Chris Cornell

When this was first released under the mistaken title ‘Euphoria Morning’ it was not a commercial success. Soundgarden and Audioslave fans expected something more grunge oriented while his talents in other areas were not really familiar to the general buying public. It’s a shame because this really is an excellent album.

Cornell was a great fan of Jeff Buckley and his melodic turn feeds strongly into the album while the music has a wide range of flavours from soul to rock and even some sixties styled guitar/sitar stylings.

His voice is remarkable; for anyone whose only experience of Chris Cornell is Soundgarden, his ability to carry a tune and actually sing with emotion and breadth will come as a shock.
On tracks like ‘Preaching The End Of The World’ he really does carry the tune beautifully with a wistful yet powerful delivery and then follows up with the beautiful ‘Follow My Way’ which sees a darker tone to his vocals without losing the melody or the tunefulness of the number. ‘When I’m Down’ is a revelation – as a ballad singer he shows that he has few peers and there is no strain in reaching for the power.
‘Sweet Euphoria’ is simple, sweet and acoustic but my personal favourite is probably ‘Flutter Girl’ which seems to bring all his talents together.

The album is being reissued on high quality vinyl and I cannot think of many albums that deserve the transposition more – this is real full range music, well recorded and with some superb playing. All told, a fabulous re-issue.