It has been three years since David Cook won the title of American Idol Season 7. The only achievement David reached was the 1 platinum sales of his 2008 self-title album. Although David keeps having performance around the nation, the new post-idol studio album that fans longing for is still a nowhere. Eventually, on the result show of American Idol season 10 in April, 2011. David performed his new single “The Last Goodbye”, this performance also gave his fans an anticipation of his new album.
Indeed, David Cook disappears too long. Former idols such as Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks would never release new album more than two years. There is only idol like Taylor Hicks who sold ugly and was drop by record label could release another low-sale studio album after three years. Therefore, we have to assume the reason of what delays David. We should know that the artists who are known by such reality show must release albums frequently on the first several years, because every year there will be an American Idol, the attention rate of the former one could be possibly replaced if no new album to draw attention. Honestly, I gradually forget there is a David Cook between Jordin Sparks and Kris Allen. However, as the first rock idol in the history of American Idol, David Cook seems to have sufficient courage to draw the fans’ attention back to him by the second album.
The second studio album This Loud Morning was released on June, 2011. The inspiration of the album came from a certain morning when David wanted to keep sleeping after waking up in order to avoid the loud morning. The first song “Circadian” starts the album with this theme. The song starts with silvery keyboard effect, which gives listeners a feeling of delightfully fresh but a little bit mysterious. After then, David starts the lyrics with a couple of “who’s to say…”, such construct of words provides the meaning of “not willing to obey others”. With the keyboard effect at the beginning, these lyrics also provide a metaphor of “the dream does want to yield the reality”. In face, David himself has said, this song was about to use sleep to run away from reality, to temporally run away from any conflict and unwillingness.
David has said, he did not want to describe this album as “conceptualized”, but in fact, This Loud Morning contains a very deep theme, which is to use dream for redemption. In David’s word, the last song of his album “Rapid Eye Movement” is about to wake up from the dream to the reality. Therefore, we can, from here, assume that from the first song to the last but one song, all of them are about David’s dream. The second song “Right Here, With You” has the lyrics: “If the shy keeps falling/the night keeps calling/I’ll be right here with you”. Maybe such dreamlike scene could only appear in dreamland, and the emotion of David has been expressed in such scene, and delivers to the other. The fourth song “Fade Into Me” expresses the helplessness of reality more explicit, hoping he can disappear from the world with his lover and “watch the world chasing to find us”.
Besides, looking up all the lyrics from This Loud Morning, we may find that the words such as “light”, “night”, “star” and other words related to night were frequently mentioned, and this provides the thick shades to the whole album. Try to imagine that two people are helplessly walking on the grassland which is surrounded by deep shades, looking at the horizon slowly whitens with hazy morning mist rising. Perhaps, all the stories in this album happen here. This is the feeling of disappointing to the reality and chasing truth in dream.
Of course, the last song “Rapid Eye Movement” brings out the theme once again. David wants to depart from the dream, but he finds out he has already be chained by the dream which the story in the dream has already become the reality for David. In this case, he can no longer distinguish the dream from the reality. The last instrument of the song is also a silvery keyboard effect, but with the chord singing “save me, somebody save me, mayday, somebody save me”. From here, maybe you can already, like David, no longer to tell whether yourself is still in a dream. Perhaps you are also shouting “save me”.
From the musical style, David still follows the path of Alternative Rock. Listening from the first place, there is not a big difference between his two albums, instead, the power such as “Declaration” from his first album is missed from this one. This may relate to the dream theme of the album, after all, we can not discuss dream in a hush guitar solo. Thus, for people who love rock music, this album may be lacking in passion for them.
No matter what, David Cook does not disappoint his fans based on this album. For the angle of commercial, this may not be a successful album, but it is indeed so far the most artistic album from David. Focusing on the theme of dream, David Cook talks about extraordinary stories. Just as David said, he wanted to use this album to memorize to past, and hoped everything can stop for a while so that he can have time to think about the past. And all of them, may only happen in dream…
