Turkey Day CD Review-David Cook

Happy Thanksgiving! I figured I'd avoid the turkey coma by posting a CD review on David Cook's debut. Overall great cd, pretty much what you would expect based on his American Idol performances. Lots of low verse, big chorus songs with a very radio friendly sound. Rob Cavallo, of American Idiot fame, produced so he knows how to get some radio friendly music out of his artists.....

Cook and company lined up an all star cast of songwriters including Chris Cornell, Johnny Reznik from the Goo Goo Dolls, Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra and Raine Maida from Our Lady Peace. The first single, Light On, was co-written by Chris Cornell. Great tune and a good choice for the first single. Very radio friendly. I think the best tune on the disc is song 1, Declaration, which Reznik co-wrote. Awesome song and it wouldn't shock me if this upbeat, big chorus, rock song is the second single. Other standouts include Heroes, Life on the Moon, I Did It For You, Avalanche, and Permanent.

Raine Maida seems to be Cook's songwriting partner of choice as he co-wrote 4 of the songs on the disc including the above mentioned standouts Heroes, I Did It For You and Permanent. This isn't surpising as Cook said he is a big Our Lady Peace fan and even sang their hit, Innocent, during one of his Idol performances.

There is one 'hidden track' on the CD after track 12. I think its called Kiss on the Neck. Okay tune but my question is why do artists do this? Just stick the song on the cd with a track # like everything else. I don't want to sit through 6 minutes of silence after a track ends to get to it. If its a throwaway song don't include it and release it as a b-side! Very annoying. This song is okay so I probably won't be listening to it again since its a pain to get to but I figured I'd let you know its on there somewhere.....

Overall, this is a good debut for the first 'rocker' to win AI. First week sales were 280k which is respectable in the era of diminishing CD sales.