First Review Of Kris Allen's CD

Kris Allen's CD has been sent off to critics, and if this first review is any indication, Kris getting critical acclaim for this album does not look far off by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm not gonna lie - I was a bit nervous when I saw Thursday night on Twitter that Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald was listening to it for review. He brought out the haterade for Kris towards the end of Idol (did not like Falling Slowly OR She Works Hard For The Money. WTF?!) and was not a happy camper when he beat Adam Lambert for the Idol title.

And as I started to read his review, I started to rage, because he starts it off by bitching about the Idol voting system and then continues by saying that Kris' Tour performances "were the equivalent of invisible ink. Instantly forgettable."

(BTW - talk about talking out of your ass. I looked back at his tour review, and this is what he wrote: "Naturally, it was anticlimactic compared to what had transpired moments before, but in his warm fuzzy and still ambitious way, Kris was likable and helped make this a night of slick musical entertainment you could leave feeling good about.")

But once Cohen established his preference, he let it be known that the album is overall "better than expected. He transcends this critic's expectations and fans should be most satisfied." After taking some swipes at Live Like We're Dying and, to a lesser degree, Can't Stay Away From You and Written All Over My Face, he finally gets to the real praise:

"But Kris finds a workable pop/rock style of his own on the upbeat Kris Allen and its pleasures all come from his songwriting hand. He cowrote most of the album and all of its highlights, like the truly pretty Let It Rain with his skilled piano bed framing the memorable melody and the McCartneyesque-pop buoyancy of Alright With Me, are his. Fine tunes."

(Holycrapidoodles! One of Kris's songs got called McCartney-esque! He got compared to his Idol!)

Cohen also adds this at the end: "Kris Allen starts off with a major hurdle (that opening single) but ultimately winds up as one of the more likable, artistically valid albums from an Idol winner. In fact, song-for-song, Kris easily trumps the weakest Idol champ debuts (David Cook, Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard.) He even comes out ahead of Kelly Clarkson at this stage of his career. Remember, Kelly exploded on her second album, not her overproduced and generic debut."

Wow. This is amazing, especially considering the source. Although I am offended at putting David Cook in the same "weakest Idol champ debuts" sentence as Taylor and Ruben. HDU, Howard Cohen!

Danny Gokey's Debut Single - It's Only

Danny Gokey released his first single "It's Only" this morning on 106.1 in Milwaukee. It's a country ballad written by Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum and produced by Mark Bright. Check it out here or on his MySpace:



First impressions (and I do promise that I did give this a fair listen): Danny sounds different. His usually gruff voice sounds kind of airy here, especially in the beginning. It gets better at the end, but it takes too long to get there. The biggest gripe I have about the song is its structure. There's no chorus, and there's no hook. The song itself reminds me of a hook-less "Jesus Take the Wheel". Danny fans will love it, but what I'm interested in seeing is how country fans receive it.

Kris Allen Live Like We're Dying Music Video

Kris Allen's music video for "Live Like We're Dying" premiered this morning at PopEater.com. The video was directed by Marco Puig. Check it out below:



In an interview with PopEater, Kris said the idea of the video is "I plug in the clock and I'm pulling the big cord through the junkyard and through all these other things and then I plug in the clock and it starts counting down to zero and there's performance stuff in there. I'm playing the guitar and playing the piano and singing, too. In the end when it hits zero, it's kind of like the song, it's like we only have so much time so we gotta do what we want to do." It sounds like he helped come up with the concept. It's a cool video with some great visuals (and I'm not just talking about Kris!).

The Live Like We're Dying single is out on iTunes. I'm not sure when the video goes on sale. Maybe Tuesday?

Idols Included In People's Sexiest Man Alive Issue?

People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive will be announced on November 18, and their website put up a video called "100 Sexy Men in 1 Minute", with a tagline "From Hugh and Idris to Bradley and Taylor, swoon at the hottest of the hot! Can you name them all?"

