Chris Cornell w/ William Elliott Whitmore

Perhaps no 2009 album was more widely panned than Chris Cornell's Scream, which paired the sometimes Soundgarden frontman with Top 40 hitmaker Timbalanda bold stylistic risk that never stopped to consider how terribly Cornell's pained grunts and cries clashed with Timbaland's busy electro-clatter. Cornell has wisely launched a back-to-basics push since that debacle, reuniting with Soundgarden and touring solo acoustic behind career-spanning sets that play up Soundgarden and Audioslave favorites over recent missteps.