Oh, cool: Timbaland produced the new Chris Cornell album…wait, what?

In 2008, this shit is perfectly normal…

If you told the average alternative music fan in 1994 that the lead singer of Soundgarden would go on to front a band made up of the musicians from Rage Against the Machine, they would have found this odd, but not necessarily out of the realm of possibility.

If you then added to that revelation that said singer would also have his third solo album produced by an acclaimed, innovative hip-hop producer, the fan’s head would have (expletive) exploded immediately.

Both those situations are now true. Pop culture in 2008 is a strange beast.

I first heard that Chris Cornell — “grunge” icon and possessor of one of rock’s most distinctive howls — would be collaborating with Timbaland — acclaimed hit-maker and the genius that made Justin Timberlake a critics’ darling — through an article about how Tim claims to be producing Jay-Z’s entire next album (a more promising, but far less intriguing meeting of minds).

“Chris Cornell and Timbaland?” I thought. “Really? I…guess that could work.” I was cautiously optimistic, figuring both artists had earned the benefit of the doubt (in spite of Audioslave and Timbo’s recent market saturation). Although Cornell’s resume makes him the unlikeliest of Timbaland collaborators, who am I to begrudge a musician’s desire to dabble in other sounds and styles while exploring uncharted and uncharacteristic avenues?

Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long to hear the results: a song from the new album (“Long Gone”) is currently streaming online at Ryan Seacrest.com. Yes, the new single from the frontman of Soundgarden is being previewed on the personal Web page for the host of American Idol, a guy more famous than half the people he interviews…including, at this point, Chris Cornell. The new millennium is crazy, man.

(Worth noting: at the time of writing, Seacrest’s Web site credits the song to “Christ Cornell,” which is really funny for obvious reasons.)

While better than some have imagined, I still don’t know how I feel about “Long Gone” yet and I’ve listened to the song almost a dozen times. I could judge it more easily if there weren’t annoying “on air with Ryan Seacrest!” promotional drops scattered throughout the song like it was a DJ Khaled mixtape. Regardless of the stream quality, “Long Gone” provides as big a case of cognitive dissonance as possible for someone who enjoys both Soundgarden and Timbaland’s production discography equally. “Spoonman” this is not.

The knee-jerk song comparison is “Apologize,” the rock ballad Timbaland remixed for One Republic on his Shock Value album, but that makes it seem a lot fluffier than it actually is. There’s “My Love”-style electronic flourishes and relatively-subdued (for Timbaland) drum layers, but the backbone of “Long Gone” is the ethereal guitar lines (think the Edge) and Cornell’s earnest vocals. It sounds nothing like anything Cornell has ever done before; the closest reference point I can come up with at this time is Zooropa and Pop-era U2 (a plus for me, not so much for the rest of society).

While the sound of Cornell’s voice emoting over Timbaland production was initially jarring and confusing, the song is growing on me. It would be easier to judge if I’d never heard Soundgarden, if I wasn’t aware of how ridiculous it sounds to fans of Cornell’s roots in gritty, heavy rock and roll. It also doesn’t help that Timbaland claims the album is “the best work I’ve done in my career” (Really? Better than FutureSex/LoveSounds or “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” Tim?), while Cornell feels it’s “a highlight of my career.”

All that said, it’s way too easy (and just a little bit obvious) to simply dismiss this as a cred-killing, sell-out move, blasphemy to Soundgarden and the entire ’90s grunge scene. Although it treads dangerously close to schlocky, Coldplay-lite territory, “Long Gone” is a solid pop song.

As hard as that might be to admit, I’m too old to get caught up in the purist-hysterics of my youth and lame enough to enjoy something slightly embarrassing.