Chris Cornell’s new album, Scream, has finally come out, and my copy just arrived today. It’s about time. From some of the videos I had already seen and on account of the album’s producer, I knew that the sound was going to be very different from most of Cornell’s other music, but for the most part I don’t buy the claim popular among some old Soundgarden fans that Cornell has “sold out.”

Update: To each his own, of course, but David Polansky goes too far when he calls Cornell “execrable.” What is it with that word? It seems to be cropping up quite often lately. Even if Cornell’s alt-rock career with Soundgarden and Audioslave (or Temple of the Dog) is not to your liking, which I can understand easily enough if you didn’t grow up in the ’90s, his solo work in Euphoria Morning and Carry On does not deserve this sort of contempt.

And, yes, the last time I checked, I am human.