To sum it up, I think this is why the idols have such bland records. There is no time to think about arrangement so they go for the standard one. Also they might not have access to musicians who can work out the arrangement with them, like a band has. A guitarist in a band would probably know of different interesting ways of displaying his instrument and would contribute. Same for other instruments.

Wow, I’m just seeing this! The funny thing is I agree with almost everything you said, but I still like the album more than you. My attitude is all pop music is formulatic… its all verse, (hopefully) catchy chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, out. The lyrics are universal and relatable, or at least easy to remember and sing along too even if you can’t understand exactly what it means. The key is to find a way to be a bit inventive within the formula, maybe to push its boundaries a bit. But still, if its catchy, well sung, has a bit of personality I’m usually not too mad at it.

To me Cook’s album is like that. It is frustrating in that I think he is quite capable of being creative within the boundaries of what is radio-friendly, and this album is not all that inventive save a few songs. At the same time, I find some of the songs touching and/or fun, his voice sounds good, and some of the stuff is great to sing along too. So to me its a decent pop/rock album with a few great songs and a lot I don’t mind hearing repeatedly. But I have to admit, I am expecting more out of him the next time, for all the reasons you said. There is the potential for a great pop/rock album in him. I want to hear him get closer to that on the next go around.

RCA – please let DC and his band take the reins on the next album!

Sassycatz – ITA, the latest live version of IDIFY is fantastic. More please.

PS – I also love Lie live.

PPS – Saga, a live album would be fantastic, but it doesn’t sound like we’re getting it any more than it seems that DC is ever going to get any publicity in the UK – even David Archuleta has received more of an effort to launch him over here (unsuccessfully as it happens). This, I don’t understand, as Cook fits in well with the kind of US alternative rock bands who do well over here (or at least live Cook does).

Anyhow, crossed fingers that we get more of the live band on album 2.

i agree 100 per cent that the singer can absolutely sell a song ‘“ let’s face it’ ¦ there are lots of songs that if you just went by the lyrics alone read ‘ cheesy’  as heck’ ¦ match them with the right musical arrangement, and the right singer, and you can have a hit’ ¦

Time of My Life, anyone?

What I like least about it is the production. The music arrangement (the instrumental) is very standard. No special guitar or drum background to make the music stand out or emphasize certain parts, it’s just the standard rock comp. And it’s the same all over the record which gives it a very bland feeling. Listen to Muse (or maybe KOL) instrumental arrangement and you’ll see it’s much more varied. I think you can play around a lot with the arrangement, for example letting one guitar do a melodic arrangement with fingerplay and the other lying in the background with the chords.

Thank you for your response.

Actually, many of David Cook’s fans — including myself — agree with this. The album is over-produced. Thank you, Rob Cavallo — NOT. It’s also very polished, negating one of Cook’s greatest assets beyond the voice and that is the gruff, dirtied up delivery. David knows how to style a song to suit himself; how to deliver it. That’s how he won Idol. But — oddly enough — when making the CD, they only concentrated on the fact that David COULD sing a song, not HOW he SHOULD sing it. And they had no time at all to play with it. Look at Light On, for instance. Very, very difficult song to sing, but — so what? — it’s still not a great song for David. And, apparently, Chris Cornell already had that written and just wasn’t using it — probably because he couldn’t sing it. It clearly wasn’t written for David at all and it just doesn’t suit him. Heh. And it sold platinum, so what do I know?

Anyway, even Simon recognized — I know, it’s hard to believe — that a well-rounded, polished Cook is not the best example of his talents. I think it was after Music of the Night? (Or, maybe it was something else.) After DC sang that song on Idol — straight up — Simon said, it’s good, but I don’t like you this way.

Now on to where I don’t agree. I don’t agree that all of David’s CD suffers because of a bland delivery. I think songs like Lie, Avalanche, and Permanent are beautiful ballads that work well on the CD, as they work well off of it. Maybe more could be done instrumentally, I don’t know. (David’s been singing a portion of Lie without any instrumentation at all, and the way he and the band presented Permanent on Idol is different from the CD. Many like the latter version better with the band coming in midway, giving the song some Oomph!) I think Kiss on the Neck and A Daily Anthem work well. All of these songs say “David” more to me and maybe that’s the trick. He wrote or co-wrote these songs. So, they already fit him. He didn’t have to change them to make them fit. The songs that do not work as well for me because of the production and uninventive delivery is Declaration, Heroes, and I Did It For You. However, out on tour they sound great. The way they are performing “I Did It For You” live is a revelation. Totally changed the tempo and feel of the song.

Funny enough, and I may be the only one who thinks this, but I think Bar-ba-sol works better on the CD then off. I like it, but I get more excited when David sings “Kiss on the Neck.”

The way that the group have taken this somewhat workmanlike material and twisted it into great live tracks gives me great hope for the future: the instrumentation and guitar/drum work is just so much better now and gets better almost each time I hear it.

This is why I think David should record a live album of the songs. I also think it’s a smart move for him to have his own band. They sort of becomes his “own” collaborators, people he can work with and feel comfortable with. I also hope David takes some time to think about how he wants his second album produced and what qualities are needed to make the recording good.

