LE DOMAINE BLEU

Citation :Blake Lewis' debut album disappoints

By Andrew Matson

Special to The Seattle Times


Jingle Bell Bash: Blake Lewis appears with the Jonas Brothers, Timbaland, Keri Hilson, OneRepublic, Sebastian, Sean Kingston, Colbie Caillet, Ehpikh; 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Tacoma Dome, 2727 East D St., Tacoma; $25-$106 (206-628-0888; information: www.kiss1061.com, www.tacomadome.org).

Blake Lewis, 26-year-old "American Idol" runner-up and Bothell native, made his name by being unique.

"Remixing" songs midperformance on live TV, Lewis wove a cappella hip-hop sound effects (it's called beatboxing, grandpa/ma) into "Idol"-sanctioned jukebox pop.

An original vocal weapon, Lewis' beat-box also seemed the tip of a deep musical iceberg, a wealth of experience and expertise only revealed in glimpses.

Unfortunately, on his debut recording, "Audio Day Dream" ("ADD"), we're still not getting the rest of the iceberg. The album, which comes out Tuesday, is 16 tracks (55 minutes) of energetic, bubblegum pop.

Lewis' love of hip-hop, drum and bass and trance music appears on "ADD" like faint syrup in a giant Italian soda.

Take lead single "Break Anotha" for example. Two-thirds of the way in, the drummer (Seattle club mainstay Kevin Sawka) kicks into a skittish, booming beat, at once a half- and double-time breakdown. Lewis rides the momentum with stretched-out singing like a character in a "Matrix" fight scene.

But then it's back to the song, which is so slick with cliché dramatics it might have been directed by Michael Bay ("Pearl Harbor" and "Transformers").

The track — like most on "ADD" — is produced by Ryan Tedder, singer for recent MTV sensation OneRepublic. Everything Tedder touches on "ADD" turns to upbeat, no-brow disco, squarely in the center of a Venn diagram that includes Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake and latter-day Cher.

When Tedder falls back, things don't get radically different. Mike Elizondo produces "1000 Miles," a song that combines "Every Breath You Take" with "Time After Time," but the super-sincere ballad is impossible to take seriously. Lewis' voice isn't terribly strong, and when things veer into lyrical cheesiness (which they often do on "ADD"), the song collapses under its own weight.

"ADD's" most serious misstep is the Tedder-produced "Gots To Get Her," a synthetic carnival stomp to the tune of "Puttin' On The Ritz." As would-be camp, it's barely listenable, but "Gots To Get Her" comes across with baffling earnestness.

A notable guest performance comes from Kanye West protégé Lupe Fiasco on "Know My Name." Fiasco's phoned-in rap effortlessly rips Tedder's tame hip-hop beat to shreds, but he's gone as quickly as he came.

Elsewhere, former 'NSYNC member Chris Kirkpatrick (the one with braids) shows up as a background singer, and his presence alone speaks volumes about where Lewis stands artistically.

On "American Idol," Blake Lewis was different from everybody else. He sucker-punched cookie-cutters with a hybrid style. And no question his fondness for intriguing rhythm breakdowns and beatboxing makes for captivating live performances. But "Audio Day Dream" doesn't differentiate him from the herd of MTV mall-pop.

source:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/m ... wis03.html

Citation :Blake Lewis' 'Audio Day Dream' is a wealth of styles

By GENE STOUT
P-I POP MUSIC CRITIC

"American Idol" Blake Lewis and American composer Irving Berlin (who wrote "White Christmas," "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "God Bless America") usually aren't mentioned in the same sentence.

But Lewis' highly anticipated debut album, "Audio Day Dream," which Arista Records releases Tuesday on its 19 Recordings label, features the high-flying, guitar- and horn-driven "Gots To Get Her," a song inspired by the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' on the Ritz."

Lewis, the 26-year-old Redmond native who was a finalist on the sixth season of "American Idol," got permission from Berlin's publishing company to write his own lyrics and add verses. Lewis, the talented beatboxer also known as Bshorty, describes the song as "a roller coaster ride through some Latin-style, old-school jazz."

