David Cook; David Cook

On 21st May 2008, The Music Industry formally inducted one of the finest rock artist of all times inmy opinion. David Cook won the seventh season of American Idol by nearly 12 million votes over the 16 year old David Archuleta in one of the most competetive and exciting finale ever witnessed according to many critics.

Cook's self-titled debut album was released on 18th November 2008 and to all those who had witnessed some of his breath taking performances on Idol it was a major sigh of relief. The wait was finally over!

Cook remained true to to his nature by making the album around his comfort zone of alternate rock mainly. The record has a heavy list of stars to it's credit. The likes of John Rzeznik(Goo Goo Dolls frontman), Raine Maida(Our Lady Peace frontman), Chris Cornell and Chantal Kreviazuk. It's no wonder this album is my favorite from a male artist. Cook thouroughly left his fans satsified with the impressive vocals, amazing songs and captivating melodies. The cover is perfect given the hard grunge content of the album but I would have settled for less guy-liner.

The record starts with Decleration which is collaboration with Cook, Raine Maine Maida and John Rzeznik. The song starts of slow with Cook building up to a big chorus with his signature grunge note that is just so David Cook.

The second song off the album is Heroes. It is a personal favorite of mine. It's written Cook, Maida along with Cathy Dennis who has written many songs like 'About You Now' for Sugababes and 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' for Kylie Minogue. The songs gives us a taste of Cook's vunerable pop side but at the same time does justice to his rock styling. The song slows down towards the ends and then goes big again which is my personal favorite moment during the whole song.

'Light On' is the third song and the first single off the album. It is co-written by Chris Cornell and Brain Howes. Cornell was deeply interested in contributing to the album after Cook performed his cover version of 'Billie Jean' during his Idol run and got unanimous praise from the judges. It's good but not as good as compared to some of the other tracks on the album.

"Come Back To Me' is the second single off the record. It's written by the immensely talented song-writing duo Espionage who have previously written Beyonce's world wide hit 'Irreplaceable' and Chris Brown's R&B Chat Topper 'With You'. The track is highly reminiscent of 'Always Be My Baby' but maybe that's just because the theme is same. Cook's vocals do it justice and the grunge signature move once again work superb. It's a master piece.

'Life On The Moon' is the fifth track off the album. It's a collaboration between Cook, Espionage and Zac Malloy. The track sticks to Cook's rock roots but is comparitively more grunge as compared to the others. It's eventful but there is nothing about it that will make you go back and listen to it.

The sixth track 'Bar-ba-sol' was the most anticipated track off the album, it's written by Cook in collaboration with Danny Grady and Dan Dixon. When the track listing was revealed the most discussed song was this partly owing to it's title. There was some stupid joke going about in forums about Cook being inspired from the shaving company under the same name. The track is clearly one of the best from the whle bunch. A real solid power packed rock number that will brings out the best of Cook's vocals. No official video has been released yet!

Raine Maida once again teams with Cook on the seventh track from the record. 'Mr. Sensitive' is another one of the out-standing track from the album. The lyrics are beautiful and the arrangement of cords is simply rocking. It is very grunge even for Cook but he makes it work extremely well.

'Lie' is a personal favorite track of mine. It brings back the same team that created 'Come Back To Me' and 'Life On The Moon'. The theme is indeed extremely unique. It's a complete power ballad that brings out the deep growling rock artist inside of Cook. I'm really hoping that it's released as one of the singles from the album. It's easily the most likeable track off the whole album.

'I Did It For You' once again pairs up Cook and Maida. It starts off smoothly with Cook settling into the mood for the track. The chorus is extremely well arranged as Cook explodes into a regretful state of calling back his lover. It's heart felt and somewhat reminds me of the Aerosmith signature he gave on the producer's choice 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing'. This and the last three songs are some of the best parts of the album as Cook's flexibility as an artist is proved. Bravo!

'Avalanche' is the weakest song off the record. It's a team work product of Cook and Kevin Griffin. There are some beauitful moments when Cook goes into a falsetto for a very brief moment which I had no idea he possessed. It was a nice surprise but the song could have been alot better.

Next comes the best track off the album; 'Permanant'. This track is seriously a work of art, a signature Cook master peice that no one can reproduce to a better or even the same level. It's co-written by Cook, Maida and Kreviazuk. Cook's vocal are worth a standing ovation because of the depth of emotion that can be felt. Cook performed the song during the American Idol Season 8 Finale and clearly it was the best performance of the night.

'My Daily AntheM' is an independent effort of David Cook. The odd lettering in the title is actually a way of dedication to Cook's elder brother Adam Cook who died after an eleven year battle with brain cancer. The lyrics are once again beautiful to the core. This is another favorite of mine as the sincerity of expression is clear and Cook's vocal pack it with a real power punch.

'Time Of My Life' is Cook's coronation song. It is written by Regie Hamm after he won the American Idol Song Writing Contest. Cook performed first time right after he was announced as the winner. It's one of the best coronation song on Idol ever.

The last track from the album is 'Kiss On The Neck'. It's a teamwork product of Cook and Neil Tiemann. It once again puts us back as in the groove that 'Bar-ba-sol' gives off. It's a cool contempary rock track that's definitely a nice ending to the amazing album.

Cook leaves the listener wanting more. After such an epic star-studded debut album, one can only imagine that immense talent that will be bought to the table by his follow-up. For one I'm extremely happy that American Idol finally has a male winner that it can be proud of. Way to go, David!

Copyright © Saad Khan 2009 (Karachi, Pakistan; saadkhalidkhan@gmail.com)