Audioslave (album)

Untitled

Audioslave is the eponymous debut album by hard rock band Audioslave and was released in November 2002 (see 2002 in music).

The album's music is strongly reminiscent of Rage Against the Machine, with Chris Cornell providing his familiar classic rock-esque wails and croons to the songs. It features the hit singles "Cochise", "Show Me How to Live", "What You Are", "Like a Stone", and "I Am the Highway". The record was certified triple platinum.

"Like a Stone" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Background

Songs from the album were first heard when thirteen rough rehearsal demo tracks were leaked onto various peer-to-peer filesharing networks on May 16, six months before the official release of the album, under the name "Civilian" (or "The Civilian Project"). According to guitarist Tom Morello "it was very frustrating, especially with a band like this, there is a certain amount of expectation." He also said that the songs were not in their finished form and that in some cases "they weren't even the same lyrics, guitar solos, performances of any kind." In an earlier, July 2002 interview with Metal sludge he spoke more explicitly about the incident, blaming "some jackass intern at Bad Animal Studios in Seattle" for stealing the demos and putting them on the Internet without the band's permission.

The album was released on November 19, 2002 and entered the Billboard 200 chart at position number seven after selling 162,000 copies in its first week. It was certified gold by the RIAA less than a month after its release, and by 2006 it had achieved triple platinum selling status. It is the most successful Audioslave album to date, having sold more than 3 million copies in the United States alone.

Despite its commercial success, Audioslave received mixed reviews. Some critics lambasted the group's effort as uninspired, and predictable. Pitchfork Media's reviewers Chris Dahlen and Ryan Schreiber praised Cornell's voice, but criticized virtually every other part of the album, calling it "the worst kind of studio rock album, rigorously controlled-- even undercut-- by studio gimmickry." They described Cornell's lyrics as "complete gibberish" and called producer Rick Rubin's work "a synthesized rock-like product that emits no heat." Jon Monks from Stylus Magazine had the same opinion. He considered Rubin's production over-polished and wrote that "lacking individuality, distinction and imagination this album is over-produced, overlong and over-indulgent." On the other hand, other critics praised the supergroup's style reminiscent of 1970s heavy metal and compared it to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, saying they add much-needed sound and style to contemporary mainstream rock music, and have the potential to become one of the best rock bands of the 21st century.

Track listing

All lyrics by Chris Cornell, with music written and arranged by Audioslave.

1. "Cochise" – 3:42
2. "Show Me How to Live" – 4:37
3. "Gasoline" – 4:40
4. "What You Are" – 4:09
5. "Like a Stone" – 4:54
6. "Set It Off" – 4:23
7. "Shadow On the Sun" – 5:43
8. "I Am the Highway" – 5:35
9. "Exploder" – 3:26
10. "Hypnotize" – 3:27
11. "Bring Em Back Alive" – 5:29
12. "Light My Way" – 5:03
13. "Getaway Car" – 4:59
14. "The Last Remaining Light" – 5:17

ConnecteD bonus track

For a limited time the CD could be inserted into a CD-ROM and be used to access the ConnecteD website. Here, the user would be able to download bonus videos, interviews, photos, and a bonus track "Give".

Chart positions

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2002	The Billboard 200	7
2002	Top Canadian Albums	6
2003	Top Internet Albums	15

Singles

Year	Song	Chart positions
		US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Main- stream Rock	US Adult Top 40	US Top 40 Mainstream
2002	"Cochise"	69	9	2	-	-
2003	"Like a Stone"	31	1	1	23	27
2003	"Show Me How to Live"	67	4	2	-	-
2003	"I Am the Highway"	66	3	2	-	-
2004	"What You Are"	-	17	8	-	-

Personnel

• Tim Commerford – bass
• Chris Cornell – vocals
• Tom Morello – guitar
• Brad Wilk – drums
• Storm Thorgerson – art direction, cover art
• Darrell Lance Abbott – assistant
• Audioslave – arranger, producer
• John Burton – engineer
• Lindsay Chase – voices, production coordination
• Danny Clinch – photography
• Rich Costey – mixing
• Finlay Cowan – assistant
• Peter Curzon – logo, cover art
• Chris Holmes – assistant engineer
• Steven Kadison – mixing assistant
• Dan Leffler – second engineer
• Vladimir Meller – mastering
• Darren Mora – assistant engineer
• Floyd Reitsman – engineer
• Rick Rubin – producer
• Thom Russo – engineer, digital engineer
• Andrew Scheps – engineer, digital editing
• David Schiffman – engineer
• Rupert Truman – photography

Trivia

• This album was released just over ten years after Rage Against The Machine's (Morello, Commerford, and Wilk's former band) debut was released (November 3 1992).
• The song "Shadow on the Sun" was featured in the movie Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.
• The song "Cochise" was featured in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and the game Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2. It was featured as the background music for the 2008 Iron Man film Super Bowl spot as well as the following theatrical trailer.
• Covers are made by Storm Thorgerson, who, as leader of the group of artists known as Hipgnosis, may have been best known for his cover work for Pink Floyd.
• "Shadow on the Sun" is also featured in a cutscene from World In Conflict where Marines and Army Ranger helicopters are shot down trying to retake Governors Island.

External links

• "Audioslave" album lyrics