Chris Daughtry
How does the debut album from a solo Rock artist reach #2 on the album chart in the first week of its release? Killer lead single that drives the public's appetite for more? Yeah, the best a hot song will take an album the first week out is the Top 20. Try again. Maybe it happens when the lead singer from a supergroup like the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam or U2 releases a solo album. OK, Eddie Vedder with a #1 single might have a shot at the Top 10 but that's about it.
So if the traditional methods won't do the trick, how does it happen?
The original idea for American Idol (based on a British TV show called Idol) was to have a singing competition with the winner having a shot at a pop career - an "iffy" proposition at best. If you could actually manufacture a pop star it would happen far more often than it does. Much to everyone's surprise, a fair number of Idol winners had pop careers. Even select runners-up did well. Over time, singers with Rock leanings made it into the finals. In '05, Bo Bice did serious damage before finally getting tossed. The following year, Chris Daughtry faced a similar fate. But unlike Bice, Daughtry kept bearing down harder each week, building a solid fan base. The point was not to win the competition, a virtually impossibility, but to impress. The inevitable happened in May of '06. Daughtry was voted off the show but he immediately got a job offer… and a good one. Fuel guitarist Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie suggested Daughtry fill their band's vacant singer position (formerly occupied by Brett Scallions). Bell and Abercrombie made their proposal on the syndicated entertainment-news program Extra. Amazingly, Daughtry rejected their overture. A lot of people thought he was crazy. Fuel was a major band. Did the North Carolina native think he could do better? Sure, he was one of the Idol finalists, but he didn't come close to winning the thing (Taylor Hicks did, for all you trivia buffs).
Signed by RCA, Chris fronted the five piece band named Daughtry (yeah, clever name). Their November, '06, effort became the biggest Rock debut, selling over 300,000 copies, since SoundScan began tracking sales fifteen years earlier. The album landed at #2 (behind Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come"). The following week sales dropped by one-half but were still impressive. For a guy who was hoping to be discovered while fronting a bar band, he's done all right.
"Daughtry" opens sounding exactly like what you'd expect had Chris won American Idol - highly polished pop-oriented power ballads. They're effective and Daughtry has the chops to put them over. "It's Not Over" and the appealing "Over You" are a cut above. Once passed the first four songs, the album charts a slightly different course. There's a bit more of an edge. "Crashed" has Creed touches as Daughtry sings about things going up in flames and being like a "runaway train." Slash's presence is felt on "Feels Like Home Tonight." Here Daughtry rises to the challenge letting his vocals soar. He's not about to be overshadowed on his own record. Good for him.
Daughtry certainly has talent and the album amply demonstrates how and why he made it as far as he did given American Idol's anti-Rock bias. But there is nothing exceptional about this album. Everything is professionally executed - the band sounds tight and it's well produced and mixed. Aside from his falsetto (which is pretty good) on "Breakdown" it's what's expected. Maybe that's just being unfair. After all, Daughtry is really a better-than-average bar band singer who, when provided the opportunity, gave it all he had. The same ethic is applied here.