Euphoria Morning by Chris Cornell

Euphoria Mourning by Chris Cornell

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Euphoria Morning by Chris CornellAfter a long but whirlwind career as the front man for Soundgarden, Chris Cornell forged his own musical direction with his 1999 debut solo record, Euphoria Mourning (originally titled Euphoria Morning). While still primarily a hard rock album, this work varies greatly from the grunge metal style of Soundgarden’s prime, with the organic compositions textured with rootsy and bluesy sounds throughout. With this altering of musical direction, while critically acclaimed, the album did not sell as well as previous Soundgarden releases.

Cornell co-founded Soundgarden in the mid 1980s, with the group breaking through with Badmotofinger in 1991 and ultimately reaching their commercial pinnacle with the success of 1994’s Superunknown, which topped the album charts and won multiple awards including a pair of Grammys. The highly anticipated follow up, Down On the Upside, was released two years later and featured a more experimental approach that caused creative tensions within the group and ultimately led to Soundgarden’s break up in 1997.

In collaboration with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven, Cornell began working on material for a solo album in 1998. Recording was done at their Los Angeles home studio, with the song “Sunshower” (a bonus track on some versions of Euphoria Mourning, being contributed to the Great Expectations soundtrack that year. Another song, “Heart of Honey” was recorded for the film Titan A.E., but it was not used for the soundtrack nor released on Euphoria Mourning. Cornell debated the album’s title, initially capitulating to his manager at the time, who favored “morning” but later reverting back to the ironically poetic “mourning” as the title’s cannon.


Euphoria Mourning by Chris Cornell
Released: September 21, 1999 (Interscope)
Produced by: Chris Cornell, Natasha Shneider & Alain Johannes
Recorded: 11 AD Studios, Los Angeles, 1998-1999
Track Listing Primary Musicians
Can’t Change Me
Flutter Girl
Preaching the End of the World
Follow My Way
When I’m Down
Mission
Wave Goodbye
Moonchild
Sweet Euphoria
Disappearing One
Pillow of Your Bones
Steel Rain
Chris Cornell – Lead Vocals, Guitars, harmonica
Alain Johannes – Guitars, Bass, Mandolin, Vocals
Natasha Shneider – Keyboards, Bass, Vocals
Josh Freese – Drums
 
Euphoria Morning by Chris Cornell

Cornell wrote all the lyrics to the songs, while Johannes and Shoeider composed the music on select tracks. The first of these is the opener
“Can’t Change Me”, which starts with a dramatic intro before quickly dissolving into the rock/waltz verse. The first single released from Euphoria Mourning, this opener features very melodic vocals over deliberative chord structure put forth in a pop/rock way. “Flutter Girl” follows with a slightly more alternative bent led by treated rhythms and guitar effects. This song originated during the Superunknown sessions, half a decade earlier. The introspective, acoustic ballad “Preaching the End of the World” is beautifully composed and produced with plenty of diverse textures and sound effects above the melancholy singer/songwriter core of the track, while “Follow My Way” is a moderate and deliberative rocker with some odd time signatures and a few upper gear’s of Cornell’s vocal intensity.

Next comes the bluesy jazzy club tune “When I’m Down”, featuring Cornell’s slightly crooning vocals along with light backing vocals. “Mission” reverts back to harder alternative rock, while “Wave Goodbye”, a tribute to the late great Jeff Buckley, is a slow and sloshy melodic blues tune. “Moon Child” cleverly adds country/psycedelic guitar leads to a moderate and consistent pop/rocker, followed by the acoustic “Sweet Euphoria” which features plenty of divergent chord structures.

Chris Cornell 1999

“Disappearing One” brings us back to a classic Soundgarden sound with great vocals above super-produced sound textures. “Pillow of Your Bones” has a unique title with a unique stylistic blend of traditional blues and Indo/Eastern elements along with fine execution of rhythmic elements by Josh Freese. With droning, slow alt/acoustic verses and choruses that have majestic vocals while maintaining tempo and feel, “Steel Rain” ends the original album at an unexpected place with an upbeat bass line, extra percussion and electronic effects accompanying the whining guitars. The later added “Sunshower” may be Cornell’s definitive solo work as an extraordinary melancholy romantic tune driven by a classical sounding dual acoustic soon topped by persistent modulating electric guitar. This song’s chord composition employs both moody descending and unique divergent patterns all to complement Cornell’s classic rock vocals.