That said, the album is fine for me and I enjoy the songs.

The ones where something more interesting is going on certainly stand out: Kiss On The Neck; Permenant; Mr Sensitive (though that is a million times better live from the videos on the net).

The way that the group have taken this somewhat workmanlike material and twisted it into great live tracks gives me great hope for the future: the instrumentation and guitar/drum work is just so much better now and gets better almost each time I hear it. Of course, he was working mainly with session musicians for the album and recording vocals on days off between Idol stops (just like Kris, Adam and every other idol before them). The people in his band now are great and future collaborations should hopefully be much better musically as a result.

I also think that the lyrics will greatly improve when the next album has time to breathe and grow…I love the lyrics on KOTN and there are hints of some good stuff in other songs. I love his lyrics from Axium/Analogue Heart days and also love his knack for taking one path in a song and then twisting it on its head (as in KOTN).

IMO, people who can play at Matt’s level but not read probably have good ears, a good memory and they play a lot.

But knowing theory probably (I’m basing it on my experience with learning second instrument) makes the learning process faster. Not so much experimentation needed. See: Kris, who, according to him, has not been playing piano for that long but can play well enough to rearrange songs on it and not embarrass himself on national tv.

#davidcookrocks is still trending on Twitter after 12 hours. and he’s up to 50,000 followers since joining mid-August

It’s just that Matt not being a pro at reading music makes his creating arrangements the way he does extra impressive.

I don’t want to diss Matt in any way, I think he is very talented, but I also think that for making arrangements and doing songwriting, being able to “read music” (if we mean being able to play after a note sheet) is not as important as knowing chords, different styles and tempos, how the chords relates to a key and so on.

I might be totally wrong, someone with more music knowledge might want to chime in.

saga
My point is that him saying that he doesn’t read music doesnt mean he doesn’t know a lot music theory.

Oh, that totally makes sense. It’s just that Matt not being a pro at reading music makes his creating arrangements the way he does extra impressive. That it comes to him naturally, and what he does know is self taught.

saga
Oh, and about Matt not being able to ‘read music’ , I think that’s total bull (or maybe we misunderstand his meaning).

I think he himself has mentioned in interviews before that while he has like some freaky cool photographic memory for the melodies he plays, he doesn’t read music.

ETA: The only place I could find it directly from him (and not paraphrased by an interviewer) was in his Comcast chat:

Comment From Greta:
Did you ever have any formal vocal training before Idol?

Matt Giraud: No, not really. I was in a jazz group called Gold Company at Western, which was a great group. I still don’t read music, but I’m learning. I just had my first vocal lesson the other day, which was crazy, because I never knew how much I did wrong.

Source: http://www.comcast.net/tv/eyeonidol/66318/idoltop10chat/

saga
Oh, and about Matt not being able to ‘read music’ , I think that’s total bull (or maybe we misunderstand his meaning). He wouldn’t be able to play the way he does if he had no idea how a chord was structured, what chords goes well together and which belongs in a certain key or how to transpose a song to a different key (things a songwriter benefits from knowing).

Why not? There are plenty of musicians who are very good but can’t read. If you play a lot, all the things you’ve mentioned will eventually come. You don’t need to know how to read music to know what sounds good if you have ears for example. It may take longer to learn but it’s not impossible at least not in my experience.

He probably means that he does not know how to follow a sheet pefectly as it was written, with correct note length and such.

May I ask if you like any songs on Cook’s CD? I’m not challenging you. I’m just wondering if you don’t like ‘Lie’  or ‘Kiss on the Neck’  or ‘A Daily Anthem’  or ‘Permanent’  as much as you might not like ‘Come Back to Me’  or ‘I Did for You?’  Are there no songs you like on the album?

Can I sneak in and answer this? I listened through the album since you guys were mentioning it so much and I agree with thruthiness, didn’t like it at all. I have also seen clips of David from his AI season and I thought he was awesome, a great singer and performer, but the album not so much.

Regarding his album, some of the songs are good but some of them lacks melodic verses which makes them a bit repetitious. I don’t know how to explain this well but it’s like this kind of verse is formulaic, does that make sense?

What I like least about it is the production. The music arrangement (the instrumental) is very standard. No special guitar or drum background to make the music stand out or emphasize certain parts, it’s just the standard rock comp. And it’s the same all over the record which gives it a very bland feeling. Listen to Muse (or maybe KOL) instrumental arrangement and you’ll see it’s much more varied. I think you can play around a lot with the arrangement, for example letting one guitar do a melodic arrangement with fingerplay and the other lying in the background with the chords.

Also another part that I hated is that David didn’t vary his vocals either, always starting perfectly on beat. Where did phrasing go? I mean, if he used standard rock instrumentals, why not fuse in some organic accoustic feel by using vocal phrasing and not always start on beat? Drag behind a little sometimes and go ahead on other places. This is what he does live and he does it very well.

To sum it up, I think this is why the idols have such bland records. There is no time to think about arrangement so they go for the standard one. Also they might not have access to musicians who can work out the arrangement with them, like a band has. A guitarist in a band would probably know of different interesting ways of displaying his instrument and would contribute. Same for other instruments.