EDIT: This was originally written in May 2012, and has been updated and re-dated in the wake of Chris Cornell’s tragic death on 17 May 2017.
Who?
Whether you love him or hate him, or whether you have no idea who he is, let me assure you that Chris Cornell is a singer and musician worth listening to. One of the reasons I want to feature Cornell first is because one of his songs (‘Safe and sound’) was the inspiration for me seeking out voice lessons and for setting me off down this road of being a singer and voice coach in the first place.
It started with Grunge.
Almost everyone on the planet has heard of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but another seminal band around at the time when grunge was the in thing, was a band called ‘Soundgarden’. I’m constantly amazed that people have managed to get away without hearing Soundgarden. This particular band was something quite special, and was headed up by Chris Cornell on lead vocals.
They had a number of albums, but I think their best album is ‘Superunknown’. This is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of captivating lyrics with a vocal intensity that I haven’t heard in many singers, and a harmonic complexity within the songs not really heard even with quite technically advanced bands around today. Songs like ‘Black Hole Sun’ (acoustic version linked above), ‘Spoonman’, ‘Fell on Black Days’, ‘Let Me Drown’ and – of course – ‘Superunknown’ are very much etched into my brain from repeated listenings.
I particularly like how willing they were to experiment with altered tunings and compound time signatures – it’s challenging stuff!
Where next?
Since then he moved onto front the supergroup Audioslave. This was the band of Rage Against the Machine (minus vocalist Zach de la Rocha) plus Chris Cornell. Many insist their self-titled first effort was their best. This had songs like ‘Cochise’, ‘Show me how to live’, ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Light my Way’. However, I am personally quite taken with their album ‘Revelations’. This contained songs like ‘Revelations’, ‘Original Fire’, ‘Jewel of the Summertime’ and ‘Sound of a Gun’.
I feel that the album ‘Revelations’ has a more rounded song-writing selection and is just a little bit more groove-laden than the first. Chris’s move towards even more intriguing lyrics and the craftsmanship involved in songwriting is (in my opinion) really starting to take on a more refined shape around here.
All by himself.
He has since gone on to release a string of solo albums. My favourites from his solo efforts are ‘Carry on’ and ‘Scream’. The former album is very guitar led. For example, listen to ‘No such thing’, ‘Safe and sound’, Your Soul Today’, etc. This is far more pop-accessible than any of his earlier works. The latter album is produced by Timbaland and shows a shift towards more electronic sounds in-keeping with how music is progressing today. For example, ‘Part of Me’, ‘Time’, ‘Get up’ and ‘Scream’. Being from a guitar-band mentality myself, this effort has really inspired and challenged me. In the main, it’s challenged me to experiment with ideas from ‘extra-rock’ genres and see what happens. I can say it’s been one of the most rewarding and releasing experiences of my musical career.
A few of my favourite things.
Two things really stand out to me about Chris Cornell that I would encourage readers to try and hear for themselves.
1) He is a progressive songwriter
– Whereas other songwriters might find their niche and continue on in that for safety’s sake, Cornell has really progressed with his songwriting, whilst continually keeping it as recognisably ‘Cornell’. You can listen to Soundgarden and his solo album ‘Scream’, and you can tell they are world’s apart, but that it is still very much him and his style.
He has a signature sound in his writing and his voice that make him instantly recognisable, yet he has a versatility and fearlessness that has allowed him to cross between genres and stay alive through decades of musical shifts. Very few musicians have managed to do that and to manage to do so as successfully, and as convincingly, as Cornell.
2) His approach has matured
– Now I start to talk a bit more technically… In short, in Soundgarden, Cornell wrote vocal lines that used no chest in places and hit notes all the way up to D5-E5, but mainly centred around C5 – his ‘money note’ in my opinion for this era. With Audioslave’s first album, this money note area had been moved down to B4 – not because he couldn’t hit those notes, but because it sounded better (listen to ‘Show me how to live’).
With their second album and solo works, this money note was again moved down to A4. And the improvement in quality shows – listen to ‘Safe and sound’ for a great example of his songwriting quality. This critical mentality of ‘does it serve the song?’ is something I struggle with as a less mature songwriter, but I can recognise the strength of character it takes to do that in someone like Chris Cornell… and his songs and writing have grown considerably in that time.
In short, Cornell was one of my favourite singers, and I would encourage any readers to check out the albums mentioned above. I think they are some of the finest bits of music in my collection and are well worth listening to.
Given his influence on my own musical background, I am sorry to know I won’t hear another new release from Chris Cornell. A tragic loss to the world of music.