While Euphoria Mourning sold over 75,000 in its first week reaching the Top 20 in both the US and Canada, the album ultimately proved commercially unsuccessful. Still, this album was critically acclaimed and acted as an important stepping stone between Cornell’s work with Soundgarden and the future group Audioslave, formed early in the new century.

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1999 images

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1999 albums.

Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog
25th Anniversary

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Temple of the DogTemple of the Dog was sort of a reverse super group in the sense that the group members would go on to play in two of the more successful rock bands of the 1990s. However, at the time of this group’s short recording career in 1990, none of its members had yet achieved any great fame or recognition as they would in Soundgarden and Pearl Jam in subsequent years. In any case, the 1991 eponymous is an exceptional musical statement which far surpasses the trivial curiosity it was portrayed as throughout the early nineties.

In March 1990, Mother Love Bone front man Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose. Wood’s former roommate and Soundgarden lead vocalist Chris Cornell approached two former members of Mother Love Bone, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament about recording some material he had previously worked on with Wood. At the time, Gossard and Ament were in the early phases of the group who would become Pearl jam and they invited another group member, lead guitarist Mike McCready to join the Temple of the Dog. In turn, Cornell enlisted Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron to round out the quartet.

Temple of the Dog was recorded in Seattle in just 15 days with producer Rick Parashar, who also provided some keyboards on select tracks. With few expectations from the record label, the musicians were free to record as they saw fit and they accomplished great synergy over that short time period. The name of the group and album was taken from the Mother Love Bone song “Man of Golden Words”.

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Temple of the Dog by Temple of the Dog
Released: November, 1991 (Situation Two)
Produced by: Stephen Street & John A. Rivers
Recorded: Black Barn Studios, Surrey, England, Summer 1991
Track Listing Band Musicians
Say Hello 2 Heaven
Reach Down
Hunger Strike
Pushin’ Forward Back
Call Me a Dog
Times of Trouble
Wooden Jesus
Your Saviour
Four Walled World
All Night Thing
Chris Cornell – Lead Vocals, Harmonica, Banjo
Mike McCready – Guitars
Stone Gossard – Guitars
Jeff Ament – Bass
Matt Cameron – Drums

Temple Of the Dog

Cornell wrote all the lyrics as well as most of the music on this album. Uniquely, the album begins with its two longest tracks, both of which were written in direct response to Wood’s death. “Say Hello 2 Heaven” starts with a solo, picked electric guitar before the strummed rhythms come in for the verses. This opener features a soulful and dynamic melody with fine backing harmonies during the chorus, which helped drive the song to the Top 5 of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. “Reach Down” starts with a doomy and droning electric guitar riff above slow rhythms through the verse sections. Giving this eleven minute track much of its mass the extended duo guitar lead by McCready and Gossard, while the predominant lyrical theme is “reach down and lift up the audience”.

The most popular song on the album, “Hunger Strike”, may be its simplest. Three chords are built upon with stronger arrangement and vocals building the track’s intensity. Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder performs co-lead vocals with Cornell as Vedder stepped in when Cornell was having trouble with the vocals during a duo band rehearsal. The result was a worldwide hit in 1992. “Pushin Forward Back” is a bass driven riff track, written by Ament and Gossard as an odd-timed riff drone jam. Like many many tracks on this album, this acts as a canvas for Cornell’s fine vocals. Presented as a standard ballad, complete with minor-key piano by Parashar, “Call Me a Dog” is a vocal driven, sad ballad which manages to never become mushy or boring. “Times of Trouble” is another crooning ballad but with slightly more grunge rock elements including soaring vocal melodies through choruses and a later slight harmonica lead by Cornell.

Temple of the Dog

“Wooden Jesus” is built on a revolving drum beat by Cameron with some strategically added percussion for extra effect in the intro. Later comes an interesting little banjo during second verse and great wah-wah guitar lead during the bridge. “Your Savior” features funky beats and grooves throughout with more good drumming, leading to “Four Walled World”, a slow, cool jam based tune co-written by Gossard. The sparse guitar chords and fretless bass help to make this a fine track sonically as do the later dual slide guitars add the next logical element to the effect. The closer “All Night Thing” features a sparse arrangement with shuffling brush drums accompanied by Hammond organ with the lead vocals pretty much carrying the dynamics. Clever and accessible, this album closer sounds like it could have been a big hit.

Temple of the Dog sold poorly upon its initial release in April 1991, but it found new life a year later after Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and Pearl Jam’s Ten found great success in late 1991. Eventually, the album sold was certified platinum and went on to become one of the more highly regarded releases of the decade.

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1991 Images

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1991 albums.