David Cook (album)

Untitled

David Cook is the major-label debut album (second overall) from seventh season American Idol winner David Cook. The album was released on November 18, 2008 in the United States. It has produced a top twenty single, "Light On", and has sold approximately 892,000 copies to date. It has sold 920,000+ albums worldwide.

Reception

The album's reception has been generally positive. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a positive review saying, "They give David Cook's clutch of bombastic verse-chorus- verse rockers an impressive melodic sheen, one well suited to Cook's husky, expressive vocals. If anything, the series of booming midtempo anthems (most notable among them "Bar-ba-sol" and "Mr. Sensitive") could use a little sandpapering around the edges." Allmusic concurred writing, "He not only is a star thanks to AmIdol, but he's always been ready to do big, happy, crowd-pleasing grunge-pop, as his self-released 2006 debut, Analog Heart, proved. David Cook is remarkably similar to that now-suppressed effort, heavy on crawling, melodic midtempo rockers and power ballads, only given more gloss in its production and writing."

Billboard said of the album, "Much like his predecessors' quick-turnaround debuts, Cook's is fairly generic, but its rock edge is dirtied up with crunching guitars and the artist's tuneful growl. There are a host of big, anthemic choruses that highlight the power of Cook's voice, namely the soaring "Declaration" and Chris Cornell/Brian Howes-penned "Light On." Elsewhere, Cook exercises his right to rawk with the swaggering, gritty "Bar-ba-sol" and bares his soul alongside a delicate piano and string arrangement on "Permanent." There are some lyrical missteps ("Life on the Moon," which marvels at the titular concept), but as the lone rocker winner of "Idol" to date, Cook stands apart from cookie-cutter pop."

Rolling Stone gave the album an average review commenting on its lack of "out-of-the-box songwriting". Meanwhile, Ken Barnes of USA Today was also subdued in his review, particularly criticizing the production team and the song choices made on the album. Of it, he wrote, "they did him a disservice ... [Cook] has a more supple, versatile voice than Daughtry, and he demonstrated vastly more musical originality than most Idol finalists, but you’d never know it from this collection of formulaic, tune-averse tracks."

Singles

The first single, "Light On", was released to U.S. radio on September 30, 2008. The song sold 109,000 digital downloads in its first week of availability, leading to a #17 debut on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.

"The Time of My Life" (his first feature single as the winner of American Idol) is also featured as a bonus track on the album.

"Declaration" was debuted on November 1, 2008 on Saturday Night Live where David performed with his band. At the Q100 Miracle on Peach Street event David stated that the second single is still uncertain at this time, "We still want to give ‘Light On’ room to breath [sic],” he said.

At HMV stores across Canada, a CD made-up of singles is put to play in stores. "Permanent" is featured among them.

Track listing

#	Title	Length	Writer
1.	"Declaration"	3:13	David Cook, Johnny Rzeznik, Gregg Wattenberg
2.	"Heroes"	3:27	David Cook, Cathy Dennis, Raine Maida
3.	"Light On"	3:49	Chris Cornell, Brian Howes
4.	"Come Back to Me"	4:07	Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, Zac Maloy
5.	"Life on the Moon"	3:38	David Cook, Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, Zac Maloy
6.	"Bar-ba-sol"	4:27	David Cook, Danny Grady, Dan Dixon
7.	"Mr. Sensitive"	3:37	David Cook, Raine Maida
8.	"Lie"	3:49	David Cook, Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, Zac Maloy
9.	"I Did It For You"	3:49	David Cook, Raine Maida
10.	"Avalanche"	4:32	David Cook, Kevin Griffin
11.	"Permanent"	2:56	David Cook, Chantal Kreviazuk, Raine Maida
12.	"A Daily AntheM"	4:23	David Cook
13.	"Kiss on the Neck" (Hidden Track starts 12 minutes into “A Daily AntheM”)	3:17	David Cook, Neal Tiemann
14.	"The Time of My Life" (Bonus Track)	3:36	Regie Hamm
15.	"My Last Request" (iTunes pre-order Bonus track)	3:30	David Cook, Jess Cates and David Hodges
16.	"Breathe Tonight" (Walmart Bonus track)	3:03	David Cook, Sam Hollander, Dave Katz

Chart performance

The album debuted at the number–three spot on the Billboard 200 chart, with sales of 280,000 copies in the United States. The album also broke digital sales records for a debut artist, selling 59,000 electronic copies.

Chart (2008)	Peak Position
U.S. Billboard 200	3
U.S. Top Digital Albums	1
U.S. Top Internet Albums	2
U.S. Billboard Top Rock Albums	2
Canadian Albums Chart	11
Australian iTunes Album Chart	22
U.S. Billboard Comprehensive Albums	3

External links

• Official website