★★★★★
Okay, let's forget the American Idol connection for a moment and make a conscious effort to listen to David Cook's sophomore major label release This Loud Morning without prejudice or preconceived notions. After all, Cook wrote and self-produced his indie-debut album Analog Heart before he accidentally became a last minute contestant on the reality talent show. With all biases aside, Cook is an accomplished singer, songwriter, musician, and live performer...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Sound: After winning AI7, David Cook has become a platinum selling artist..songwriter and masterful musician. This Loud Morning, his newly released CD is a masterpiece of musicality soaring vocals and gut wrenching lyrics. TLM is the emotional journey of David's life past American idol... through the loss of his brother... to the end of his Declaration Tour...where his emotional rush ended and he was left "one Quiet Night" to face the emotions "This Loud Morning" would bring...
- www.ultimate-guitar.com
2012-04-12
★★★★★
Life can be hard for an American Idol winner. Whether you're thrown at the wolves (Fantasia, Ruben Studdard) or you quickly realize you're not strong enough to compete against the real stars (the rest of the pack - with an exception made for Kelly Clarkson). Now comes David Cook's sophomore LP, This Loud Morning, produced by Matt Serletic (Matchbox 20), an ambitious attempt at the concept album co-written in part with Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Rzeznik...
- hour.ca
2011-07-04
★★★★★
"American Idol" season seven champ David Cook already scored a
solid hit with his first single, "The Time of My Life," the kind of
sentimental ballad every winner is forced to churn out. Much like
his predecessors' quick-turnaround debuts, Cook's is fairly
generic, but its rock edge is dirtied up with crunching guitars and
the artist's tuneful growl...
- www.billboard.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
If you're expecting Daughtry 2: Post-Grunge Boogaloo, well...you're about right. Cook is clearly built in the guy-lineredmold of that earlier Idol alum, though his debut owes just as much tothe expert hands that craft it, includingproducers Rob Cavallo (Green Day, My Chemical Romance) and Brian Howes (Hinder, Chris Cornell). They give David Cook's clutch of bombastic verse-chorus-verse rockers an impressive melodicsheen, one well suited to Cook's husky, expressivevocals...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
When he reinvented Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" as a dirge, David Cook became the most imaginative American Idol talent to date. But working with his heroes (Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida, Chris Cornell) and Norwegian song doctors Espionage on his Rob Cavallo-produced debut, he leans on his husky howl rather than out-of-the-box songwriting. The Johnny Rzeznik-assisted opener "Declaration" sets the tone — guitars, lots of 'em — and "Light On" has its Soundgarden-like charms, but withou.......
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Last year's baby-faced American Idol winner, like non-winners Bo Bice and Chris Daughtry before him, is the show's idea of a rocker?he even plays guitar. But that doesn't make him rock's idea of a rocker. On Cook's big-label debut, almost every song is a ballad; some are more ballady than others. A few have tasty touches: lush strumming in "Light On," a spacey midsection in "Life on the Moon...
- www.blender.com
2009-05-18