"I'm the first person in history to change the lyrics to 'Puttin' on the Ritz' and make it my own song," Lewis said in a recent interview from Hollywood, where he was doing interviews and preparing for the release of "Audio Day Dream."

The album's debut single, "Break Anotha," was recorded at Seattle's London Bridge Studio. He's in good company: Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam also have recorded albums there. Other songs were recorded in New York and Los Angeles. In a novel marketing twist, a stream of "Break Anotha" was released directly to fans by phone via the new social networking service SayNow on the same day it was released to radio.

Lewis worked with nearly a dozen producers and co-writers, among them David Hodges, Mike Elizondo, S*A*M* and Sluggo, Sean Hurley, BT, J.R. Rotem, Sam Watters and OneRepublic's Ryan "Alias" Tedder. Guest artists include Lupe Fiasco (featured on "Know My Name") and fellow "Idol" finalist Chris Richardson. Presiding over the recording project was industry mogul Clive Davis, chairman and chief executive officer of BMG Label Group.

"Audio Day Dream" (ADD) offers a whirlwind of styles: hip-hop, rock, pop, funk, soul and R&B, with an abundance of special effects. Lewis compares the amalgam of retro styles to a 1980s mix tape. He came up with the album's dramatic cover design of his face and profile, as well as a mini-poster inside that shows him surfing through a surreal, mountainous landscape.

Attention deficit disorder is an intentional motif in the album. "People thought I had ADD growing up," Lewis remembers.

He grew up in Bothell and Kenmore. Long before he became a star on "American Idol," he was playing at such Fremont clubs as ToST and Nectar Lounge. The record label isn't paying for a Seattle release party, so Lewis will try to put together his own show in the next week or two at one of his favorite clubs.

In the meantime, Lewis will join the lineup for the KISS 106.1 FM Jingle Bell Bash Tuesday at the Tacoma Dome (he also co-hosts a pre-concert show with Marcus D airing at 2 p.m.). Jingle Bell Bash features the Jonas Brothers, Timbaland (with special guests Keri Hilson, OneRepublic and Sebastian), Sean Kingston, Colbie Caillat and Ehpikh.

Over the phone, the personable, well-mannered beatboxer who calls Seattle home was passionate about his music and career -- and about the local music scene that supported him before "American Idol."

P-I: "Audio Day Dream" seems to be loaded with potential hits, from ballads to hip-hop songs. Are your expectations high?

Lewis: "I got to make the album I've always wanted. That's huge. I set high goals for myself. I don't tell anyone what they are. I'll tell them once I've reached them. I've done that my whole entire life. I put myself out in the universe, I put myself out there in a positive way."

After "Break Anotha," how will you decide which songs to release as singles?

"I definitely want singles that best represent me. I'm not going to say which one, but there's a song that I didn't necessarily want on the record. But I know the label people love it, and you have to deal with the corporate stuff at a major label."

Fellow "American Idol" Kelly Clarkson ran into trouble last summer when she refused label head Davis' offer of $10 million to delete five tracks and replace them with songs he would handpick. Did Davis ask for any changes on your album?

"On one song, he said, 'You should change this bridge because it doesn't sound like you.' He was right on a lot of things. And we compromised on a couple of things, but that's about it. He really didn't touch the record. He was just so into it. Which is huge because my whole dream was to be signed by Clive Davis, so I wasn't going to mess that up."

You recorded at studios in Seattle, New York and L.A. How many altogether?

"Oh, gosh, I couldn't tell you. For this album alone, I probably recorded in 20 different studios."

Why so many?

"I didn't want to do this album with just one producer. I'm so influenced by different people. And I wanted to get the best people. I worked with BT (a revered "trance" composer who has worked with the likes of Britney Spears, Tori Amos and David Bowie) on two tracks. He's one of my main inspirations ever. And the fact he came to me, to work with me, without knowing that I was even on 'American Idol' is amazing. He knew me as Bshorty. He got my number from a mutual friend."

