As a contestant on American Idol, Chris Daughtry brought something to the stage that it hadn't really had experience with before that: mainstream, marketable rock. To be sure, Constantine and Bo Bice had mild success on the show before Daughtry, but Bo Bice had too much south in him and Constantine was too odd for any real mainstream success. I wasn't a big fan; his vibrato annoyed me. Still, I enjoyed what he was doing to the show, expanding the judges understanding of what defined an American Idol.
His first album was a shocker to me, because I actually enjoyed it. He had a certain edge and grit to his sound that I prefer over the whining of "rock" bands like Nickelback, and the collaboration with Slash was absolutely fantastic. Daughtry's new album, Leave This Town, is a major letdown. I went in expecting the hard-hitting rock but for the most part all I heard were pop cliches.
The record opens ambitiously, with a throwback to his old rock and roll self on "You Don't Belong". It gave me hope for the rest of the album; even if the rest of the album had been like the opener (and thus, like his previous album) that would have been alright; in this case, a retread would have much preferable to what I got instead. The next song, "No Surprise" (also the first single), launched me into a four song set of pop-rock trash; considering most of those were co-penned by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback fame, I shouldn't have been surprised. Forced lyrics, a less than powerful vocal performance, and substandard guitar work on all four only reaffirmed what I knew by the time I finished the second song: I wouldn't be buying this album.
Then it was on to the roller-coaster section of the album: Up, down, up, down. Songs like "Open Your Eyes" with its acoustic lilt and the the head-banging "Ghost of Me" gave me hope that maybe the rest of the album would be better, but would immediately be followed by a song like "September", which is probably the most forgettable song in the whole album.
Certain songs reminded me of other bands, too, and these are not the comparisons that Daughtry was looking for: "Tennessee Line" revisits an area already seen in the latter half of Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" album, with the violin accompanying a singer reminiscing about the good old days, while "Supernatural" could have passed for a Kelly Clarkson song from the "Breakaway" era.
To distill how I felt about this album down to one sentence: there was no creativity. No new material was introduced, there were no new concepts in the music or the lyrics, and it seemed like a big rip-off of all pop-rock of the last five years. The only redeeming quality about this album was the last song, which was superb. While I was listening to it, I couldn't help but think that this would be one of my personal favorite albums if the whole thing showed this level of creativity. What are the elements that make this a great song that none of the rest of the album has? Meaningful lyrics telling a beautiful story, fantastic guitar work (including an excellent solo near the end), a well-incorporated piano, and a second half that absolutely rocks in the way I was hoping the rest of the album would.
My summary: Don't buy. It's a retread and it's boring. You'd be much better off spending your hard earned money on Brooke White's new album, if you want to hear something innovative.
(Leave This Town - 19 Recordings Ltd. Offensive content: Very mild language, sexual innuendo)
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