Chris Cornell Euphoria Mourning

Release date: 19-10-2015 (originally released in 1999)

 

2015 reissued on 180g vinyl LP+download-the debut album from the ex-Soundgarden member. Includes "Can't Change Me"



When Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and rock icon Chris Cornell was about to release his 1999 solo debut on Interscope/A&M/Geffen Records, he was dissuaded from his first choice for the title, Euphoria Mourning, and reluctantly dubbed it Euphoria Morning. Now, 16 years later, UME is correcting that admitted misjudgment, re-releasing the re-mastered album under its original name in August 2015, for the first time on vinyl. "The title of the record has been restored to its original spelling," notes Cornell. "Which was changed before release after I listened to some bad advice."

 

His first release outside of his work as lead singer with Soundgarden, Euphoria Morning, as it was then called, was a collaboration with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven, who appeared on the album, co-wrote five of the tracks and were credited as co-producers, engineers and mixers with Cornell.  The album's first single, "Can't Change Me," was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards. "Flutter Girl" was reportedly an outtake from Soundgarden's 1994 album, Superunknown, while Cornell revealed later on during a 2007 solo tour that "Wave Goodbye" was written as a tribute to Jeff Buckley, who tragically drowned in Memphis in 1997. "Can't Change Me," the first single, peaked at #5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #7 on the Modern Rock Tracks tally.

 

Over the course of his four solo studio albums – including 2007's Steve Lillywhite-produced Carry On, 2009's Timbaland-produced Scream and 2011's live acoustic Songbook (he has a fourth, Higher Truth, due in September) – Cornell has continually redefined his sound and vision to encompass new music, new collaborations and new activities. He was the first American male artist to write and perform the theme song for a James Bond movie (Casino Royale's "You Know My Name"), wrote and performed with Soundgarden the end-credit song, "Live to Rise" for The Avengers, and wrote the song "Misery Chain" (performed with Joy Williams) for the Oscar-winning movie, 12 Years a Slave.  His performance of his song, "The Keeper," which appeared in the Marc Forster-directed Machine Gun Preacher earned him a Golden Globe nomination.