via//chicago

Conflicted feelings on one of rock's greatest vocalists...

This post was inspired by a recent spin of Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger album and my subsequent reflection on the career of lead singer Chris Cornell. In the intervening years since I discovered Soundgarden (via 1994's Superunknown), I've developed a pretty messy love-hate relationship with the guy.

As I mentioned, I initially fell hard and fast for the band and its rock-god/banshee vocalist through Superunknown, being far too into hip-hop in 1991 to care much for Badmotorfinger when it originally came out (although I do remember really liking "Rusty Cage"). The release of Superunkown dovetailed with my full-on immersion into the "alternative" explosion of the early-to-mid 1990s. It was dense, epic, and satisfied my hard guitar jones like no other album since Metallica's ...And Justice For All. But as much as I loved Kim Thayil's axe work, it was Cornell's voice that hooked me for good. THIS is exactly what a rock vocalist should sound like - shrieking and wailing his way through the surrounding maelstrom. His work with Temple of the Dog, which I also discovered a little late, further piqued my interest.

But I slowly started warming to the other side of Cornell's work - the calmer, albeit rarer, and acoustic singer-songwriter type stuff. It started with the obligatory "Seasons" from the Singles soundtrack, which provided a nice contrast to Soundgarden's more brutal contribution, "Birth Ritual" (also quite excellent). The song that truly made me fall in love with his voice was, however, the acoustic version of "Like Suicide" that appeared on the criminally underrated (and out-of-print) soundtrack to the pretty bad 1994 Reese Witherspoon vehicle S.F.W. (also containing some great tracks from Monster Magnet and Cop Shoot Cop, among others). I couldn't stop playing the song and ended up putting it on countless mixtapes during the Fall of 1994.

By 1996 and the release of Soundgarden's final album, Down On the Upside, I was firmly entrenched as a fan and bought the album as soon as I could get my hands on it. But, outside of a few strong exceptions, the album didn't resonate strongly with me and I quickly lost interest in favor of some of the other interesting records coming out that same year. I only picked up the compilation A-Sides out of sheet loyalty, giving it only a few cursory spins for the earliest tracks I didn't already have. With Cornell's future uncertain, I continued to move on and let my rabid fandom fade.

I'm not sure what made me decide to pick up his solo debut (because, let's face it, early 90's dudes didn't exactly have a strong track record for engrossing solo albums), Euphoria Morning, when it dropped in 1999; but I did, and I was pleasantly surprised. Lead single "Can't Change Me" was about as good as non nu-metal radio rock got in 1999 and both "Preaching the End of the World" and "When I'm Down" earned multiple mixtape placements. It wasn't great, no, but it renewed my faith in Cornell's work and showed that he could work a few places in between the quiet acoustic and full-on rage modes.

Speaking of rage, I don't think words can express how excited I was when I first heard about Cornell teaming up with three/fourths of Rage Against the Machine for a project that eventually came to be called Audioslave. One of the most inventive guitarists of the 1990s and one of the most powerful vocalists of the past decade being backed by one of the hardest hitting rhythm sections around? Shit yeah! Where do I sign up? And lead single "Cochise" raised my hopes even higher - a jolt of retro alterna-metal with a most kick-ass lead-off riff. Then I heard the album and slowly realized my absurdly high expectations were a little off base. Audioslave, taken as a whole, sounded fairly weak and uninspired. Aside from a couple rare occasions, gone were all of Tom Morello's fireworks and the intensity of Rage's former rhythm section. It was a minor let-down, but little of it indicated the depths to which this new collaboration would sink.

"Be Yourself", the lead single from second album Out of Exile, was a pretty putrid attempt at self-help radio rock that showed how far the band had fallen. I didn't even bother buying or even listening to the rest of the album. Follow-up singles "Your Time Has Come" and "Doesn't Remind Me" only served to show that I had made the right choice. By the time third album Revelations came about, I cared so little that I don't think I ever willingly heard a single track off of it. So I was slightly less than caring when Cornell announced his departure from the band in early 2007, I really didn't have the desire to follow him into another abysmal project. He has since gone on to release a second solo album, Carry On, which I also haven't had the energy or motivation to check out. The review I've read have indicated that its pretty bad and, honestly, I don't have high expectations at all.

So I love his work with Soundgarden, really like his first solo album, hate most of his work with Audioslave, love his version of "Ave Maria", and even sort of liked his James Bond theme. Probably one of the artists I am most conflicted about and, bar any amazing late-career renaissance, I don't see that ever changing. And as long as I have my copies of Superunknown, A-Sides, and Euphoria Morning - I think I'm okay with that.

I leave you with my ultimate Rough Guide to Chis Cornell tracklist, presented in chronological order:

1. "Nothing To Say" - Soundgarden
2. "Get on the Snake" - Soundgarden
3. "Rusty Cage" - Soundgarden
4. "Outshined" - Soundgarden
5. "Say Hello 2 Heaven" - Temple of the Dog
6. "Seasons" - Chris Cornell
7. "Birth Ritual" - Soundgarden
8. "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
9. "The Day I Tried To Live" - Soundgarden
10. "4th of July" - Soundgarden
11. "Like Suicide (acoustic)" - Chris Cornell
12. "Blow Up the Outside World" - Soundgarden
13. "Rhinosaur" - Soundgarden
14. "Can't Change Me" - Chris Cornell
15. "Preaching the End of the World" - Chris Cornell
16. "Cochise" - Audioslave
17. "Shadow on the Sun" - Audioslave