Maps of Music

Scream (2009)

Where the lyrics of Scream take you, and where it was really made.

Cornell swapped the guitars and rock sound of his earlier work for Timbaland's electronic pop, and critics mostly panned the result.

Key places

Hit Factory Criteria, Miami (2009)

Recording site The Hit Factory Criteria — Listed as a recording location for Scream. The point sits at Miami's city centre, not on the studio building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Studio at the Setai, Miami Beach (2009)

Recording site South Beat Studios — Listed as a recording location for Scream. The point sits at Miami Beach's city centre, not on the hotel building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Scream: third solo studio album by American musician Chris Cornell
• Released March 10, 2009 through Suretone Records and Mosley Music Group
• Marked a shift from Cornell's previous musical efforts
• Guitar and rock elements largely excluded
• Producer Timbaland's electronic pop soundscapes replaced them
• Promoted with five digital singles and three music videos
• Debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200 with 26,000 copies sold

Background

• Cornell first came into contact with Timbaland while planning to remix songs from his previous album Carry On (2007)
• The collaboration grew into writing and recording an entire album in six weeks
• Conceptual direction: tying the whole album together musically
• Cornell described it as harking back to albums he listened to as a kid, where the music never stops
• Billboard said the album moved in a much more pop-oriented direction and compared it to Gnarls Barkley
• Cornell compared the album as a whole to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Queen's A Night at the Opera, citing psychedelic elements Timbaland brought

Recording

• Cornell insisted he still played an integral part in creating the album
• Timbaland would bring in a beat or idea, Cornell would write to it and sing it, and they would move on to the next thing
• Cornell said the two did not really have that relationship and that the process was not that type of process

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · ko.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Christopher John Cornell (1964–2017) was an American musician, best known as lead vocalist of Soundgarden and Audioslave.
• He was a key figure of the 1990s grunge movement, with a nearly four-octave vocal range.
• Soundgarden formed in 1984 in Seattle; their Superunknown (1994) became their breakthrough, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.
• Audioslave formed in 2001 after Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine; their debut album reached triple platinum status in the United States.
• Cornell released four solo studio albums: Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), and Higher Truth (2015).
• He wrote and performed "You Know My Name" for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.
• He founded Temple of the Dog, a one-off tribute project to his late friend Andrew Wood, whose 1991 album was a hit.

Legacy

• Cornell sold 14.8 million albums in the U.S. alone and was nominated for 18 Grammy Awards, winning three.
• He was ranked number 9 on Rolling Stone's list of the best lead singers of all time.
• He died by suicide on May 18, 2017, in Detroit. In 2025 he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Soundgarden.

Reception

At release

• Initial critical response was mixed to negative
• Metacritic average score of 42 based on 19 reviews
• Entertainment Weekly and Hot Press were positive, feeling the Timbaland and Cornell collaboration worked
• Spin called it strangely appealing in its elaborately empty efficiency
• Billboard said sometimes it is good bizarre and other times bad bizarre
• Rolling Stone said it veers between drab-sleek and rock-dude soulful, and that Cornell's yowl never sounds at home
• Allmusic called it one of those rare big-budget disasters, an exercise in misguided ambition
• Trent Reznor attacked the album on Twitter, suggesting Cornell had embarrassed himself

Reappraisal

• Reznor later regretted his comments and sent Cornell an apology email when Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden announced a co-headlining tour
• After Cornell's death, Timbaland called him one of the best he had worked with and singled out Scream as one of his favorite albums

Records

• Debuted at number 10 on the Billboard 200, Cornell's first top 10 solo album
• The next week it dropped 55 places to number 65, the largest second-week drop for a top 10 debut in two and a half years
• Spent 10 weeks on the Billboard 200
• Sold 26,000 copies at debut

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• An alternate version of Long Gone was produced by Howard Benson and came with an official music video directed by DJ Skee's Skee.tv
• The rock version of Never Far Away was a completely new recording produced by Jordon Zadorozny, not a remix
• Alan Cross made that rock version available for streaming with Cornell's permission
• In October 2009 Cornell was reported to be working with Zadorozny and Michael Friedman to rework the entire album, but then he rejoined Soundgarden
• No further development was made before Cornell's death on May 18, 2017

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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