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6

Not only am I about to admit in intricate detail that I sort of like this album, but there may also be indisputable evidence within this review that I watched American Idol last season. You’ve been forewarned. With that said, no one really seemed to have that big of a problem with the fact that Blake Lewis couldn’t really sing. His mediocre singing voice was far overshadowed by his overall performance on stage and borderline annoying (yet impressive) beat-boxing ability. However, he did an awesome version of “Virtual Insanity,” and that counts for everything.

For his post-Idol debut, (not counting that EP that no one cared about), Audio Day Dream, Blake landed Ryan Tedder, who you may know as the frontman to ‘Timabland Presents’ band OneRepublic. Tedder has been producing Grammy award winning pop songs for a while now, and doesn’t fool around on this record, either. This could have easily been a run-of-the-mill cookie cutter pop/rock album (and in some ways, it is), but for the most part, the record is surprisingly original. All of Blake’s obvious funk and dance influences are present on every track, and include some heavy Prince guitars and Depeche Mode keyboards. There’s also a strong hip hop influence and, of course, there’s a fair share of beat-boxing (which does spill over into the ‘excessive’ category about halfway through the disc).

The opening track “Break Anotha” (the album’s first single) sounds like the song Maroon 5 was trying to write for It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. The same can be said for “Hate 2 Love Her.” One of the best tracks on the album, “Know My Name,” features Lupe Fiasco, and starts up the beat-boxing (not excessive), and then leads into a beat-boxing interlude (excessive). “How Many Words” is the chart topping ballad that no American Idol should be without, while “Surrender” kicks in heavy with those Depeche keyboards mentioned earlier.

The second half of the album isn’t nearly as strong as the first, and Blake and Co. may have been better off cutting 4 tracks or so from the record (16 in all). Everything, including the lyrics, take a bit of a nose-dive towards the end; “I can’t wait/there’s no more time/I’m getting lost inside my mind/And it’s easy to see that I let you slip right through my hands.” Yawn. I also can’t tell if the mini-rap song “BShorty Takes Mic!” is kinda cool or kinda lame. Either way, there’s more beat-boxing, and that brings us to ‘way, way excessive.’ There isn’t as much Justin Timberlake impersonating as originally speculated, and the funkier tracks like “She’s Makin’ Me Lose It” sound like decent Prince songs (which are more than decent for most other people).

Blake Lewis’ greatest alibi may be that he is not your typical Idol finalist, and as long as he teams up with a producer that can keep his feet on the ground (which Tedder sort of accomplishes), he should be OK.