David Cook: David Cook

So, for the last 6 years I have never once been interested in the show ‘American Idol’. I’ll admit, I would sit and watch the funny ones in the beginning with the ridiculous contestants who tried out but never anything after that. Now, last February I was at a friend’s house and ‘American Idol’ was on, it was the top 12 contestants all performing Beatles songs. Now – I am a huge Beatles fan (all credit going to my Dad for that one) so I sat down and watched the episode. There were many good performances and certain ones that I was especially impressed. One contestant did a mind blowing performance of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and when he was done I turned to my friend and said, “I think he’s going to win”. Well come the next week it just so happens that I was at a different friend’s house and ‘American Idol’ was on in this house as well and they were doing a second week of Beatles songs. So, of course I sat down a watched and from that point I was pretty much hooked. For those of you who are not familiar with American Idol, each week a contestant gets voted off until a winner is declared. I am very pleased and proud of myself to say that David Cook, the singer of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ won – which means that I was totally right! Now, months after being declared winner, he has released his debut self titled album, David Cook.

Now I know that some see it as unfair that an artist gets a golden record deal with a large fan base ready to buy just by competing on a television show, and although for some cases this may be true, for David Cook, I believe he has earned it every step of the way. David was born in Blue Springs, Missouri and from the time he was a teenager up until going on ‘American Idol’ Dave was in bands and performed as a small time musician. His pre-Idol record, Analog Heart won multiple awards as an independently made record around the Kansas City area. So when competing on ‘American Idol’, he was not a stranger to the music industry (Don’t worry, I’ll get to the album soon I promise). Well, to my excitement David won the completion, yet I knew long before the show was even over that he was going to make it big. While most contestants on ‘American Idol’ sing in the genre of pop, David’s songs all followed the genre of rock n’ roll. One previous contestant, Chris Daughtry (now VERY famous) had been categorized as a rocker, so this was not something new to the show but the way that David arranged and performed his songs (all covers) were just amazing – not to mention his incredible and explosive voice (go youtube David Cook Bille Jean and Eleanor Rigby). So, naturally I was very excited to hear his songs and his album. And I’ll have to say that for me, he did not disappoint. With many songs written by David himself, this album veers away for the stereotypical ‘American Idol’ post winner album.

David Cook features 14 tracks, where 10 of the 14 tracks were either written or co-written by David himself. This album also includes the winning song from the American Idol Songwriting competition, “Time of my Life” which reached a gold record in sales just recently. This album is very strong throughout the entire track list. If you have a taste for some good alternative Rock n’ Roll music then please take a listen to this album. Some would say that his music is to mainstream and although there may be some truth in that I still think that he has his own individuality about his music. When on the show he had a tendency to make his covers into these types of rock ballad songs, and his own songs seem to follow that same mentality. I think a lot of that also has to do with his voice, which is probably one of the best parts about him being an artist. His voice (the tool that one him the crown for American idol) is so overpowering and explosive but at the same it can be soft. His has a certain tone to his voice that it different than most. It has a deep kinda ruffness to it but then when he goes into the higher notes he blasts his vocal cords into an almost scream that is totally on pitch and absolutely mind-blowing.

The track list on David Cook is pretty strong for the most part, with only about 2 or 3 songs that didn’t seem to stick. I really like his songs and the way that he formats them in the writing process. The choruses are so explosive to almost every song and he continually he seems to calm it down a little bit in the bridge. The single for the album, “Light On” (not written by him) is a large intense rock song that features all of the great qualities of David as an atrist. My favorite part of this song is a piano that starts the song off and then comes back in the bridge – it just seems to be the backbone of the song. Other songs that I really enjoyed on this album were “Mr. Sensitive”, “A Daily Anthem”, and “Life on the Moon” (probably one of the more interesting titles). Speaking of interesting, track 6, “Bar-ba-sol” was one that took me by surprise. With hard distorted guitar and a bit of a punk sound to it (and a sick guitar solo), it is definitely the most ROCK song out of the track list. My favorite on the disc came to me as a surprise. The song “Permanent” is a ballad that only features David and the piano, and out of the entire CD this is the one that I’m always going back to. It features his hard rock vocals with just a piano behind him yet he still rocks it as though there was a full band playing. And as the cherry on top, this song features a string orchestra that really helps carry the piano in correlation with David’s voice.

So when American Idol was in the top 7 contestants or something I was saying to my friends who also watched the show “man I don’t care if David Cook wins or not, I’m just excited to get his album once the season is over.” I really did enjoy his music on the show and now that I have his album I am not disappointed. He really has a talent not only in performing but in writing as well. Some people ask me if winning American Idol will affect his career in any way and really, all I can say is I hope not. He seems like he really knows what he’s doing and that he really enjoys it so all I can keep doing what’re doing. When comes to rating, I’ll give David Cook 4.5 out of 5 stars. This album is a fantastic piece of rock music that will hopefully be a good start to a long and successful career for David Cook.