"Gots To Get Her," inspired by the Irving Berlin song, gives new life to a tune that fans in their teens and 20s may not be familiar with.

"It's a fun track. I was very honored that the Berlin family let me do it. People have recorded the song so many times, but no one has changed the words. We don't get the publishing rights, but we got to have this piece of music on this record, which was huge to us. We put our egos aside."

Have you noticed increased interest in beatboxing since "American Idol"?

"I think so, with my fans at least. I see 5-year-olds with their moms and dads coming up to show me what they can do. It's awesome because they know what it is now. I think in the next 10 years you're going to see an increase in younger people who are killer beatboxers. I just hope they take the time to research it and check out these amazing people who inspired me. There are these amazing guys and girls in Europe, where it's such a respected art form. There are like 18-year-olds who could school me in beatboxing."

What's your perspective on "American Idol" now that it's behind you?

" 'American Idol' was great. I was scared in the beginning because I had never seen it before, and I was afraid it would take my artistic integrity out of the mix. But it did the opposite. I was forced to do other people's music, but I didn't mind because I just made it my own, arranged it myself and I had a lot of fun with it. I didn't take it seriously because I'm not a competitive person. I'm down to create. It launched my career out into the universe. What I want to do now is create music that I'm passionate about."

CD REVIEW

BLAKE LEWIS -- AUDIO DAY DREAM (19 Recordings/ Arista Records)

Bshorty's got a bombshell.

In one of the most anticipated album debuts of the season, the 26-year-old Bothell beatboxer who became a finalist on the sixth season of "American Idol" has pulled together a who's who of co-writers and producers. Executive producer was BMG label chief Clive Davis, who apparently didn't mess with the explosive blend of styles and special effects.

Aside from the debut single, the electro-funk tune "Break Anotha" (recorded at Seattle's London Bridge Studio), the album features several romantic power ballads sure to please the Coldplay crowd, as well as a bundle of frenzied tunes blending R&B, hip-hop, funk, soul, pop and rock. Fiasco, Lewis' own idol, is featured on the engaging hip-hop song "Know My Name." "Talk box" provides vocal effects (a la Roger Troutman of Zapp Band fame) on a powerful collaboration with Richardson, "What'cha Got 2 Lose?" And "Gots To Get Her" is a fascinating take on Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz," with original lyrics and additional verses that add relevance for young listeners.

"Audio Day Dream" suffers from excessive use of special effects and electronic gimmicks, but the promising album is likely to produce several hits, taking Bshorty's career to new heights.

-- Gene Stout

source:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/341872_blake03.html

Citation :last updated: December 05, 2007 04:44:00 PM


AUDIO DAY DREAM. Blake Lewis gets a bit lost in the big pop machine. Grade: B-minus.

Blake Lewis' debut is like the hair on his well-coiffed head - shiny, stylish and meticulously assembled.

"Audio Day Dream" (RCA), despite its name, is painstakingly planned, as thoroughly thought out as a skyscraper and, generally, just as sturdy. Its foundation is the blue-eyed soul that propelled Lewis to the runner-up position on the last "American Idol" - equal parts Maroon 5 pop and Robin Thickesque R&B, with some of Justin Timberlake's more boy-bandish moments thrown in.

At his best, like with the infectious "My Hello," Lewis is pure pop star, especially when his voice drops to his lower register. He also does well with the first single "Break Anotha" and the playful "Know My Name," which features Lupe Fiasco.

Unfortunately, those songs only point out how there's not enough playfulness on the rest of "Audio Day Dream." Lewis' free-form beatboxing appears on only a handful of songs and the skit featuring his alter ego B Shorty falls flat, as do a bunch of the more generic love songs, mainly co-written with One Republic's Ryan Tedder.

