Scream - Chris Cornell

Theoretically the mixing of Chris Cornell and Timbaland wasn't that bad an idea. Cornell needed to do something different from his rock roots to try and inject life into a moribund solo career and Timbaland has never been afraid to experiment, and seems intent on making a "rock" record at some point in his career and is a great enough producer not to be stymied by mere musical boundaries.

Sadly, whilst the theory might have been good (and I'm sure there were many a record executive rubbing their hands with glee upon the suggestion of this collaboration) the result is one of those brilliantly misguided attempts to do something different that manages to fail on almost every level.

Perhaps if this dull, almost continually similar sounding album had been given to the Pussycat Dolls (or someone of their ilk) they might have dragged out something from it as at least they would have added some personality to it, something that Chris Cornell fails abjectly to do. Whether he's wailing tunelessly or whether his voice is being put through a vocoder or Auto Tune, Cornell might as well be anyone. Whilst his vocal style not being your traditional R'n'B style might be the point, rather than finding yourself thinking this is a mix that works, you are just wondering why early in the proceedings someone didn't realise just what a dog of an album this would turn out to be.

Timbaland is on auto-pilot, Cornell sounds hideously out of place. This is probably an album only for those unlucky enough to need something to keep their Naomi Campbell CD company on their shelf.