Chris Cornell - Long Gone

searchlightsoul

master/slave wrote:

that crazy mofo gives me the creeps!...

Could still probably find creepier people on the porch.

facepollution

searchlightsoul wrote:

Could still probably find creepier people on the porch.

I challenge you to find someone as utterly mental as this kid! Not even in the 'pictures of Ed looking hot' thread would you find someone so fucking la la!

jamie uk

GoingToLukins wrote:

So far I've heard 5 new songs and bits of a 6th. I must say, I like it all. It certainly is different and took a few listens to get into some of the tracks, but all in all I think this is going to be a good album. My fav so far (by far) is Ground Zero.

I got the opportunity to see him twice on the Projekt Revolution tour and the 2 new songs he played (Long Gone and Watch Out) both sounded even better live. He added another guy to the band to reproduce some of the "Timbaland-like essense" of the music. Still, these new songs certainly didn't sound out of place at a rock concert at all. Even the Linkin Park crowd really seemed to dig the new stuff.

Give it a chance. A fair chance.

I had a completely open mind about the project, I didn't become outraged at the thought of this Timbaland fella working with Chris, I'm old enough to know better than to shoot stuff down for silly reasons like credibility....it's upon hearing the stuff I became so suddenly deflated. I'm sorry, but what I've heard of it is so substandard, so appallingly below average that it's completely abhorent to think Chris Cornell is actually taking it seriously. It is without doubt the worst kind of bland, passive, background modern r&b music I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Who the hell Chris thinks is going to be into this is quite beyond me, he may have a handfull of diehard/defend to the last breath fans, but ultimately 90% are going to feel the way I do. And as for young kids who usually go for this stuff.....don't you forsee them all going "who the hell is this old guy ? He's not nearly as good as Justin Timberlake"...or something like that :rolleyes:
It is quite frankly beyond my comprehension, beyond a joke, and beyond belief, and it saddens me because Cornell has such a great talent....

NewDamage

jamie uk wrote:

I had a completely open mind about the project, I didn't become outraged at the thought of this Timbaland fella working with Chris, I'm old enough to know better than to shoot stuff down for silly reasons like credibility....it's upon hearing the stuff I became so suddenly deflated. I'm sorry, but what I've heard of it is so substandard, so appallingly below average that it's completely abhorent to think Chris Cornell is actually taking it seriously. It is without doubt the worst kind of bland, passive, background modern r&b music I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Who the hell Chris thinks is going to be into this is quite beyond me, he may have a handfull of diehard/defend to the last breath fans, but ultimately 90% are going to feel the way I do. And as for young kids who usually go for this stuff.....don't you forsee them all going "who the hell is this old guy ? He's not nearly as good as Justin Timberlake"...or something like that :rolleyes:
It is quite frankly beyond my comprehension, beyond a joke, and beyond belief, and it saddens me because Cornell has such a great talent....

I was admittedly worried when I first heard about who was producing. But I tried to keep an open mind. When that first snippet of "Part of Me" came out I thought it was the worst fucking thing I'd ever heard. Frankly it still is. I've given the five posted songs quite a few listens, trying to find something redeeming. Although I am still very disappointed and think this is a huge waste of talent, esp. considering how great his voice is sounding again...I kinda don't mind the song "Never Far Away" for some reason. Everything else is still horrible, particularly the "up-tempo" stuff like Watch Out and Ground Zero. And yeah I think the record as a whole will flop. At 44 its probably a little late to gain cred with the normal audience for this type of music.

JimNastics

It's career suicide, and it's too late to change it. Even if he does go back to what he does best, he can't regain all the professional dignity he's lost and people will still be bringing up the Timbaland era for the rest of his life... it's a massive big black mark on the career of Chris Cornell, and this is coming from a huge life-long fan.

Rhinocerous Surprise

JimNastics wrote:

It's career suicide, and it's too late to change it. Even if he does go back to what he does best, he can't regain all the professional dignity he's lost and people will still be bringing up the Timbaland era for the rest of his life... it's a massive big black mark on the career of Chris Cornell, and this is coming from a huge life-long fan.

Exactly - he could've released an album full of mediocre-to-terrible rock songs about how much he loves baked potato skins, and we all would've forgiven him, cos it's just Cornell losing his touch, not losing his dignity. This is embarrassing for reasons beyond the quality (or lack thereof) of the songs themselves. He'll probably spend all the proceeds on penis pumps, just to really stave off that mid-life crisis.

