Vote for the Worst Album Review - Blake Lewis: Audio Day Dream (ADD)

Blake Lewis wants us all to get ADD, his semi-clever abbreviation for his debut album Audio Day Dream. After reviewing Jordin’s album, I was expecting more of the same post-Idol crap. What I found though was a surprisingly consistent and listenable album that is actually much better than the typical contestant fare. That’s not to say the album doesn’t have its problems (we’ll get to those in a bit), but overall, Blake may be the first finalist in the history of the show to actually produce an album that actually flows like a real album.

During his time on Idol, Blake made no apologies for being an 80’s kid. He beatboxed, he synthesized, and he put on his best Cure impression week after week. It seemed that his strengths were his live performance abilities, as his vocal talents are lacking, but he put on a hell of show with varying results. So I approached the album with trepidation, wondering if the one-man show could translate to record. Fortunately, it usually does. Blake’s beatboxing is woven in and out of tracks in a pretty decent fashion. And his interludes between tracks, while sometimes annoying, are varied enough that they’re palatable.

Let’s start with the album’s strong points. First, there really isn’t much filler here. Most of the songs follow along with the 80’s theme and are pretty catchy. The standout track for me is “How Many Words”, which is really the only track that effortlessly combines Blake’s beatboxing and an incredibly well crafted pop song into a potential radio hit. “Gots to Get Her” is incredibly catchy, but it’s mostly due to its reworking of “Puttin On the Ritz” and not really because of the new lyrics. And songs like “Surrender” are good if you ignore the fact that Blake thinks he’s a bigger casanova than he really is. The last few tracks on the album seem like a love letter written to Chris Richardson about how Blake will go to the “End of the World” or go “1000 Miles” for him (cue Caketards spontaneously combusting), but the ballads are actually surprisingly well crafted, albeit a bit generic.

One of the problems with the album is the fact that Blake sees himself as a man who can steal your girl at the club, when in reality he’s an 80’s dork. The album could have been stronger if Blake rid himself of the Justin Timberlake style bragging. The bravado works for Timberlake because girls actually do want him. Also, Blake still seems to be in Idol mode, where he sang songs to the audience as if he was trying to flirt with them for votes. He habitually picked songs that tried to play up the fact that he wanted to go home with the voting audience and be their boyfriend. It was just androgynous enough that he was obviously flirting with tweenage girls and gay men at the same time. Though Idol’s over, Blake still takes the same approach hoping to sell albums, but it doesn’t work as well.

Most of the album’s tracks vary from enjoyable to typical, but a 3 track section had me questioning Blake’s judgment (and my own… for listening to the album). “Whatcha Got 2 Lose” starts amping up the 80’s to a horrifically cheesy peak. Unlike the fun cheese on the rest of the album, the song starts to grate after a while. But it doesn’t truly all fall apart until the worst track, “She’s Makin Me Lose It”. Here, Blake does a third-rate Prince impression and the track is almost unlistenable because it’s so terrible. Throw in a few metallic voices and the song becomes the musical version of a robot being neutered. To finish off the trio of pain, Blake decides to do an interlude called “Bshorty Grabs Mic!” The beatboxing here certainly doesn’t work outside the context of performing on stage like the shorter interludes, though thankfully this track is only about a minute. If you have the option to buy this album minus the above three tracks (iTunes anyone?), you really should consider it.

So is Audio Day Dream groundbreaking? No. But is it a well crafted pop record? Yes. And the one thing I have to hand to Blake is that he made the album he actually wanted to make. It’s a bit cheesy, it’s a bit generic, but so is Blake. It doesn’t take away from the fact that Blake did make a highly enjoyable record. Just don’t play “She’s Makin Me Lose It” around any cats in heat and you should be fine.

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