Chris Cornell has traded in his grungy flannel for a baggy Rocawear sweat shirt. The wailing frontman behind Soundgarden and Audioslave went into the super-unknown with hip-hop producer Timbaland, but returned with his third solo project, “Scream.”

“Of course some people will scratch their heads when they first hear it,” says Cornell of the album that marries his dramatic melodies to dense layers of crafty samples and stutter-step beats. “But experimentation leads to unpredictability. Most artists stay in their comfort zone — not me.”

The collaboration began after Cornell reached out to Timbaland, following the advice of his brother-in-law — a dance club owner — who suggested remixing tracks from his 2007 album, “Carry On.”

Timbaland wasn’t interested. “He didn’t want to just remix a few songs. He wanted to create something brand new,” says Cornell of the producer who’s worked in a small capacity with rock groups the Hives and OneRepublic.

Cornell, who plays Webster Hall Tuesday and Wednesday, was exposed to a whole new animal while recording “Scream” in Miami.

Live guitars, drums and horns — played by Cornell, Timbaland and Jerome Harmon, who helps on production — are sprinkled throughout the album, but were physically absent in the room while Cornell was creating lyrics and laying down vocals.

“Since it’s mostly digital, a lot of the music was added afterwards,” says Cornell. “It was a completely different process than I was used to. Timbaland would bring in a new beat every day for me to work on.”

Then, the producer brought in close friend Justin Timberlake, who checked out a couple of the tracks and ran into the recording booth with melodic

ideas. Timberlake ended up providing background vocals on the stimulating “Take Me Alive,” which plays like a hypnotic war cry.

Another standout is the lead track, “Part of Me,” an addictive, deep-synth dance song destined for the nightclubs.

The sound and texture of “Scream,” released last month, vastly expands on U2 dipping their feet into the techno pool back in 1997 while creating “Pop,” and is light-years ahead of P. Diddy’s sampling of classics from Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and the Police.

The odd and intriguing marriage begs the question: Can we expect Pharrell Williams and Eddie Vedder to hook up soon?

“I’m hoping this album will inspire people to try new things,” says Cornell. “Any time you get two guys, who are well established together from different genres, you have a chance to create something unpredictable and special.”