Jeremy1012

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

Exactly - he could've released an album full of mediocre-to-terrible rock songs about how much he loves baked potato skins, and we all would've forgiven him, cos it's just Cornell losing his touch, not losing his dignity. This is embarrassing for reasons beyond the quality (or lack thereof) of the songs themselves. He'll probably spend all the proceeds on penis pumps, just to really stave off that mid-life crisis.

I would argue that allowing himself to settle for mediocrity would be even less dignified than making a clean break and releasing a woefully misjudged pile of unbridled shite that is at least boldly different to the last woefully misjudged pile of shite he inflicted upon those who still hope he'll return to the heights of Superunknown. It's NOT going to happen guys. Let him be.

Rhinocerous Surprise

Jeremy1012 wrote:

I would argue that allowing himself to settle for mediocrity would be even less dignified than making a clean break and releasing a woefully misjudged pile of unbridled shite that is at least boldly different to the last woefully misjudged pile of shite he inflicted upon those who still hope he'll return to the heights of Superunknown. It's NOT going to happen guys. Let him be.

Oh, I don't mean he should settle for mediocrity. But if he released rock songs of the same comparative quality as these... abortions of songs... and it was the best he could do, it'd at least just be him trying his best to write some good songs, and failing. This is him failing to write good songs, while dancing to Timbaland's synthesized drumbeat and trying to be cool with the "Kidz", while comparing it to Dark Side of the Moon, with a straight face. I'm not expecting Superunknown... I am expecting a little integrity.

Also, I really just wanted to make the penis pump joke.

GuiltyBystander

Haven't posted on this board for a long time..
Found this thread after listening to a few snippets of CC's new "music"..
Ok.. I love CC's music about as much as I love PJ's and Eddies music. Euphoria Morning is in my mind a modern classic. And CC's acoustic gig in Sweden 2007 was probably the best live performance I have seen...ever (sorry PJ).
CC's last album "Carry On" was a dissapointment to me.. I wanted another EM.. When I heard that he was doing another album that was going to be produced by Timbaland I was a bit worried but I still had faith that he could pull it of.
After hearing the songs that are out, my thought are this.. The songs aren't bad at all...if Justin or Furtado would do them. Timbaland is obviously a good producer and anything he touches sells.. But for CC this is doing 2 things.. He pisses on his loyal fanbase. And by fanbase I mean ppl that listened to Soundgarden, TOTD and Euphoria Morning..NOT the 14-year-old girl that saw James Bond last night.. Second thing he is doing is making sure he recruits alot of new fans...fans of Timbaland, fans of Justin and Nelly and such, radio listeners...
I wish Cornell all the success in the world with this project, and I hope to see him do alot more music in the future.. but for now I'll keep listening to Eddie if I want good solo stuff.. The drum-machines and screaming 14-year-old's just isn't my thing.

muppet

I know I harp on about him a lot, but a 'dance' song done right, whilst still keeping loyal to your rock roots, is Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen. It's pretty dated now and the video is horrendous but I don't see why Cornell feels the need to completely abandon the trademarks of his music career.

FollowMyWay

GuiltyBystander wrote:

Haven't posted on this board for a long time..
Found this thread after listening to a few snippets of CC's new "music"..
Ok.. I love CC's music about as much as I love PJ's and Eddies music. Euphoria Morning is in my mind a modern classic. And CC's acoustic gig in Sweden 2007 was probably the best live performance I have seen...ever (sorry PJ).
CC's last album "Carry On" was a dissapointment to me.. I wanted another EM.. When I heard that he was doing another album that was going to be produced by Timbaland I was a bit worried but I still had faith that he could pull it of.
After hearing the songs that are out, my thought are this.. The songs aren't bad at all...if Justin or Furtado would do them. Timbaland is obviously a good producer and anything he touches sells.. But for CC this is doing 2 things.. He pisses on his loyal fanbase. And by fanbase I mean ppl that listened to Soundgarden, TOTD and Euphoria Morning..NOT the 14-year-old girl that saw James Bond last night.. Second thing he is doing is making sure he recruits alot of new fans...fans of Timbaland, fans of Justin and Nelly and such, radio listeners...
I wish Cornell all the success in the world with this project, and I hope to see him do alot more music in the future.. but for now I'll keep listening to Eddie if I want good solo stuff.. The drum-machines and screaming 14-year-old's just isn't my thing.