Spotted amongst the 100 sexy men: Kris Allen, David Cook and Chris Daughtry. So I'm thinking they're all going to be in this issue. Which would explain the new Kris photo shoot that popped up this week. The People video was done before those photos came out.

And that could also explain Kris being featured (with tongue sticking out lol) in the New York Post's story about who should be 2009's Sexiest Man Alive. I thought it was just Jarett Wieselman showing his hearts in his eyes for Kris again, but there may be something to it after all.

Who will be THE sexiest man alive this year? I was thinking Robert Pattinson, but since they seem to skew a little older with their picks, I'm going to guess Bradley Cooper or Gerard Butler.

Kris Allen Video, Full Album To Stream Online

Kris-mas is coming soon for Kris Allen fans. On Friday, Nov. 6, the music video for "Live Like We're Dying" will premiere on Popeater.com. And on Monday, Nov. 9, the full album Kris Allen will stream online, according to MJ's Big Blog. MJ is reporting that it will be at Popeater.com, but it seems more likely that it will be on AOL Music's Full CD Listening Party.

The AOL Listening Party is awesome, btw. This week's CDs to listen to include Carrie Underwood's Play On, The Glee CD, Jason Mraz's live CD Beautiful Mess - Live From Earth, and Foo Fighters' Greatest Hits. Check it out at the link above ... it should be up until Monday when Kris' CD gets put into play!

Michael Slezak from Entertainment Weekly reviewed the 30-second clips from Kris' album. His three favorites (he didn't review the songs we have heard full versions of) were, in order, Bring It Back, I Need To Know and The Truth. I can cosign that.

In other Kris news, he will be presenting the nominees for the People's Choice Awards on Tuesday morning, along with Cat Deeley, Jeff Probst and Sofia Vergara. The People's Choice Awards twitter page will have updates and photos from the press conference.

Kris is going to perform at the Dream Foundation's 8th Annual Celebration Of Dreams in Santa Barbara on Friday. The event is sold out, but we'll keep an eye out for footage after the event.

And if you didn't see these amazing photos of Kris that popped up at Kris-pics.net, sorry for your life. But drop whatever you're doing and check it out.

To keep up with Kris and the other Season 8 Idols' busy schedule, check out this page, which is tracking their appearance and performance schedule.

Danny Gokey To Debut New Single "It's Only" Friday Morning

Country station FM 106.1 in Milwaukee will debut Danny Gokey's new single "It's Only" on Friday morning at 7:15 am CT, per their twitter page. Danny will be interviewed and will introduce the song.

106.1 posted on Facebook that "It's Only" was written by Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum and produced by Mark Bright.

You can listen to the radio station online here: FM1061.com.

Megan Joy Hits The Runway

Megan Joy walked the runway in the Pink Dress Collection show at Rock Fashion Week L.A. last week. This photo was found at ApparelNews.net.

Megan said during the tour that she wants to do it all, and she's well on her way. In addition to the modeling gig, she also recorded some songs. She tweeted: "oh and uh guys..... recorded 3 songs last week. album in the works ALBUM IN THE FRIGGGIN WORKS!!"

She also addressed the Meganoop rumors (again) after she and Anoop Desai were photographed together at a fashion event, tweeting "pss..... me and noopster are NOT engaged in anyway. We are fond of laughing at each other but thats about it :) sorry guys"

Here's video of Megan on the runway at the Pink Dress Collection. You can fast forward to 3:11 to get to her part:

Allison Iraheta CD Details

Entertainment Weekly has the songwriting and producing credits for Allison Iraheta's CD, Just Like You, which will be released on Dec. 1. Allison has one writing credit on the CD - "You Don't Know Me", co-written with Mitch Allan, David Bassett and David Hodges.

