Chris Cornell's first solo album,
Euphoria Morning, was released just after
Cornell had shaken the shackles of
Soundgarden and he was making a definitive break from their heavy heavy sound by indulging in bucolic singer/songwriter clichés. It went nowhere commercially but led him toward
Audioslave, where he spent three albums pushing and pulling against the core of
Rage Against the Machine. If
Euphoria Morning was breaking from the past,
Carry On is about reconnecting to it, returning
Cornell to music that feels more comfortable than
Tom Morello's staccato riffs. Right from the beginning, he pushes out arena-filling riffs that feel more at home on a
Soundgarden record -- not as heavy and certainly not as tortured, but something more mature and more recognizably of
Cornell's lineage than much of
Audioslave. It sets the stage for a record that's seems like a rare hard rock maturation, but soon
Cornell returns to the singer/songwriter mannerisms that seemed appropriate on his first debut -- he was stretching his legs after
Soundgarden, after all -- but now feel anemic, particularly because they're executed with quivering sensitivity and a near belligerent tunelessness. These are the songs that feel forced -- as affected as his coffeehouse cover of "Billie Jean" -- but when
Cornell loosens up and gives the music backbone (and a backbeat), he not only comes alive as a performer but the writing is sharper and better, pointing a way toward an artistic middle age that's richer and more compelling than what's heard on the bulk of
Carry On. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine