Euphoria Morning

Euphoria Mourning
Studio album by Chris Cornell
Released	September 21, 1999[1]
Recorded	1998–1999
Studio	11 AD Studios in Los Angeles, California[2]
Genre	Rock psychedelic rock folk rock
Length	50:55
Label	Interscope
Producer	Chris Cornell Natasha Shneider Alain Johannes
Chris Cornell chronology
Euphoria Mourning (1999) Carry On (2007)
Singles from Euphoria Mourning
"Can't Change Me" Released: 1999 "Preaching the End of the World" Released: 1999
Alternate Cover
Re-released in 2015 as Euphoria Mourning

Euphoria Mourning (originally titled Euphoria Morning) is the first solo studio album released by American musician Chris Cornell. It was released on September 21, 1999 through Interscope Records. Euphoria Mourning sold over 75,000 copies in its first week of release, and eventually sold 393,000 copies in the U.S. alone.^[3] While a large success critically, it did not sell nearly as well as Cornell's albums with Soundgarden. It is Cornell's only album between the split of Soundgarden until he formed Audioslave with members of Rage Against the Machine. The lead single "Can't Change Me" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards.^[4]

On August 14, 2015, the album was re-released on CD and vinyl with the title Euphoria Mourning, with Cornell stating in the press release that he had originally intended the album to be called that.^[5]

Production[]

Recording history[]

In 1998, Cornell began working on material for a solo album on which he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven,^[6] and the album was recorded at their Los Angeles home studio.^[7]

Cornell stated that the 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."^[8] Cornell told MTV News that the genesis of "Can't Change Me" can be found in some of Soundgarden's hits, such as "Blow Up the Outside World" and "Fell on Black Days".^[9] Cornell also recorded a version of the song in French.^[10] This version is a bonus track on the deluxe version of Euphoria Morning,^[11] and on the Japanese^[12] and European editions of the album that were released in November 1999.^[13] The song was translated to French by Alexis Lemoine.^[13]

"Flutter Girl" was an outtake from Superunknown, the 1994 Soundgarden album.^[14] The title was created by Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament as part of the joke tracklist of Poncier's EP for the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles,^[15] and Cornell wrote the lyrics and music for it. The complete Poncier EP with the 1992 demo version of "Flutter Girl" was released as a promotional CD demo in 2015 for Record Store Day.^[16]

"Moonchild" is about Cornell's then-wife Susan Silver. In the song, Cornell affectionately describes how Silver "gets really freaked out during the full moon".^[17]

Cornell stated that "Wave Goodbye" was written as a tribute to his friend Jeff Buckley, who died in 1997.^[17][18]

Musical style[]

According to AllMusic's Euphoria Mourning is "a shaded, textured rock album," lacking the "grinding sludge and furious rock" of Soundgarden.^[1] Nevertheless, the album was described to be of a piece with Soundgarden's psychedelic-indebted 1994 album Superunknown^[1] and delves back into ’60s psychedelic melodies and acoustic ditties."^[19]

Los Angeles Times' Mikael Wood described the album's style as "psychedelic folk-rock."^[20]

Reception[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Alternative Press	[21]
Robert Christgau	(C+)[22]
Entertainment Weekly	(B+)[19]
NME	4/10[23]
Q	[24]
Rolling Stone	[25]

The album proved commercially unsuccessful although the album's single "Can't Change Me" was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards.^[4]

He also contributed the song "Sunshower" (a bonus track on the Japanese release of Euphoria Morning) to the soundtrack of the 1998 film, Great Expectations, and a reworked version of the track "Mission", retitled "Mission 2000", was used on the soundtrack to the 2000 film, Mission: Impossible 2.

In 2000, Cornell embarked on a tour in support of the album.^[26]

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.^[27][28]

Re-release and title change[]

The album was re-released on August 14, 2015 on CD and vinyl and retitled Euphoria Mourning. Cornell stated that he had originally intended the album to be called that, but his manager at the time of the original release, Jim Guerinot, suggested that "Euphoria Morning" without the "u" would be a better title.^[5]

Cornell on the title:

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.^[5]

Track listing[]

All lyrics are written by Chris Cornell; all music is composed by Cornell, except where noted.

• "Can't Change Me" (French version) is also found on international versions
• "Can't Change Me" (French version) & another b-side "Nowhere But You" are also found on the "Can't Change Me" single.

Personnel[]

Personnel adapted from Euphoria Morning liner notes.^[2]

Main personnel

• Chris Cornell - lead vocals (all tracks), guitar (tracks 1-3 and 5-13), harmonica (track 1)
• Alain Johannes - guitar (tracks 1-6, 8, and 10-12), bass guitar (tracks 2-5, 10, and 11), backing vocals (tracks 1 and 13), theremin (track 4), mandolin (tracks 4 and 13), clarinet (track 10), tabla (track 12)
• Natasha Shneider - keyboards (tracks 1-4, 6-8, and 10-13), bass guitar (tracks 6 and 13), backing vocals (tracks 4-7, and 13), tambourine (tracks 1-4, 11, and 12), piano (track 5), organ (track 5), timpani (track 11)
• Ric Markmann - bass guitar (tracks 1, 7, 8, and 12)
• Josh Freese - drums (tracks 1-4, 6, 8, and 11)

Additional musicians

• Jason Falkner - bass guitar (track 5)
• Greg Upchurch - drums (track 5)
• Victor Indrizzo - drums (track 7)
• Matt Cameron - drums (track 10)
• Bill Rieflin - drums (track 12)
• Misha Shneider - bayan (track 14)

Technical personnel

• Chris Cornell - production, engineering, mixing
• Alain Johannes - production, engineering, mixing
• Natasha Shneider - production, engineering, mixing
• Dave Collins - mastering

Charts[]

References[]