Randomize ME

Tracks:

1. The Other Side Of Down
2. Something ‘Bout Love
3. Elevator
4. Stomping The Roses
5. Who I Am
6. Falling Stars
7. Parachutes And Airplanes
8. Look Around
9. Good Place
10. Complain
11. Things Are Gonna Get Better
12. My Kind Of Perfect

Well, the fans of David Archuleta are certainly excited about the release of his sophomore album ‘The Other Side of Down‘ which is any day now – October 5 actually. Have you pre-ordered your copy yet? Note that the iTunes pre-order features a bonus song The Day After Tomorrow which I’m pretty curious about. For those who wanted a sneak listen before the album release, AOL radio has happily offered a free webstream of the full album.

Okay, before the album review proper, just wanted to say something about the cover. I like it. David Archuleta doesn’t look stiff or awkward (like in his debut cd), in fact, he looks like he’s just having a good laugh and is as relaxed as can be. He’s obviously in a place in his life that he’s very happy about, and I’m glad the photographer captured that feeling.

Now about the album, I’ll cover the good points first. Overall, the album is youthful and earnestly wholesome, and has a positive & uplifting message (I mean, by definition ‘The Other Side of Down’ is ‘Up’, get it?) And although the lyrics can get quirky and a bit silly at times (ex. listen to Elevator), I can appreciate that it was heartfelt, and comes from a very young-at-heart 19 y/o kid who inspite of everything (instant fame, money, divorce) has remained unjaded, happy and open about life. He’s gained enough confidence to take charge of his album this time, writing all but two of the songs (which songs didn’t he write though?). He’s also definitely signalling that he doesn’t want to be a Top 40 pop star, but he’s going more for the poppy but singer-songwriter sound (which I’m assuming is the genre he most appreciates, given his love for Sara Bareilles and A Fine Frenzy).

For me, the titular track Other Side of Down is the most radio friendly of the lot, and I’m not sure why it wasn’t chosen as the lead single. It has a snappy, happy, catchy beat, sounds modern (with some electronica) and yet, has retro elements to it. Something ‘Bout Love (which was the lead single) does have a catchy hook that I liked, if a bit vanilla and safe-sounding. The music video sucked balls though (boring as hell) and now Jive is pretending it never was the radio single, which is instead… Elevator (of the quirky lyrics). Now, I’m probably one of the rare fans who do like this track, but I don’t think it makes for a good radio single. Radio singles need an obviously catchy hook because that’s what ‘catches’ the casual radio listener’s attention & makes a song a hit (well, aside from Payola). Elevator lacks that obvious hook; what it has instead is a whimsical quality to the rhythm of the song (something that you hear frequently from a Sara Bareilles or Mika song), but it takes time to appreciate it. I’m not really expecting this song to hit it big for David, not like Crush did.

My personal favorite track is actually the last one, the ballad My Kind of Perfect. Love it! Love the piano accompaniment, love the smooth tenor of Archuleta’s voice, and love the hopeful message of the song. And I like that Archuleta’s vision of his ‘perfect girl’ just needs to be ‘his’ kind of perfect.

Look Around sounds very different from the rest of the album, almost experimental. I like that it was a fun track, and the liberties that they took in choosing the accompanying instrumentation. There were bleeps! Pretty cute.

As I was saying, it’s good that David gained the confidence to take over a huge part of the song-writing duties, I just wish that Jive had paired him with maybe better co-writers, because the album also definitely needs stronger writing. The other tracks I haven’t mentioned haven’t been mentioned for a simple reason – I found them completely unmemorable, and I can’t say much about them to save my life. I do remember thinking, oh yes, that’s a cool chord or cool melody every now and then, but it wasn’t enough to make the whole song sound interesting and non-generic to me. I remember that Parachutes and Airplanes had some charm in it, but the song made no sense to me. The best thing I can say about Falling Stars is that David’s falsetto is absolutely lovely in it. Who I Am had a great message about taking ownership of oneself, but was otherwise meh. And Stomping the Roses sounded like a generic High School Musical song to me.

Tracks that I did not ‘love’, but other people in my family did like a lot were: Things Are Gonna Get Better where David takes it to church with a choir no less, very GLEE-sounding. Not quite sure it worked for me though, but my sister did like it. And my niece loves Complain, and I do agree that it shows promise; that song has some soul in it, but I’m not likely to be listening to it on repeat.

There’s a part of me that wishes that Jive had reworked Zero Gravity (from that fan EP that David released) and maybe added it as a bonus song or something like that. Total waste of a good song if you ask me.

I’m sure the myriads of David Archuleta fans out there will come out in droves to support this album. David’s voice sounds as strong as ever, very smooth, and I really appreciated the higher register (and the falsettos). I just wish that he had much stronger songs to work with – maybe for his 3rd album, he could have song-writing sessions with his idols Sara and Alison Sudol (or other artists?)

‘The Other Side of Down‘ is available on pre-order for download on Amazon as an MP3 Album ($9.99) or Deluxe version ($12.99), or as an Audio CD ($9.99) while the CD/DVD edition is $12.99. You can also pre-order the album on iTunes ($9.99) or as a Deluxe version ($12.99). The audio CD is also $8.54 on Barnes & Noble.

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