Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 11/18/2008
Seven years into its run and
American Idol has finally produced a winner who can hold his own and work with his own Idols. This says more about
David Cook, grand champion of season seven, than it does of the franchise itself:
AmIdol suffered a significant ratings slowdown during its no-drama seventh season and, despite the megastardom of
Kelly Clarkson,
Jennifer Hudson,
Carrie Underwood, and
Chris Daughtry, major-league stars only saw the show as a way to hock a new album. Fortunately, major-league stars hold no fascination for
David Cook. As he proved time and time again on the show,
Cook's greatest wish was to be an American
Our Lady Peace, a hurdle that's not exactly hard to clear. This low ambition works in
Cook's favor on his eponymous major-label debut as it gives him a goal that's achievable -- plus, it's been so long that this sound has been in fashion that his heroes are waiting in the wings, eager to contribute to a project that may just raise their own profile. Foremost among these is
Cook's biggest idol,
Raine Maida of
Our Lady Peace, who co-wrote three songs, but he's not alone:
Zac Maloy of
the Nixons has three songs, while
Kevin Griffin of
Better Than Ezra assists on
"Avalanche," forgotten neo-grungesters
Injected rev up the record with the hardest-rocking (and best) song in
"Bar-ba-sol," and
Johnny Rzeznik of
the Goo Goo Dolls, no stranger to reality TV himself, gets a credit on
"Declaration." It's a virtual parade of second and third stringers from the late '90s, all led by
Chris Cornell, who continues his slow march into alt-rock anonymity here with
"Light On," a perfectly fine bland power ballad that strangely finds the
Soundgarden singer trying to write like those who followed in his footsteps.
All these rockers may give
Cook some relative street cred but they're no guarantee for a hit record, something the
AmIdol enterprise desperately needs at this point, so they're paired with certified hitmakers:
Cathy Dennis comes in for
"Heroes," Chantal Kreviazuk teams with
Maida for
"Permanent," and most notably,
Espionage work with
Maloy on his three songs. If
Espionage's work leaves no discernible impact -- there's nothing that sounds remotely similar to
Beyoncé's
"Irreplaceable" or other hits they've penned for
Chris Brown or
Jessica Simpson --
Kerviazuk and
Dennis compensate by gently weaving tried and true commercialisms into their songs, gently pushing
Cook toward a crossover he's already made anyway. He not only is a star thanks to
AmIdol, but he's always been ready to do big, happy, crowd-pleasing grunge-pop, as his self-released 2006 debut,
Analog Heart, proved.
David Cook is remarkably similar to that now-suppressed effort, heavy on crawling, melodic midtempo rockers and power ballads, only given more gloss in its production and writing. All this makes
David Cook remarkably similar to the debut of his
AmIdol forefather,
DAUGHTRY, but where
Chris Daughtry wallows in his stylized amorphous angst,
Cook is a friendly puppy dog, eager to please. This may result in some embarrassing earnest moments -- none too coincidentally, they're almost all enabled by
Maida, including
"Mr. Sensitive," which rolls up the worst traits of
Our Lady Peace and
David Cook in one big blob of goopy glop, and the
Maloy/
Espionage "Life on the Moon" isn't far behind either -- but this enthusiasm makes
David Cook a likable record: he's so happy to be here it's hard not to warm to him at least a little bit. After all, it's hard to be mad at somebody who wants nothing more than to make an album that could be played comfortably between
the Toadies and
Third Eye Blind.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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