Chris Cornell – No One Sings Like You Anymore
(Universal Music Enterprises / UMG)
Reviewed by Bridget Herlihy.
The festive season typically sees a sudden surge of generic, run-of-the-mill ‘best of’ compilations drop, perfectly timed to coincide with what is traditionally the busiest period of the year for all good consumers. So it was initially somewhat refreshing to see this collection of songs appear without warning, albeit at the beginning of the silly season. In July, a version of the late, and very lamented Chris Cornell covering the Guns N’ Roses fan favourite ‘Patience’ materialised, which had this long-time Cornell fan wondering what else might be on the horizon. Five months later, Cornell’s widow Vicky and children Toni and Christopher Jnr (on behalf of the Chris Cornell Estate), announced the release of ‘No One Sings Like You Anymore’, a collection of covers Cornell recorded in 2016, and effectively the last complete album he made before his passing in May 2017.
Taken from Soundgarden’s radio-friendly track ‘Black Hole Sun’, the line ‘no one sings like you anymore’ became somewhat of a catch-phrase after Cornell’s death, not only as an homage of sorts, but it also spoke the truth. We had lost not only the voice of our generation, but undeniably one of the greatest voices of all time. And it is a loss that remains hard to fathom more than three years after the fact; a bitter pill that many – including me – still struggle to swallow. However, at the risk of succumbing to clichés, his work lives on, and many fans will revel in this collection of ten new cover tracks.
It appears that Cornell personally “hand-picked” these particular tracks to celebrate songs and artists that inspired his own song writing and musicianship. Opening the album is a synthesised rendition of ‘Get It While You Can’, a track made popular by Janis Joplin in 1971, followed by a pleasant version of ‘Jump Into The Fire’ (originally recorded by Harry Nilsson). Yet it is the acoustic tracks where Cornell really packs a proverbial punch, and things start to get a bit more interesting with a formidable version of John Lennon’s ‘Watching The Wheels’ and a beautiful cover of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, which Cornell often performed during his solo Songbook and Higher Truth tours. ‘To Be Treated Rite’, a rendition of Terry Reid’s sombre classic, sees a Cornell shine musically and vocally, which incidentally stirred a sudden impulse to listen to ‘Higher Truth’ for this reviewer.
‘No One Sings Like You Anymore’ also includes versions of Ghostland Observatory’s ‘Sad Sad City’, Carl Hall’s ‘You Don’t Know Nothing About Love’, Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘Showdown’, and of course ‘Patience’. And at the end of the day, these are perfectly nice re-imaginings of some great tracks, and the songs specifically chosen for this collection provide further insight into the music that made a significant impression and influenced Cornell’s own work. If you are a lover of all things Cornell – and/or covers – then no doubt you will adore this album. While I appreciate this musical offering, I personally prefer his original solo work, and also live in hope that the final Soundgarden recordings will one day see the light of day – pending law suits permitting.
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I love Cornell, but this whole album is overproduced and overmixed and I couldn’t get into any of it until, same as you, it went acoustic with ‘To Be Treated Rite’.