may not be as revolutionary as declared.

This is Cornell’s third solo album with this one completing ‘the sandwich’ and it’s an enormous improvement on his second album in song writing terms. Cornell wrote all the tracks and declared it is his best work to-date. The PR also states that the album is partly inspired by Pink Floyd’s THE WALL, but to me it’s a highly tenuous link. The quality of the songs is largely excellent and I wonder what they would sound like given a genuine rock-style production.

‘Part Of Me’ opens with a flourish of brass and warped monologue before a solid beat emerges closely followed by Cornell’s vocal. The song has just about everything going for - good lyrics, driving dance beat, bullet-proof melody and a semi-distant vocal. Without doubt this is single material and could fly. And I’d love to hear a pure rock version of it, with strings… ‘Time’ turns sharply right into R&B ballad territory and arrives with a strong melody with Cornell backed by massed vocal choruses. Not bad at all. ‘Sweet Revenge’ repeats the trick while ‘Get Up’ fails to light my fire.

By this point I’m wondering what Cornell fans might think as opposed to those who hate rock, love dance… ‘Ground Zero’ is another track that needs heavy rock treatment and even the strong, later string passages can’t rescue it. ‘Never Far Away’ is another R&B pop ballad and it’s pleasant enough but I wonder whether a good, honest rock treatment would covert it from being just good to being great…  ’Take Me Alive’ ditto. ‘Long Gone’? Bin it… Then ‘Scream’ arrives and I’m thinking, ‘nice one Chris.’ The Timbaland treatment is much simpler and it’s one of those songs that couldn’t be more complete. It’s a stunner any way you look at it but it could rock out to classic status.

I’m now in the final stretch and hoping for more rock simplicity but ‘Enemy’ needs more oomph, more passion, more guitars and deadly drumming. ‘Other Side Of Town’ provides the (real) drum beat and a more telling beat and pace. ‘Climbing Up The Walls’ is so-so although there’s guitars and drums to deaden the dance vibe a tad.

‘Watch Out’ is a throwaway song before the final and best song on the album appears. ‘Lost Cause’ is the bonus track and takes a rockier route to heaven. It’s elephantine pace and beat would not be out of place on a rock record, and its use of extensive hand-claps is very effective. Timbaland has pulled it off here by shedding the dancy vibe but I still wonder what Rick Rubin would have made of this…

Look, this isn’t a bad album by any means and in parts it’s fantastic. The key I think is that Cornell has indeed written some of his best songs for this album but I’m left wondering whether he picked the right production route. And that is why I think he should produce a second disc; select the best songs and rock the guts out of them.

That way he would satisfy both his fans and those looking to feed their dance habits. Underneath the dance beats there’s a great album here and I’m wondering how he will perform the album live avoiding Karaoke. We shall see…

4/5