I can respect some of the things Chris Cornell has done as a musician, but I’m just not going to try that hard to like him, either.

Yes, there are other worthwhile songs on Temple of the Dog — I was being somewhat harsh — but overall all, the album just doesn’t stand up.

It’s getting time for me to purge some of my physical CDs as well as audit some of the stuff I have on my computer, and therefore, the iPod.

Temple of the Dog was good for its time, but not great. It was a self-indulgent mess disguised as a tribute to a dead singer that they all loved but really sucked in the first place. It was also Chris Cornell’s first solo album with backing band (up-and-comers) Pearl Jam.

“Reach Down” is still good, so is “Pushin Forward Back”. “Times of Trouble” is also still worth a listen, if only for the fact that Pearl Jam did their own version of the song called “Footsteps” that is far superior.

But you’re right, the CD just doesn’t hold up. When thinking about it, I realized that I only ever listened to the CD once in a while, and when I did, I skipped through songs. It was something that I tried to like for a while because I was a huge PJ fan, nothing more. When you TRY to like something, that should be your first clue.

As for Chris Cornell himself. The first Audioslave (Chris Cornell with backing band Rage Against The Machine) album is still awesome — apparently Cornell was going through a divorce at the time and it just goes to show that the best art comes from pain. Their other two albums (they’ve since broken up) were mediocre at best. While I was always a casual Soundgarden fan, the only album of theirs that was good all the way through was their final album, Down on the Upside. It was experimental, it had moments of doubt and pain - probably one of the most underrated albums of the time period. As for his solo stuff (solo, as in not as a supergroup), snooooooze.

You are now 2 cents richer.