He sounds too tightly wound, like he's more driven by a fear of failure than a quest for musical greatness. It's an understandable problem considering the pressure of delivering the album on time, but a little more daring and a lot more dreaming could have made "Audio Day Dream" so much better.

source:
http://www.modbee.com/2047/story/143548.html

Citation :Blake Lewis makes CD debut
By RYAN PEARSON AP Entertainment Writer
Article Launched: 12/04/2007 05:40:22 AM PST

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—Blake Lewis checked an e-mail on his iPhone and gasped.

"Rough cut of the video!" he announced, and quickly a half-dozen 19 Entertainment employees gathered around a computer screen at the "American Idol" production company's slick offices above Sunset Boulevard.

Lewis watched himself singing in front of a wavy purplish background in the clip for "Break Anotha," the uptempo first single from his first album. "It's good!" somebody volunteered after the video played a second time.

"For a rough draft," Lewis muttered. "The effects could be more stylized at the beginning."

No, the 26-year-old beatboxer from Seattle is not another just-happy-to-be-here "American Idol" finalist. Given a long-awaited shot at a major label album release with his second-place finish (Jordin Sparks was the winner), he's trying to exercise as much artistic control as possible in the Simon Fuller-created machine.

He co-wrote all but one song on "Audio Day Dream," out Tuesday on Arista Records, and is already plotting a remix album to add hip-hop and electronica flavors that he favors but wasn't able to include.

"I just call myself a communicator. And all's I wanna do is communicate my art," he told The Associated Press. "And now with this album, I get to communicate myself wholeheartedly without any hiccups or speed bumps, like 'American Idol' has, you know?" Here, he dryly affects a TV announcer voice: "Theme weeks!"

Lewis
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got an early start on the love-hate relationship that "Idol" alumnus like Kelly Clarkson have had with the show and their post-"Idol" handlers.

The hate part, in fact, began before he considered auditioning. He found the singing contest flipping through channels several years ago and could only watch a few seconds of painfully off-tune crooning.

"I saw this, people that cannot perform, they're just standing there singing. The camera's zooming in and out and stuff. I'm like, 'Cool, the cameras are doing their job,'" Lewis told The Associated Press. "What's the artist doing? What's this dude who's been singing karaoke his whole life doing on this television show? So I turned it off immediately. I was disgusted. And I never watched it since."

Lewis beatboxed and sang for a living for more than four years after graduating from high school. When no record deal materialized, he began working construction to support his music habit. An only child, he converted his father's barn into a $30,000 studio, caulking windows and doing metal fabrication to pay off the loan. Under the name Bshorty, he looped his beatboxing and sang at regular weekday gigs at local venues.

Which brings us to the love part of his relationship with the show. In September 2006, a day after playing a show at the Triple Door club in downtown Seattle, he tried out for "Idol" at the urging of a friend. Lewis realized he could sell himself to 20 million to 30 million people every week. That potential audience was too tempting to pass up.

"The machine of 'American Idol' was great for me, because it was just too much fun for me," he said.

Like other musically experienced contestants (think Chris Daughtry), he made the show work for him—not the other way around.

"Idol" music director Rickey Minor said Lewis was more involved in creating his own take on the music than any other contestant Minor had worked with.

"He may not have been the most talented, but he was definitely the most progressive," Minor said. "His approach and his vision for what he wanted to project was clear from the start."

On "Audio Day Dream," Lewis has created 16 tracks of what he calls "electro-break funky soul pop music." To get there, he enlisted the aid of hitmaker JR Rotem (on "What'cha Got 2 Lose?"), Fiona Apple collaborator Mike Elizondo (on "1,000 Miles") and Timbaland protege Ryan Tedder, frontman in the rock band OneRepublic. The album was recorded largely while Lewis was on the road this summer with the "Idol" tour, which he called "tedious and long."

"Gots To Get Her" is Lewis' most ready-for-radio next single, borrowing and reforming Irving Berlin's "Puttin on the Ritz" melody to craft embarrassingly effective fluff.

The urban flavor seen in his "Idol" back-and-forth with Doug E. Fresh is in short supply on the CD. There's just one guest rapper, Lupe Fiasco, on the celebrity crush tune "Know My Name."

