David Cook should royally thank RCA for booking him the biggest gig in his short post-Idol career. He performed on what was by far the best episode of Saturday Night Live this season. Watch him perform "Light On" and "Declaration" below:
Light On:
Declaration:
Now comes the all important question that every Word Nerd will be asking in the next few days...Why did RCA decide to put out "Light On" over "Declaration"? Hello, was Clive Davis re-hired and put in charge of Sony BMG? What happened?
Oh well, all that matters is he hit it out of the park tonight and with what could be record audiences for the episode, the label will escape scrutiny for the short term just for securing this appearance.
P.S. Cook gets bonus points for shaking Sen. John McCain's hand. Putting politics aside is always a smart idea.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cook's SNL performances
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4 comments:
still can't sing.
I didn’t like Light On before hearing it sung live, and David’s performance of it last night didn’t help me like it any better. Read lot of comments about it being rushed, and his nerves showing… why in the world should singing on SNL make him nervous? He sang in front of more millions of people live each week on Idol - with judges - for months. His prior experience singing in front of smaller audiences while on the bar scene had to have prepared him to acclimate to performing in any environment. No excuses can be made for being nervous. Light On was pitchy as heck, and way too shouty. Declaration was a little better, but not much. The song has a great melody, and hook, but the screaming was way overdone, and the constant turning of the head sideways to reach the high notes was too distracting… David can sing, and it's as if he's trying to make us forget that in his vocal delivery last night. Don’t know how this will shake out, but what I saw was a mediocre performance of two mediocre "rock" songs, sung by a performer much better than the material he has released thus far..
It wasn't the worse I've seen, but neither the show nor David's performance was up to par last night. I found the show itself flat, and the skits save for McCain and Tina Fey a bit boring.
Thought David was trying way to hard to inhabit the persona of a rocker, and the vocals were shouty and strained... I get that he's supposed to be a rocker, and some think good vocals in rock are not that important - if so, then something in the singers' vocal delivery should be so definable, so distinctive that it sets them apart, and people know it's them or their group singing instantly......
David sounds, or plays at sounding too much like Chris Daughtry, or Chris Cornell, and that falls flat in my ears.
Me think that the problem with David Cook is this - He's an overchiever when competing in American Idol.
Athough he does possess a fine (or big) voice - it is not as as distinctive as say his predecessors (Bo Bice and Chris Daughtry). For after several listening, his delviery starts to get stale....
Why he is able to capture the crown? I honestly think that it was the smart choice of songs (through refreshing interpretation of the original styles), his dramatic storyline (his trip to the hospital/his brother's ailment) and the the voting public to prevent a Duughtry-like fiasco.
Obviously he has to step out of the largely 'unreal' American Idol stage and face the real world - which is where his truth mettle is tested. At the end of the day, David Cook is just an average singer - and inferior songs like 'Light On' would just underline this fact... The other song "Declaration" is catchier - but he did not handle it in a captivating manner.
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