Nice post, I agreed with most of what you said, he does sing these new songs well but the music is still awful and he usually has some great lyrics but these seem to be a watered down version of that. I don't even think these songs are going to do well in the charts. I'm going to be a stubborn chris fan (and even though carry on wasn't amazing I enjoy some of its songs) and hope he does come back from this new "direction", at least PJ are still going strong and will maybe do a european tour.

Jeremy1012

Rhinocerous Surprise wrote:

Oh, I don't mean he should settle for mediocrity. But if he released rock songs of the same comparative quality as these... abortions of songs... and it was the best he could do, it'd at least just be him trying his best to write some good songs, and failing. This is him failing to write good songs, while dancing to Timbaland's synthesized drumbeat and trying to be cool with the "Kidz", while comparing it to Dark Side of the Moon, with a straight face. I'm not expecting Superunknown... I am expecting a little integrity.

Also, I really just wanted to make the penis pump joke.

I don't really see why making a crap song with Timbaland is any worse than making a crap song with a guitar to be honest. I praise Cornell for not making another record like Carry On. Yes, this new direction does not work for him but really, that's nothing to do with the new style, it's to do with that fact that everything he puts out these days is poor. It's quite sad when a producer who can make Rihanna sound good can't do the same for Cornell. It's not the fact that they are made by Timbaland that makes these songs crap, it's Cornell's poor songwriting and general lack of artistic focus. That would the case against any stylistic backdrop.

Rhinocerous Surprise

Jeremy1012 wrote:

I don't really see why making a crap song with Timbaland is any worse than making a crap song with a guitar to be honest. I praise Cornell for not making another record like Carry On. Yes, this new direction does not work for him but really, that's nothing to do with the new style, it's to do with that fact that everything he puts out these days is poor. It's quite sad when a producer who can make Rihanna sound good can't do the same for Cornell. It's not the fact that they are made by Timbaland that makes these songs crap, it's Cornell's poor songwriting and general lack of artistic focus. That would the case against any stylistic backdrop.

I know I'm probably not phrasing it right... what I'm trying to say is, if they were just bad songs, I wouldn't make such a big fuss. I'd say they were bad songs, probably make a few angry posts/bitter jokes, but I'd move on. It's the fact that he's just blatantly trying to stay in the mainstream... "Who's popular today? Oooh, I hear that Timbaland fellow has some fans - even Madonna's working with him!"

As for the songwriting... you're right, Cornell has been slipping. Badly. But when I listen to these songs, I don't hear much Cornell outside of some lyrics, and even the lyrics have been co-written. Music- and arrangement-wise, I hear a lot of Timbaland, very little Cornell. If they had met in the middle, worked to break down genre boundaries, made something as revolutionary as they both claimed they were making, or even just made something that sounded fresh, I'd say kudos for trying. But this is just Cornell singing songs that coulda been sung by anyone on the Timbaland roster, and most pop singers in general.

facepollution

Jeremy1012 wrote:

I don't really see why making a crap song with Timbaland is any worse than making a crap song with a guitar to be honest. I praise Cornell for not making another record like Carry On. Yes, this new direction does not work for him but really, that's nothing to do with the new style, it's to do with that fact that everything he puts out these days is poor. It's quite sad when a producer who can make Rihanna sound good can't do the same for Cornell. It's not the fact that they are made by Timbaland that makes these songs crap, it's Cornell's poor songwriting and general lack of artistic focus. That would the case against any stylistic backdrop.

I think it's the contrived nature of this project than grates the most. Cornell appears to have totally taken a back seat to Timberland as far as the music is concerned - you can tell that from all the hideous "is this mic on", "sing that second verse Chris" shit. I totally agree it was time for him to try something new, and before I actually heard the songs I wasn't bothered in the least that Timberland was producing it, because I thought it was going to result in a really unusual and interesting album. Instead we have what all the cynical people feared; Timberland reinventing Cornell as an 'edgy' pop singer in exactly the same way he did with Timberlake, Furtado and One Republic.

