Euphoria Mourning | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 21, 1999 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1998–1999 | |||
Studio | 11 AD Studios in Los Angeles, California [2] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 50:55 | |||
Label | A&M [3] | |||
Producer |
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Chris Cornell chronology | ||||
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Singles from Euphoria Mourning | ||||
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Alternate Cover | ||||
Euphoria Mourning (originally titled Euphoria Morning) is the first solo studio album by American musician Chris Cornell. It was released through A&M Records on September 21,1999,and Cornell embarked on a tour in support of the album in 2000. Cornell's only album from between the dissolution of Soundgarden and the formation of Audioslave,it did not sell as well as much of his work with those groups,though it did sell over 75,000 copies in its first week of release and has gone on to sell over 393,000 copies in the U.S. [4] The album was well-received critically,and its lead single,"Can't Change Me",was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. [5]
On August 14,2015,Euphoria Morning was re-released on CD and vinyl with the modified title Euphoria Mourning,which Cornell stated in a press release is what he had originally intended to call the album. [6]
In 1998,Cornell began working on material for a solo album in collaboration with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven, [7] and the album was recorded in Johannes and Schneider's Los Angeles home studio. [8]
Cornell said the album's lead single,"Can't Change Me",is "kind of a sad discovery that this singer is involved with this person that has amazing powers to help people and change things positively,and he's realizing that none of it is really rubbing off on him." [9] He told MTV News that the genesis of the song can be found in some of Soundgarden's hits,such as "Blow Up the Outside World" and "Fell on Black Days". [10] An alternate recording of the song featuring Cornell singing in French [11] can be found on various international editions of the album. The lyrics were translated into French by Alexis Lemoine. [12]
"Flutter Girl" was an outtake from Superunknown ,the 1994 Soundgarden album. [13] The title was created by Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament as part of a joke tracklist for the character Poncier's demo tape in the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles, [14] but Cornell surprised Crowe by writing and recording songs with the joke names. The five-track Poncier EP,which includes the 1992 version of "Flutter Girl",was released as a promotional CD in 2015 for Record Store Day. [15]
A reworked version of "Mission",retitled "Mission 2000",was included on the soundtrack of the 2000 film Mission:Impossible 2 .
Cornell stated that "Wave Goodbye" was written as a tribute to his friend Jeff Buckley,who died in 1997. [16] [17]
"Moonchild" is about Cornell's then-wife Susan Silver. In the song,he affectionately describes how she "gets really freaked out during the full moon". [16]
The album has been described as "psychedelic folk-rock" [18] that "delves back into '60s psychedelic melodies and acoustic ditties", [19] and "a shaded,textured rock album,lacking the grinding sludge and furious rock" of much of Soundgarden's music,yet "undeniably of a piece with Superunknown ." [1]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Alternative Press | [20] |
Robert Christgau | C+ [21] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [19] |
NME | 4/10 [22] |
Q | [23] |
Rolling Stone | [24] |
While the album was not a particularly big seller for Cornell,the single "Can't Change Me" was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 42nd Grammy Awards. [5]
The song "Preaching the End of the World" inspired the title of Lorene Scafaria's 2012 film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World . [25] [26]
The album was re-released on CD and vinyl on August 14,2015,with the modified title Euphoria Mourning. Cornell said that is the title he had originally wanted for the album,but his manager at the time of the original release,Jim Guerinot,suggested that "Euphoria Morning" (without the "u") would be a better title: [6]
It was a pretty dark album lyrically and pretty depressing,and I was going through a really difficult time in my life –my band wasn’t together anymore,my marriage was falling apart and I was dealing with it by drinking way too much,and that has its own problems,particularly with depression. So I titled the album Euphoria Mourning,but right before the record came out and I was doing interviews over the radio for example,if you say “Euphoria Mourning”,the listener doesn’t know if it’s mourning with a “u”or morning without a “u”. And that started to bother me. So I had a conversation with my manager at the time,and said I really love the title but do you think it’s confusing? And he suggested that Euphoria Morning would probably be a better title. I thought,in contrast to the lyrics maybe that works. And it wasn’t my manager’s fault,I was a grown man and could say I don’t think that’s a good idea,and in the back of my mind I didn’t think it was a good idea. But mentally I wasn’t together enough to really know what was right. So I went with “Morning”,and it’s bothered me ever since. It even showed up in an early review where someone reviewing the record said that the title sounded like a potpourri scent,and when I read that I was just like [with disdain],“Fuck! Fuckin’bullshit!”The title was so beautifully poetic to begin with,just the concept of euphoria in mourning;it was a moment I felt inspired and I let all the air out of it. So when we decided to do its first vinyl release I thought,I want to change the fuckin’title! [Laughs] It’s time to change it. [6]
All lyrics are written by Chris Cornell, except as noted; all music is composed by Cornell, except as noted
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Can't Change Me" | 3:23 | ||
