American Idol News

Big Three Album Reviews

January 18th, 2007

Some commentary on the albums I’ve heard so far by last year’s Idols…

Chris Daughtry’s album is as good as you’d expect, but risks sounding all the same. Still, it’s an easy yet rocking listen throughout. I really have to listen more to get a feel for whether any tracks stand out for me.

When we played the CD, I actually sighed when he started signing, and found his voice as good as I expected and recalled. Deb went further, describing Daughtry’s voice as “liquid sex.”

At the same time there is a ticklish uniformity to the songs, there is relief that Chris managed not to get “biced.” My term for overmanaged, overproduced, and overpackaged into forgettable blandness, rather than being allowed to do music that represents you and what your fans expect. Poor Bo. In fact, none of the three discussed here were biced! That’s a major surprise, since one of them was the Idol winner.

Kellie Pickler’s album is a huge surprise to me. Bear in mind that I don’t do country music. Carrie Underwood? No thanks! I did enjoy Pickler in the competition, as much for overall entertainment value as for singing, but I’d never have expected to call her album arguably my favorite between Her, Daughtry and Hicks.

I agree with Sandra Bullock that Kellie should do comedy, and look forward to seeing what her sitcom is like.

Yet she can sing! Her singing is aided by the fact that she can entertain, and was not biced, as I mentioned above. The songs suit her perfectly, and have range. There’s brisk. There’s funny. There’s touching. There’s the obligatory reference to calamari. There’s a nice song addressed to the mother who abandoned her.

I love Kellie Pickler’s album, and I am shocked by that.

But wait! I despised Taylor Hicks during Idol last year. I was baffled by his following. Tellingly, my brother, a musician himself, saw nothing but part of the finale and was shocked to learn that the worst of the male singers he saw had won. He still can’t get over that, and as a non-watcher of Idol, that’s his lasting impression. Ironically, Taylor sometimes reminded me of my brother. Both benefit from having the right songs for their voice and style, which makes them best singing their own material.

Purchasing Taylor’s CD was something we would never have done except in support of Idol blogging.

Surprise! First, it excludes that ridiculous, insipid single they made him perform on Idol and release in the aftermath. Second, the style is Taylor-made, and nothing at all like that earlier single to creep you out.

Plus you don’t have to see Taylor while listening.

Taylor’s music fits in a hard to define or describe niche of soulful pop that I’d not go out of my way to hear, but which can be perfectly good. If people pay attention to his stuff, he could breathe life into that genre. The songs stand out. I have Taylor’s songs in my playlist, mixed with hundreds of others, and I know it’s him the second any of his songs start.

Like Kellie, Taylor managed to be distinctive and varied on this album in a way that Chris missed. It still won’t be for everyone, but it will be for far more of you than you’d expect. And this from a big Hicks detractor.

In short, they are all good. McPhee has quite a challenge, matching them. I can’t imagine liking her CD, but we’ll see what happens. Chris is arguably the best singer of the bunch, but the others compensate through an excellent selection of suitable music in a style appropriate for them.