A Taste of What David Cook's post-Idol album WON'T Sound Like

After David Cook beat the fix odds to win American Idol this year, two things happened. First, a large number of people began to wonder if perhaps this was the beginning of Idol's return to actually giving a crap about music. Shortly after that (and even before if you knew where to look), material from Cook's self-released solo album and his pre-Idol band Axium found its way onto the internet.

Let's make sure we're all on the same page right now; There's no way in hell that David Cook's next album sounds anything like Axium. Based on his looks and apparent liking for 90s alt. rock music, you'd expect Axium to sound like a mishmash of guilty pleasure rock bands (i.e. Creed, Nickelback, Hinder). That might be the case from the waist up. But from the waist down Cook and Axium have more in common with Avenged Sevenfold than they do Nickelback. If that went over your head, I'm trying to say that Axium has balls. Songs like "Truth is a Gun" are raw, pure rock. There's nothing hiding the growl in Cook's voice, and the guitars are completely unleashed, as only those of a rock and roll band not on FM radio can be. On top of the great, surprisingly refreshing sound, Cook's songwriting isn't half bad, perhaps even better than Chris Daughtry's was during his Absent Element years.

Cook's solo album Analog Heart is a slightly different story. It's still got a sense of urgency and purity lacking in some of Cook's more famous contemporaries, but it's decidedly more uplifting and clean-cut. The closest analogy in terms of songwriting and production would be Collective Soul, both for better and for worse. Still, you have to hand it to David Cook on Analog Heart for writing music that's very nearly radio ready without showing any signs of the jadedness and greed that most of the Active Rock chart shows now (Looking at you, Seether and Puddle of Mudd).

Unfortunately, though, you're not going to hear any of that raw emotion and power and Cook's next solo album. Even though Cook could pick between another solo album or getting back together with Axium, record the album guaranteed him by the Idol win and he'd probably score huge on the Rock charts and possibly get some crossover love, Sony BMG* will NEVER let that fly. No, they're gonna go for the huge prize, meaning you're gonna get something safe, mindless, but frustratingly catchy. Meaning Cook can write all he wants, but odds are the label (and whoever took Clive Davis' place) will play it safe. Reports suggest Ryan Tedder (lead singer for OneRepublic) and Jesse McCartney are helping write the album. I'm guessing that might be one of the better scenarios. Imagine if Daughtry's album was written entirely by the folks who write Clay Aiken's stuff. Yeah. Are you terrified yet?

We saw what happened when Kelly Clarkson wrote decent material only to have the label squash it. David Cook has already proven he can write worth a damn. If Sony BMG* has any sense at all they'll give Cook some free range on this album. If not, then the best thing that can happen to Cook is to have the album tank so he can go it alone again. I hope it doesn't come to that, but then again, that's asking for a record label to employ common sense.

Axium - Truth is a Gun
David Cook - Don't Say A Word
David Cook - Time of My Life [iTunes]

==TJ==

*CORRECTION: As reader Henry was kind enough to point out, Cook signed to RCA, not Sony BMG. My bad. Henry also notes (shortly after calling my writing 'mindless dribble') that Cook has said in interviews that he wants to include some of his older material on the new album. Might be true, but what an artist wants and what a label will give can be two different things. See also: recent albums (and the botched releases thereof) by Kelly Clarkson, Fuel...even Jimmy Eat World. All albums that should have been huge for one reason or another that suffered disappointing sales. Cook can talk about his vision all he wants and I hope he does and I kinda hope I'm wrong, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest someone else will have a hand in David Cook's album.