Chris Cornell Re-Releases Remastered Debut Solo Album ‘Euphoria Mourning’
Chris Cornell must be a happy man this morning. For today, 16 years after its original release, his debut solo album has been re-released. And not only has it been remastered, it has also been given the name Cornell originally intended, ‘Euphoria Mourning’. Now, I don’t know about you, but I reckon the album’s original name Euphoria Morning sounds like something by an insanely happy christian rock band, not a (mainly) acoustic rock album by Soundgarden’s former frontman. However, back in ’99, some record company executive thought it was a good idea to give it that name. Personally, I think changing it back to Cornell’s original idea it is a very good thing.
Predominantly a critical success, ‘Euphoria Morning’ came as a bit of a jolt for fans who had followed Cornell through his Soundgarden days. However, taken in context of the creative tensions which caused the band to split in ’97, it’s perhaps not surprising that Cornell took a more acoustic approach for this album. Fast forward 16 years and perhaps only now can everyone enjoy the album for what it is, without Soundgarden’s shadow hanging over it.
One other point of interest for all you vinyl lovers out there is from 25 September, ‘Euphoria Mourning’ will be available on 180 gram vinyl. Not only that, the package will include a download card featuring 320 kbps MP4 audio ripped directly from the vinyl.
So to the album itself…
From opening track ‘Can’t Change Me’ until the closing bars of final song ‘Steel Rain’ it’s clear that Cornell didn’t want to limit himself to a particular style of music. For example, there’s a lot of Blues in there, ‘When I’m Down’ in particular, is a gem and shows Cornell’s vocal ability stretches far beyond screaming metal songs. I love ‘Flutter Girl’. It threatens to explode into a huge guitar solo just around the next corner, but doesn’t… ‘Mission’ is another great song, and has a nice Allman Brothers vibe to it. Pick of the bunch for me though, was the dramatic ‘Follow My Way’, which showed Cornell’s voice at it’s powerful best.
‘Euphoria Mourning’ is the kind of rock album you’d reach for to chill out to, if that isn’t a complete contradiction! Think quiet night in, a few beers and nobody to bother about you playing some great music the right side of ‘a bit too loud’. Perfect!
On that note, I’m off to grab a couple of beers and play it some more…
decibel ROGUE verdict: HELL YEAH!!!