"I was hoping for more hip-hop flair. It comes down to the time thing and the release date," Lewis said. "I didn't get as much beatboxing on there as I wanted to. You know, next record. Me and Doug E. were trying to get together and get maybe Black Thought, Talib or Mos Def. I wanted to do like a cipher track."

Whether or not he gets to make that next record, Lewis feels he already has one leg up on fellow "Idol" alumnus, some of whom have disappeared from the pop scene after disappointing first-album sales.

"They didn't get to do their own album," he said. "They didn't write any of their own music. And a lot of people didn't really want mainstream success. Like Taylor Hicks, I don't think he really wanted success at all even though he got first on 'American Idol.' Katharine McPhee didn't get to make the album she wants."

Of "Audio Day Dream," he says: "I made the album I wanted to make. ... I put all this hard work and creativity into this one piece. It was the right album at its time."

source:
http://www.mercurynews.com/celebrities/ ... ck_check=1

Citation :Blake Lewis' debut a hip transplant

Tuesday, December 4th 2007, 4:00 AM
Blake Lewis (l.) worked with hot singer/producer Ryan Tedder on 'Audio Day Dream.'

Blake Lewis (l.) worked with hot singer/producer Ryan Tedder on 'Audio Day Dream.'

BLAKE LEWIS. AUDIO DAY DREAM. (Arista)

Is it possible? Has "American Idol" finally spawned a singer whose debut CD you could almost call hip?

Blake Lewis, this year's first runner-up (also known as "that guy who does the annoying human beat-box trick"), has actually come up with an album, "Audio Day Dream," that works perfectly as pop, but which also has a sense of - gasp! - edge.

To pull this off, Lewis found an ideal ally. Much of the CD is produced and co-written by Ryan (Alias) Tedder, he of the hot band Onerepublic. In the last few months, Tedder's group has exploded with a single ("Apologize") that hit No. 1 on Billboard's Pop 100 Song Chart. The band's debut CD, "Dreaming Out Loud," came out last week, with the cachet of a release on Timbaland's imprint.

Together, Tedder and Lewis (with help from others) came up with a strikingly tight, clever and complex sound for this CD. It's dense with cunning little sound effects: synthetic whooshes, bleats and blips, buttressing Lewis' beat-box hiccups and burps. Tedder whipped them all into a rich kaleidoscope of sound, cramming the songs with hooks in every cranny.

Don't worry. There's plenty of melody to balance it out. Genre-wise, the guys drew on funk, synth-pop and hip-hop, with the most blatant role models being Maroon 5. Some songs - the single "Break Anotha" or "Hate 2 Love Her," specifically - could as easily be Maroon, only they're better than anything that woeful band ever released, and they're unblemished by the pinched whine of Maroon's Adam Levine.

There's also far more '80s synth-pop in this album's mix, with many of the electronic instruments seeming to date directly from the period. "Surrender" has the dark synths of old Depeche Mode, but with a modern teen-pop sheen.

"How Many Words" could have been an Erasure ballad, a reference enhanced by Lewis' vocal resemblance to that group's Andy Bell.

In this context, Lewis' hip-hop effects no longer sound like a gimmick, as they did on "Idol." They're well integrated into the jumpy, snapping mix. Lewis even pulls off a credible impersonation of Prince's falsetto in "She's Making Me Lose It."

The singer has made sure to retain the clean-scrubbed character demanded by "Idol." You could still take this voice home to mother.

At the same time, Lewis has hit on the most distinctive sound ever to come from an "Idol" star. As a result, not only has he bested the new CD by the singer who beat him out this year (Jordin Sparks), he also came up with the best album by any "Idol" alum yet.

source:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... plant.html

Citation :Review: Blake Lewis' 'Audio Day Dream'
Blake Lewis

Blake Lewis delivers a restless debut album, 'Audio Day Dream.'

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS
   December 4, 2007


Blake Lewis' debut is like the hair on his well-coiffed head - shiny, stylish and meticulously assembled.