Here's the track listing:

1. Friday I’ll Be Over U - Written by Max Martin, Shellback, Savan Kotecha, Tiffany Amber; Produced by Max Martin & Shellback for Maratone Productions)
2. Robot Love - Written by Heather Bright, Warren “Oak” Felder, Johannes Joergensen, Sterling Simms, Gary Glitter, Mike Leander; Produced By “Oak” of the Knightwritaz for NineTimesNine Entertainment & Uncle Josh for DEEKAY
3. Just Like You - Written by Max Martin, Shellback, Savan Kotecha; Produced by Max Martin & Shellback for Maratone Productions
4. Don’t Waste The Pretty - Written by Michael Dennis Smith, Stefanie Ridel, Miriam Nervo, Olivia Nervo; Produced by Howard Benson
5. Scars - Written by Toby Gad, Elyssa James; Produced by Toby Gad
6. Pieces - Written by Daniel James, Leah Haywood, Shelly Pieken; Produced By Dreamlab
7. D Is For Dangerous - Written by Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello, Michael Biancaniello; Produced by Sam Watters & Louis Biancaniello for MzMeriq
8. Holiday - Written by Dave Bassett, Dilana Trudy Smith; Produced by Dave Bassett
9. Still Breathing - Written by Tommy Henriksen, Chioma Eze; Produced by Howard Benson
10. Trouble Is - Written by Ron Aniello, Shelly Pieken, Aimee Proal; Produced by Ron Aniello
11. No One Else - Written by Kara DioGuardi, Greg Wells, Alecia Moore; Produced by Greg Wells
12. Beat Me Up - Written by Kevin Rudolf, Jacob Kasher; Produced by Kevin Rudolf for BAMF Productions
13. You Don’t Know Me - Written by Allison Iraheta, Mitch Allan, David Bassett, David Hodges; Produced by Mitch Allan & David Hodges

"Holiday" is a cover of a song written and recorded by Dilana from Rock Star: Supernova. Thankfully, her songwriting skills have improved immensely since the show, when she wrote the infamous lyric "bring your wine, bring your song, your lotion and your thong". That is no joke.

You can watch Dilana's video for Holiday at EW.com.

A demo of "Trouble Is" can be heard on Aimee Proal's MySpace.

In other Allison news, she has been added to the lineup at the XL'ent Xmas show on Dec. 18 in Orlando. She'll be joining Kris Allen, Jason Castro, The Fray and Leona Lewis.

Adam Lambert CD Details

RCA issued a press release detailing the writers and producers of Adam Lambert's CD, For Your Entertainment. In the press release, Adam is quoted as saying, "I feel so lucky to have been granted true opportunity to work with some of the top producers and writers in popular music. This album is a reflection of their genius and the collaborative energy that they were gracious enough to share with me."

For Your Entertainment - Track Listing:
1. Music Again - Written by Justin Hawkins, Produced by Rob Cavallo
2. For Your Entertainment - Written by Claude Kelly/Dr. Luke, Produced by Dr. Luke
3. Whataya Want From Me - Written by Pink, Max Martin, Johan Shellback; Produced by Max Martin & Johan Shellback
4. Strut - Written by Adam Lambert, Kara DioGuardi, Greg Wells; Produced by Greg
Wells
5. Soaked - Written by Matthew Bellamy (Muse); Produced by Rob Cavallo
6. Sure Fire Winners - Written by David Gamson, Alexander James, Oliver Lieber; Produced by Rob Cavallo
7. A Loaded Smile - Written and Produced by Linda Perry
8. If I Had You - Written by Max Martin, Johan Shellback, Savan Kotecha; Produced by Max Martin & Johan Shellback
9. Pick U Up - Written by Rivers Cuomo, Greg Wells, Adam Lambert; Produceed by Greg
Wells
10. Fever - Written by Lady Gaga, Jeff Bhasker; Produced by Jeff Bhasker
11. Sleepwalker - Written by Ryan Tedder, Aimee Mayo, Chris Lindsey; Produced by Ryan Tedder
12. Aftermath - Written by Adam Lambert, Alisan Porter, Ferras, Ely Rise;
Produced by Howard Benson
13. Broken Open - Written by Greg Wells, Adam Lambert, Evan Bogart; Produced by Greg Wells
Bonus Track:
14. Time For Miracles - Written by Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider; Produced by Rob Cavallo

MTV's Jim Cantiello weighs in on the track snippets with an amsuing video that's part serious music review, part Glambert mocking:

MTV Shows

Latest Kris Allen Radio Interviews

Kris Allen has been hitting the radio interview circuit the last few days.

