Randomize ME

Tracks:

1. Live It Up (Lee DeWyze, Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins)
2. Sweet Serendipity (Lee DeWyze, David Glass, Jordan Lawhead)
3. It’s Gotta Be Love (Lee DeWyze, Espen Lind, Amund Bjorklund, Claude Kelly)
4. Dear Isabelle (Lee DeWyze, Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins)
5. Beautiful Like You (Thomas Salter, Andy Stochansky)
6. Stay Here (Lee DeWyze, Espen Lind, Amund Bjorklund, Claude Kelly)
7. Me And My Jealousy (Lee DeWyze, John Shanks, Zac Maloy)
8. Brooklyn Bridge (Lee DeWyze, Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins)
9. Weightless (Lee DeWyze, John Shanks, Zac Maloy)
10. Earth Stood Still (Lee DeWyze, Toby Gad, Lindy Robbins)
11. A Song About Love (Lee DeWyze, David Hodges, Michael Busbee)

Okay, I just listened to Season 9 American Idol Winner Lee DeWyze’s post-AI debut album ‘Live It Up‘, and while I can understand why Michael Slezak (EW) called it “generic” on his review, it really isn’t that bad of an Idol album. It’s no worse than David Cook’s post-Idol album for example, and kudos to Lee for being a co-writer for all the tracks save one.

Overall, the album is heavily influenced by Jason Mraz with a bit of John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Coldplay and even Billy Joel. The Jason Mraz sound is especially obvious on tracks like It’s Gotta Be Love with it’s cute breezy chorus or Weightless which has a pretty melody (inspite of the weird lyrics). It’s definitely not a Top40 or pop album, so maybe RCA will be pushing this to HAC or AC. But since they do have to push a single to Top40 radio, I can understand why they ditched Live It Up as the first single for Sweet Serendipity. It is the poppiest track from the album, and has a catchy chorus (that reminds me of Kris Allen’s hit Live Like We’re Dying). The song sounds awful young though - like I can’t help think that someone like David Archuleta should be singing it instead. And I also thought the song blows live which is bad for album promo (ie. Tonight Show live performance) - why’d they think it was a good idea to squeeze so many words into the chorus?

Maybe the Coldplay/ Lifehouse lite track Me and My Jealousy should’ve been the lead single? This sounds more like Lee’s wheelhouse, with it’s raw and honest and emotional message. Another Coldplay-ish song Beautiful Like You could be a single too. It’s a bit too over-processed for my taste, but I can see this playing in the background in a Vampire Diaries montage or something like that.

My personal favorite off the album is Brooklyn Bridge though. Yes, it’s Mraz-ish, but Lee’s raspy tone works really well in this bluesy number. Just the voice and the piano - this should sound good live. My second fave is the very sad and angsty A Song About Love which also showcases Lee’s growly tone very well. If they had stripped it down some more, it would’ve been even better.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember what Stay Here or Earth Stood Still even sounded like, and all I remember from Dear Isabelle is I started humming ‘Hey there Delilah’ and thought it sounded really country-ish, so I’ll just leave it at that.

‘Live It Up‘ will be released November 16, but is available for pre-order on Amazon as an MP3 Album ($9.99) or as an Audio CD ($7.99). You can also pre-order the album on iTunes ($9.99). The audio CD is also $9.68 on Barnes & Noble.

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