"Audio Day Dream" (RCA), despite its name, is painstakingly planned, as thoroughly thought out as a skyscraper and, generally, just as sturdy. Its foundation is the blue-eyed soul that propelled Lewis to the runner-up position on the last "American Idol" - equal parts Maroon 5 pop and Robin Thickesque R&B, with some of Justin Timberlake's more boy-bandish moments thrown in.

At his best, like with the infectious "My Hello," Lewis is pure pop star, especially when his voice drops to his lower register. He also does well with the first single "Break Anotha" and the playful "Know My Name," which features Lupe Fiasco.

Unfortunately, those songs only point out how there's not enough playfulness on the rest of "Audio Day Dream." Lewis' free-form beatboxing appears on only a handful of songs and the skit featuring his alter ego B Shorty falls flat, as do a bunch of the more generic love songs, mainly co-written with One Republic's Ryan Tedder.

He sounds too tightly wound, like he's more driven by a fear of failure than a quest for musical greatness. It's an understandable problem considering the pressure of delivering the album on time, but a little more daring and a lot more dreaming could have made "Audio Day Dream" so much better.

AUDIO DAY DREAM. Blake Lewis gets a bit lost in the big pop machine. In stores Tuesday. Grade: B-.

source:
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/mu ... 734.column

--Message edité par félix le 2007-12-05 23:32:00--

Citation :
Posted on Wed, Dec. 05, 2007

Recycled sounds
'Idol' runner-up treads familiar ground with his debut CD

By PRESTON JONES
Star-Telegram staff writer


Is 2007 the year pop eats itself?

With a generation of clueless young consumers downloading derivative singles at a steady clip and a slew of pale imitators cannibalizing and recycling vintage sounds for such singles, the last 12 months have been an excruciatingly long and agonizing exercise in mediocrity.

As the music industry limps into December (you'll notice that any releases of interest have mostly been pushed ahead to February, leaving the last month of the year more barren than usual), American Idol offers up its latest focus-group spawn, almost cruelly positioned as a reminder of the impending seventh season, due to begin -- shudder -- Jan. 15.

Affable Seattle native Blake Lewis, last season's runner-up to Jordin Sparks' toothy choirgirl, made tweenage girls' hearts swoon with his carefully streaked coif and dippy sense of humor. His full-length debut, the overstuffed Audio Day Dream, dwells primarily in the shadow of Justin Timberlake, an artist who has successfully swiped styles and sounds from his musical forefathers and parlayed it into near-global domination.

Lewis doesn't stop there: He cribs freely from Keane, Maroon 5, 311, Erasure and a half-dozen old-school rappers without managing to improve on any of 'em. There's hardly anything original here, except perhaps the naked audacity with which Lewis recycles the past. For being such a breath of fresh Idol air, he's awfully stale.

Whatever originality and daring the press materials claim are drowned out by the proto-Timberlake vocal tics, the relentless production style and unshakable sense of pandering. Those '80s-tipped beats aren't fresh, folks; have you ignored the songs in heavy rotation for the last 36 months?

Audio Day Dream does have its spastic charms -- the catchy Break Anotha, a puffed-up piece of dancefloor pap, contrasts nicely with the almost mournful How Many Words -- but the restless hipster posturing and compulsive need to tack bits of Lewis' trademark beat-boxing onto the ends of songs become wearisome.

Dubbed an "electro-funk-soul-pop" hybrid by Lewis himself, Audio Day Dream is very much less than the sum of its parts, a lumbering Frankenstein of an album that will appeal to those who are blithely unaware of any music created pre-Facebook.

Download this: How Many Words

Blake Lewis

Audio Day Dream

** 2 of 5 stars


source:
http://www.star-telegram.com/408/story/342324.html

--Message edité par félix le 2007-12-05 23:37:53--

Citation :Second is the best: Idol contestant releases debut album
By: Joe Stahl, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: Arts & Living




Season six "American Idol" runner-up Blake Lewis is making his attempt to get back in the game by releasing a solo debut Dec. 4, "Audio Day Dream." If it is a matter of competition, Lewis has some fighting to do to reach the level of success of Idol champ Jordin Sparks.

