Release Date: 12/4/2007
Recording Date: 12/2007
Tracks: 16
Length: 00:52:39 Hrs
Label: RCA
Type: CD
- Genre/Styles:
- Synthesizer, Vocals, United States of America, Electronic Drums, Teen Pop, Pop Idol
Album Tracks (16)
What the Critics Say
Paula Abdul notoriously labeled Blake Lewis as "the contemporary rebel," a seemingly nonsensical assignation that nevertheless had the ring of truth. Compared to everything else on that turgid sixth season of Idol, Blakewas contemporary and a rebel. Unlike the obligatory soul throwback Melinda Doolittle, Lewis seemed versed in music made after his birth year, and compared to teen queen Jordin Sparks, he was happy to bend (but not break) the rules, beatboxing as often as he sang. It made for OK TV, pushing him to the forefront of a pack that gleaned its only personality through the skin of Antonella Barba and the hair of Sanjaya Malakar. Blake carried a tune better than those two, but not better than Melinda and Jordin. Where he trumped them was the fact that he seemed to have a sense of himself, a musical identity cobbled together from the scrap yard of '80s MTV -- all learned via VH1 Classic and YouTube, naturally, as he was a toddler when the network launched -- that nevertheless seemed fresh when put against the endless Motown versions and Celine Dion on American Idol, and helped justify Abdul's appellation, at least a little bit. What Blake had that the other contestants didn't was musical ideas that came from outside the confines of the show, which was enough to make him interesting on a weekly basis, and it was enough to suggest that he could possibly pull all his thoughts together on his inevitable studio album. That inevitable studio album -- punningly titled Audio Day Dream, whose shorthand is ADD, a too-knowing acknowledgment of Lewis' scattershot attention span -- ranges from the expected beatboxing and new wave fetishism to white-boy soul cribbed from Justin Timberlake and Maroon 5's Adam Levine, prissy schoolboy crooning pitched halfway between Keane and a neutered Morrissey, self-conscious digital effects, and a revamped "Puttin' on the Ritz" as learned from Taco, not Fred Astaire. All 16 tracks on Audio Day Dream fall into one of four categories: stabs at old-school hip-hop, new wave revivalism, shaky club/dance soul, or tremulous Brit crooning. He's a jack of many trades and tries to do everything -- and as it has so much going on, ADD is surely more interesting than almost any other post-Idol effort from a finalist. Interesting as in, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet 2012 (PHOTOS)
Peter Jones Dead: Crowded House Drummer Dies of Brain Cancer at 45
17 of the Riskiest Moves in Music History: The Brave, Crazy and Inspirational
Rihanna Twitter Pictures: See the Singer's Most Shocking Social Media Photo Shares
Wayne Newton Sexual Harassment, Animal Abuse Allegations: Singer Sued Over Home Museum Plans
Van Halen Cancel Summer Tour Dates
Loretta Lynn Three Years Older Than She Claims: Records Show She's 80, Not 77
Jay-Z Pauses Music Career, Janet Jackson Records New LP, Iggy Azalea Flaunts Booty & More
Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez Split? Social Media Moves Lead to Breakup Speculation
David Lee Roth, Postponed Tour Dates: Van Halen 'Getting Along Famously,' Singer Insists in Video