2. | "Flutter Girl" |
| 4:25 | |
3. | "Preaching the End of the World" | 4:41 | ||
4. | "Follow My Way" |
| 5:10 | |
5. | "When I'm Down" | 4:20 | ||
6. | "Mission" |
| 4:05 | |
7. | "Wave Goodbye" | 3:43 | ||
8. | "Moonchild" | 4:02 | ||
9. | "Sweet Euphoria" | 3:08 | ||
10. | "Disappearing One" |
| 3:48 | |
11. | "Pillow of Your Bones" |
| Shneider | 4:29 |
12. | "Steel Rain" |
| 5:41 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
13. | "Sunshower" | 5:52 |
14. | "Can't Change Me" (French version) | 3:47 |
Personnel adapted from Euphoria Morning liner notes. [2]
Chart (1999) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Billboard 200 [27] | 18 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [28] | 14 |
Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell switched to rhythm guitar in 1985, replaced on drums initially by Scott Sundquist, and later by Matt Cameron in 1986. Yamamoto left in 1989 and was replaced initially by Jason Everman and shortly thereafter by Ben Shepherd. The band dissolved in 1997 and reformed in 2010. Following Cornell's death in 2017, Thayil declared in October 2018 that Soundgarden would not continue, though they did reunite in January 2019 for a one-off concert in tribute to Cornell. Cornell, Thayil, and Cameron appeared on every album by the band.
Christopher John Cornell was an American musician. He was best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and the primary lyricist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. He also had a solo career and contributed to numerous movie soundtracks. Cornell was the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog, a one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend, musician Andrew Wood. Several music journalists, fan polls and fellow musicians have regarded Cornell as one of the greatest rock singers of all time.
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Badmotorfinger is the third studio album by American rock band Soundgarden, released on October 8, 1991, through A&M Records. Soundgarden began the recording sessions for the album with new bassist Ben Shepherd in the spring of 1991. The album maintained the band's heavy metal sound, while featuring an increased focus on songwriting compared to the band's previous releases. AllMusic considered the album's music to be "surprisingly cerebral and arty"; alternative tunings and odd time signatures were present on several of the album's songs, and lyrics were intended to be ambiguous and evocative.
Jack Steven Irons is an American drummer. He is the founding drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers until he departed in 1988 and is a former member of Pearl Jam and Eleven.
Louder Than Love is the second studio album and major-label debut by American rock band Soundgarden. It was released on September 5, 1989, by A&M Records. After touring in support of their debut album, Ultramega OK (1988), Soundgarden left SST, signed with A&M and began work on their first album for a major label. The songs on the album featured a metal-leaning grunge sound with some songs featuring unusual or unorthodox time signatures.
Kim Anand Thayil is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018. Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010, and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012. Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.
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Alain Johannes Mociulski is a Chilean-American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, whose primary instruments are guitar and bass. He is a founding member of several bands, including the alternative rock group Eleven, and has been involved with acts such as hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, PJ Harvey, Chris Cornell, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Lanegan and The Desert Sessions, both as a musician and as a producer.
Natalia Mikhailovna Schneiderman, known as Natasha Shneider, was a Latvian-born Russian-American musician and actress. She was most notably the keyboardist and vocalist in the band Eleven, along with her partner, bandmate Alain Johannes. Shneider contributed to tracks for Chris Cornell and Queens of the Stone Age, and together with Johannes toured with Cornell on his Euphoria Morning tour in 1999 and with Queens in 2005 on their Lullabies to Paralyze tour. She died of cancer in 2008.
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This is the discography of Chris Cornell, an American rock musician. This list does not include material recorded by Cornell with Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, or Audioslave, of which he was the main vocalist, frontman, and rhythm guitarist. His four solo studio albums released during his lifetime were Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), and Higher Truth (2015). A fifth, No One Sings Like You Anymore, Vol. 1, was released posthumously in 2020. His two compilation albums were The Roads We Choose – A Retrospective (2007) and Chris Cornell (2018). He released one live album, titled Songbook. Cornell made numerous soundtrack contributions and released nineteen singles. With Soundgarden, he produced six albums, five EPs, and two greatest hits compilations. He released three albums with Audioslave and one with Temple of the Dog. Cornell also co-produced the Screaming Trees album Uncle Anesthesia.
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Scream is the third solo studio album by American musician Chris Cornell. Released on March 10, 2009, through Suretone Records and Mosley Music Group, it marked a shift from Cornell's previous musical efforts. Guitar and rock elements were largely excluded, replaced with producer Timbaland's electronic pop soundscapes. The album was promoted with the release of five digital singles and three music videos, and was met with mostly negative reviews. The album debuted in the U.S at number 10 on the Billboard 200 with 26,000 copies sold.
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