Sparks is doing quite well for herself with a new album out. Not only is her self-titled debut album succeeding in sales, reaching Number 22 on the "Billboard Top 200"; ruthless critics are also enjoying Ms. Sparks. Rolling Stone made Sparks' album the feature review, giving it three stars. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a gracious B+ rating, even without the help of legendary Clive Davis, who has been involved in shaping Idol contestants' careers in the past.

After the hype of season six and the moneymaking "American Idol Tour," Lewis signed with 19 Recordings/ARISTA Records to finally continue the solo career the show laid out for him. The finale song for Sparks and Lewis was a typical Clive Davis ballad, clearly written for a big voice, much like Sparks'. After the two performed, it was obvious to predict the outcome of an already predictable show.

'This Is My Now' is definitely not my style.  It's a song I would never sing if I didn't have to," said Lewis.

Despite the biased show, Lewis' fans are taking him back, making Lewis the most popular artist on "AOL Music" this week. These fans don't have to anxiously wait any longer since his album hit the shelves.

From the reactions of his first single, 'Break Anotha,' it sounds like Lewis is on the right track to mainstream success, emulating a sound heard on Justin Timberlake's album "FutureSex/LoveSounds."

Of course, Lewis does not forget his signature talent for beatboxing made famous on "Idol." In fact, he introduces 'Break Anotha' with the notorious skill. Surprisingly, he doesn't collaborate with the high-profile sensation Timbaland, but teams up with other notable producers like Doug E. Fresh, Gnarls Barkley, Darkchild (Jennifer Lopez, Destiny's Child) and a friend from "Idol" - Chris Richardson, the boyishly good-looking Virginian contestant who made the ladies swoon with his wry falsettos.

With the help of the many collaborators and Lewis' inspirations from bands and artists across the spectrum, ranging from Maroon 5 to Jamiroquai, "Audio Day Dream" is a gumbo album laden with electro-funk beats and atmospheric balladry. With a sound not at all subjective, it's a sure-fire bet to please the ears of an array of music fans.

From the expectations Lewis set for himself when he was a free-spirited artist living in Seattle and as an "American Idol" contestant, Lewis' expectations as an underground and eclectic music maker is as promising as his record company is allowing. Belonging to a record company that has worked with the majority of "Idol" successors can hinder his divergent and risky expectations.

Typically, 19 Recordings/ARTISTA Records artists have had a squeaky-clean image and it's a wonder how much leverage this traditionally prudent record label will give the wild tangent running Blake Lewis.

Recently, 19 Recordings has had to manage the feisty and erratic Amy Winehouse, who has risen to be an international star despite her atypical style and attitude from the other signed artists on 19 Recordings. With an artist like Winehouse, it makes it much more plausible to see an artist like Lewis on 19 Recordings. Lewis said in a press release by the record company that he is satisfied with what was done with "Audio Day Dreams." "This album is exactly how I wanted it to come out," he said.

Looking back in "Idol" history, there have been only three Idol artists that hit it big with album sales. With six seasons, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and Carrie Underwood have proven most successful by selling millions of records. Lewis has the talent to sell a lot of records. He somehow stays true to a current mainstream sound while sustaining his musical style.

It was a risk to closely release the album to competitor Jordin Sparks' newest album. This move could possibly inhibit people from buying his album because of costly CDs. Hopefully Lewis' current popularity will reflect his album sales. If not, then he will be just another "Idol" contestant that falls through the cracks of trying to make it on his own.

source:
http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/med ... r874/news/
2007/12/05/ArtsLiving/Second.Is.The.Best.Idol.Contestant.
Releases.Debut.Album-3132722.shtml

--Message edité par félix le 2007-12-05 23:39:03--

Merci Felix pour toutes ces critiques!! En tout cas moi je l'adore son CD et c'est un de mes CDs préféré!! Je l'écoute non-stop depuis sa sortie!