(Universal)

***

Review: Russell Baillie

The solo debut from the Soundgarden singer - covered at length in these pages last week - is the sound of a man picking up where he left off but taking a left turn with it.

He's stripped back on the hard rock bluster, broken out the acoustic guitars, and stood a bit closer to the microphone, though he's still given to occasional bouts of vocal overkill which may limit his appeal when it comes to a sit-down singer-songwriter audience.

Even so, the best of this compares favourably to the vocal grace of the late Jeff Buckley (another graduate of the Robert Plant school of singing) and the edgy Beatle-isms of Elliot Smith.

The apocalyptic and biblical imagery of Soundgarden's output continues on his songs here, whether on the Radiohead-like Preaching the End of the World; the funeral march blues of Disappearing One; and the slouching rock of Mission.

But it connects best and surprises most when it's at its most reflective. Like on lead track Change The World (after its Paint It Black opening becomes a tune that sounds like Crowded House by way of Seattle), the Buckley tribute Wave Goodbye, and when Cornell is crooning soulfully over barroom piano of I'm Down.

An album that finds Cornell happily caught between a hard rock and another place. Those who made him grunge's pin-up boy should find much to like. HHH