What happened to the Blake Lewis everyone knew and loved from the sixth season of American Idol? Although fans can look forward to hearing his voice for the first time since “Idol” on his sophomore album, it’ll be hard to find him under the pile of over-the-top techno beats, obnoxiously repeated refrains and confusing dance music that make up his latest album Heartbreak on Vinyl.
In his time on “American Idol,” Lewis was a fan favorite. His catchy reworkings of songs and mad beatboxing skills guided the singer all the way to second place. Although he placed second, USA Today reported his version of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” was the biggest-selling track of the season, with 192,000 copies sold.
According to Billboard, Lewis described his new album as “an electro-pop slash real-hip-hop-influenced album.” This odd blending of styles, though ambitious, leads to an abnormal sludge pile of too much techno music and not enough vocal talent. Even worse, the majority of the songs have ridiculously similar techno/dance music beats that are better suited for a European dance club than your average college student’s iPod.
Songs like “Binary Love,” “Freak” and “Left My Baby For You” are dominated by touch tones, beeping and futuristic lyrics — in “Binary Love,” Lewis sings that he is “programmed to make you mine.”
A blast from Blake’s beatboxing past comes through in the song “SuperScratchaVocalisticTurnatableLicious”– but it is not so much a song than it is something you’d hear in the background of a Tony Hawk video game.
However, there are a few outliers. “Heartbreak on Vinyl,” the title track, has a catchy beat and features some cute, yet not clich? lyrics that mourn the death of both record stores and a relationship: “I waited for you at the record shop/ Walked through the door and the record stopped/ Heartbreak on Vinyl was the name of the store/ Now the store is gone and we can’t meet there anymore.” The only other song worth listening to on the album would have to be the record’s first single, “Sad Song,” a song which isn’t exactly deep or meaningful but definitely causes head bobbing and humming of the refrain for the rest of the day.
Overall, this album is lacking variety. Although you might bob your head along to the beats through the whole CD, you will later find yourself with the feeling you have just listened to the same song 13 times while picturing futuristic robots attempting to create music. Although, if you’re intent to buy a CD with 13 odd, techno beats, this might be worth your while. Simon Cowell said it best when he summed up Blake Lewis during his audition, saying Blake was “as good as [he] thinks [he is].”
1 1/2 stars out of 5.
