Daughtry

Yeah, it's that American Idol guy. I'm one of those people that tune in each year to see if there is a rocker in the bunch, but Chris was the first one I took an interest in beyond the show and I'm happy to report that he has delivered an outstanding album. That happened in part because so many others also took an interest in him. Slash lends his name and guitar to one track. It's not the best song on the album, but the fact that he showed up should go a long way towards establishing Daughtry's credibility as a player in the rock community. The album was produced and mixed by veterans Howard Benson and Chris Lord Alge who really delivered a perfect sound, and the record company pulled out all the stops when bringing in collaborators to help Chris with these songs. The writing credits read like a who's who of recent recent rock song success -- bringing in heavy hitters who wrote the big singles for Hinder, Kelly Clarkson, Evanescence and Avril Lavine. And I think it paid off in spades. There are several songs that have hit song written all over them, but the nicest surprise for me was when I checked the credits to see who worked on my favorite track, Breakdown, and found that Chris wrote that one by himself. Hopefully that's not a fluke and he's got the kind of talent that will carry him through after the AI spotlight moves on to someone else. For now anyway, this is really a must have cd. --Scott