I was anxiously awaiting the Chris Cornell/Timbaland pairing. I thought that Timbaland had done some interesting things with Justin Timberlake and that perhaps he could take a step towards rock-pop with Chris Cornell.

Boy was I wrong.

The first song of "Scream" is just a terrible track. There's really nothing else to say. I did like that the songs flowed into one another, something I thought more hip hop CD's should do but it didn't make the songs any better. "Time" was a little better than "Scream" but it wasn't good. It sounded like Cornell was completely out of place and that Timbaland essentially just made a Justin Timberlake album with him. Very disappointing. The bigger issue is that everything just sounds cheap. When you're used to listening to a live band, the digital stuff just sounds cheesy. It's like expecting Rage Against the Machine and getting The Polyscis. Not that there's anything wrong with The Polysics but they're no Rage (nor Audioslave for that matter).

By the third song, "Sweet Revenge" I've pretty much given up hope. With Justin and some more work this could be a decent club song but it's not working for me. Maybe my head is in the wrong place but these songs just aren't clicking. They seem like the worst of both worlds. Cornell isn't belting with any emotion and Timbaland's not deliver the head nodding beats you're used to. It's almost like Cornell/Timbaland knew that people weren't expecting much so he didn't work as hard on the songs. 

My mind wanders and I start trying to remember what "Scream", the disappointing Michael and Janet Jackson collaboration sounded like. it sounds like this:

I have to be honest, I think it might be better than anything on this album.

Ooh wait, "Ground Zero" starts off as an actual catchy Justin Timberlake track. Maybe it could work. Meh. It's OK but it didn't really move me. Could have been better as a slower song with real instruments sung by D'Angelo.

"Never Far Away" is a bit better but it's still not worth listening to. Again, with more emotion and live instruments it could be more moving but it's just kind of there. This album kind of feels like a rough draft of an actual album. Just an outline. They'll add the real vocal and fill out the sound later but this is just an outline of where the album is heading.

"Take Me Alive" solidifies my belief that this is actually just a bunch of temp tracks for a b-side Justin Timberlake Album. This would have been better as a collabo with Craig David.

"Long Gone". I am. Stopped listening.

What do others think? Was I just in the wrong mood or expecting something different and that jaded my view? Will this album make any noise or just fade away like Chris Cornell's previous solo efforts? When's Soundgarden getting back together?