Leak Of The Yesterday: Is It Too Late To Apologize For Chris Cornell's Solo Career?

leak of the yesterday

Is It Too Late To Apologize For Chris Cornell's Solo Career?

ARTIST: Chris Cornell
TITLE: "Long Gone"
WEB DEBUT: July 17, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: In theory, I'm fine with the idea of Timbaland producing Chris Cornell's forthcoming solo album. Timbaland has said that he wants to make Cornell "the first rock star in the club," while Cornell called their collaborations "natural, not self-conscious ... open." I mean, sure, both parties have been pretty stagnant creatively as of late, what with Cornell strenuously pissing away any Soundgarden-garnered goodwill he may still have and Timbaland ripping himself off while crawling up his own behind. But maybe the lack of self-consciousness Cornell mentioned would serve as a galvanizing force, and result in something exciting being committed to tape! Unfortunately, my optimism was torpedoed by one spin of Cornell's "comeback" single "Long Gone," which pretty much sounds like "Apologize," only without Timbo's here-and-there "ays" and with Cornell's rapidly deteriorating voice in place of Ryan Tedder's whine. Anyone want to take bets on how this is going to play with the Linkin Park fans this summer?

WHERE TO FIND IT: Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul. If you dare.

11:00 AM on Fri Jul 18 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,271 views
6 comments

Comments

by Dead Air ummm Dead Air at 11:38 AM on 07/18/08
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Oh, he should have apologized after he made "Euphoria Morning", a concept album I assume was made about his favorite flavor of herbal tea.
by Charlie Kerfelds... at 12:46 PM on 07/18/08
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Is that "Blue Steel?"
by Ned Raggett at 04:03 PM on 07/18/08
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I was slipping through the cracks
Of a dying fame
I was totally trading on my good name
Now Timbaland's talking about a
Comeback song
And Idolator said 'This is totally wrong'

And my talent was burned out yesterday
Like Maura's past had died
And I've been caught in a shit sellout
by 2ironic4u at 04:25 PM on 07/18/08
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What radio format does this even target? Doubt modern rock stations are gonna play it. Top 40?
by KinetiQ at 12:54 AM on 07/19/08
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"You may remember Chris Cornell as the frontman and lead singer of Audioslave."

Man, that's some good trolling there.

@Ned Raggett: That's fantastic. I would've gone straight for "Like Suicide" myself but perhaps that's too obvious...
by VivaLaMainstream at 05:27 PM on 07/20/08
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Give Cornell a little bit of credit. The biggest complaint about Carry On was that it was that it showed off a bunch of different styles but had no direction. At least by hiring Timbaland we know what direction its headed, and it wasn't even the worst possible direction (You don't think there's more where the "Billie Jean" cover came from?).

If you want a scapegoat on this, blame Timbaland for trying to steal this song to score a hit for himself (See Also: "Apologize") or Ryan Tedder, who apparently helped write the song. Dear Ryan Tedder: before you help established artists write their songs, you might wanna make your own band's songs suck a bit less.

==TJ==