Chris Cornell – Songbook

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Universal Music
Produced by Chris Cornell & Alain Johannes

Soundgarden front-man Chris Cornell’s Songbook Tour saw him play shows solo acoustic for the first time, drawing songs from his whole career so far and adding in some new ones, on a hugely successful trip through North America. This album comes from those shows.

Cornell can obviously choose songs from a vast collection of material, and rightly spread his setlists across his time in Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of The Dog and as a solo artist, ensuring all three of his own albums were represented. The resulting acoustic renditions here are of course excellent, if perhaps a touch unimaginative.

Most of them have been done before as Cornell’s extensive touring for the Carry On album often saw him play three or four songs by himself in the middle of the set and live on radio shows, and in fact some have had acoustic versions available for purchase before too. Call Me A Dog from Temple of The Dog and a cover of Led Zeppelin‘s Thank You, both included here, were both played on a radio show in Stockholm, Sweden and were released as single b-sides, for instance. Other choices, like obvious Soundgarden numbers Fall On Black Days and Black Hole Sun have also had many other releases.

What will really be of interest to longer-term fans here then are the songs which are either new, or have never been recorded/releasesd before. As Hope And Promise Fade might catch a few people out thinking it’s a new song, but it is in fact the hidden bonus track from Scream, Two-Drink Minimum. The actual new songs are The Keeper, recently released on the soundtrack to the movie ‘Machine Gun Preacher’, and Cleaning My Gun, a song he wrote many years ago but has never recorded. Besides those a cover of John Lennon‘s Imagine, Temple of The Dog’s All Night Thing and Audioslave’s I Am The Highway are probably the most interesting catalogue selections, based on their previous rarity in an acoustic format. Cornell’s vocal performances here are also amongst some of the best of any of his previous live recordings, apart from a rather hoarse Ground Zero, so fans will not be disappointed with his delivery even if there’s a little lack of imagination in the songs chosen.

The album is not without its faults. The recordings making up the disc have been collated from several performances on the first of his two US/Canada Songbook tours, but Alain Johannes, responsible for the mixing of the album, has chosen to fade every song in and out at the beginning and end, making the whole thing rather disjointed and ruining the feeling of flow which has made many of the great live albums the experience they are. It’s a small gripe, but an important one for a live album.

Some things are also conspicuous in their absence. Missing the studio version of The Keeper is a little disappointing, but perhaps unavoidable for contractual reasons, but other songs Cornell has performed that were perhaps more interesting and less obvious than the ones here (heavier songs in their original format, or rarer tracks, like No Such Thing, Cochise, Scream and Mind Riot) would have made the album overall far more appealing to the fans the tour was aimed at in the first place. In actual fact, it probably should have been a double album and covered all bases.

This is “Volume 1″ though, so perhaps a second album of tracks from the more recent tour will follow in 2012 with more imaginative song choices. Regardless of how good these versions are though, this will remain an incomplete endeavour until he takes the ‘Songbook’ live format on tour outside the borders of North America, which so far he seems reticent to do besides one brief excursion to Australia and New Zealand. Taking this to prestigious venues in Europe is guaranteed to draw the fans, especially with some of the mouth-watering setlists he’s played (not represented here, sadly).

“ excellent, if perhaps a touch unimaginative ”

Tracklist: As Hope And Promise Fade / Scar On The Sky / Call Me A Dog / Ground Zero / Can’t Change Me / I Am The Highway / Thank You / Cleaning My Gun / Wide Awake / Fell On Black Days / All Night Thing / Doesn’t Remind Me / Like A Stone / Black Hole Sun / Imagine / The Keeper

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Acoustic, Live Albums, Chris Cornell