Considering the genre, I don't think the songs are particularly awful, they fit the cookie-cutter niche market that Timberland sells to, and Cornell's unique voice had been so fucking compressed that it doesn't sound out of place at all.

You really do have to wonder what's going through this guy's head. You watch recent live videos of him on youtube and he's delivering some insanely good performances, and he's performing the new songs as full band versions, begging the question why didn't he just do that on the record? It would have given Timberlake the opportunity to prove that he could produce a rock album just as well as he could a pop album; and it could have possibly been the genre-defying magnum opus we were promised.

Marie Curie

I love this thread. Someone should send a link to Chris' management or something...

facepollution

Marie Curie wrote:

I love this thread. Someone should send a link to Chris' management or something...

Better still, print it out and hand it to him at one of his meet and greets! I've read before in interviews that he checks this board to see what fans' responses are, since he thinks this is a better representation than the sycophants that clog up his own board. I'm sure he must have had an inkling that this might be the response anyway. I mean seriously, how many of his fans did he think would be into One Republic and Justin Timberlake?

Rhinocerous Surprise

facepollution wrote:

Better still, print it out and hand it to him at one of his meet and greets! I've read before in interviews that he checks this board to see what fans' responses are, since he thinks this is a better representation than the sycophants that clog up his own board. I'm sure he must have had an inkling that this might be the response anyway. I mean seriously, how many of his fans did he think would be into One Republic and Justin Timberlake?

Apparently, all of them, judging by the comments he's made in interviews. "Oh, yeah, I've had 100% positive reaction from my fans." Right...


Then again, when you give someone a kick in the jacksons to get them back to their senses, that could be seen as a positive thing... maybe that's how he's taking all our grumblings?

CCRefugee

I try posting at the CC forum, but it's a total waste of time. Some of the more delusional people in the universe post there. A few of which are only surpassed in their delusion by their creepyness.

I think some of these people would support Chris if he gained 150 pounds, grew out a 2 foot beard and did an album of sea shanties.

But, they have no point of reference. How old do you think most of these people are? Down on the Upside came out in 1996. I don't think they bought that when they were 10 or younger, and you can forget anything that came before. Maybe for these nutcases, their point of reference is so new (Audioslave) that this seems somewhat reasonable or something?

The best part is when they say you should broaden their musical horizons, but they didn't even know who fricken Timbaland was! Um, yeah. A few people, including me, tried to warn them, but they wouldn't listen, and now they're polishing this turd like it's the greatest thing that ever happened, and coming to Timbaland's defense, to boot.

Whatever. I think this has a chance of selling on Timbaland's name alone.
I also don't think Cornell gives two about what his old fans think, he's written
as much quite a few times in a couple of songs. BUT, I don't think his peers
are 1) going to be able to keep their mouth shuts, or 2) keep from laughing out loud to some reporter somewhere. And that's where he's gonna get shamed.

I remember going way back to Euphoria Morning, Matt said he wasn't a big fan of the overproduction. Well, Matt ain't seen nothing yet, he's gonna be screamin out da top of his head.

Yeah, that's the other thing. The grammar. Wow. Pander much? Also amazing that a writer who had turned into a control freak not once, but twice, suddenly gives it all up for Timbaland. Wonder what in the world his motivation is. It can't be money. Maybe he just likes taking bad advice from his new family, like Fredo, the guy who spins records in Paris.

Marie Curie

Welcome, what is your username on the CC board?

Rhinocerous Surprise

CCRefugee wrote:

Yeah, that's the other thing. The grammar. Wow. Pander much? Also amazing that a writer who had turned into a control freak not once, but twice, suddenly gives it all up for Timbaland. Wonder what in the world his motivation is. It can't be money. Maybe he just likes taking bad advice from his new family, like Fredo, the guy who spins records in Paris.

Facepollution said it earlier in this thread, and it seems to be the case. Attention. It makes sense... Soundgarden ends, and he tries to make an album on his own merits. Critical acclaim, low buys. Audioslave happens - suddenly he's right back in the public eye. Audioslave ends, he tries to make an album on his own merits. It falters, both creatively and publically. And now he throws his lot in with Timbaland, maybe the hottest ticket of the last two, three years. I sense a pattern.

Welcome to PJ forums, though. Cuss all you like.