This morning, he was on KC101.3 in Connecticut. There's an amusing exchange there between the DJ and Kris where they talk about Kris' phrase that he accidentally coined, "kick-awesome":



Q-94 in Richmond also talked to Kris today. He mentioned they're still looking for a place to live (house-hunting, I wonder?) and said they'll be going home for Thanksgiving and that Katy can't cook to save her life. The DJ said that Lady Gaga was putting clips of her hair and paper dolls into her album and asked if Kris would be doing any weird things with his. He said maybe a fingernail (eww). He also talked about pimples, the woman with the huge-ass pic of Adam tattooed on her shoulder, and keeping in touch with the other Idols. He saw Anoop and Matt's tweets about his album. Awww. "That means a lot."



Kris also did an interview this morning with Q107.5 in Memphis. The Mat Kearney track ... sounds like it might not happen, but Kris loves it. I say pitch it for a soundtrack. Or an EP. Or album #2. In other news, Kris and Katy and his drummer and his wife went to Disneyland for Halloween. And back when he was in college, he and his friends went to an abandoned haunted hospital for Halloween. o_O I can totally see Charles doing something to scare the bajeezus out of everyone in there.



Yesterday, Kris chatted with WABB in Mobile, Alabama. They talked about Bigfoot-spotting Kris Allen and country singer Kris Allen (they actually are the same person), the album, and college football. They also addressed "cover-gate", and Kris had a great response: "It's funny that people call it a cover. It's not supposed to be a cover. It's a song that The Script wrote and that was given to us that we felt would be a good transition from the show stuff into the album that comes out. A lot of people do it; a lot of people get songs from other people. It's just funny now with today's technology a lot of people have the Script's version on YouTube. It's weird, man. But it's a good song; it's a really good song, and I was really happy to put it out."



Thanks as always to jtank89 for grabbing these interviews.

SYTYCD6 Music - Top 18

Two of the three tappers on So You Think You Can Dance were shuffled out of the competition this week by the judges, despite Nigel Lythgoe's protestations. Bianca Revels and Phillip Atmore were bounced, leaving Peter Sabasino as the lone tapper in the competition (I don't think I would've predicted him as last tapper standing).

Standout performances this week were Ellenore/Ryan with the Argentine Tango, Karen/Kevin with hip-hop, and Kathryn/Legacy with contemporary. The Argentine Tango was even more impressive considering that Ellenore's dress got caught on her heel for most of her routine, and she never once let it outwardly affect her.

Here are the music links for this episode:

Noelle Marsh/Russell Ferguson – Hip Hop (choreographed by Jamal Sims)
“Move Shake Drop Remix” by DJ Laz, Flo Rida and Casley
iTunes | Amazon.com

Ashleigh DiLello/Jakob Karr – Viennese Waltz (choreographed by Tony Meredith/Melanie LaPatin)
“At Last” by Etta James
iTunes | Amazon.com

Bianca Revels/Victor Smalley – Broadway (choreographed by Tyce Diorio)
“Maybe God is Tryin’ to Tell you Something” from The Color Purple soundtrack

Mollee Gray/Nathan Trasoras – Bollywood (choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan)
“Azeem O Shaan Shahenshah” from the Jodhaa Akbar soundtrack
iTunes | Amazon.com

Channing Cooke/Phillip Attmore – Samba (choreographed by Tony Meredith/Melanie LaPatin)
“Maracatu Funk” by The Samba Squad
iTunes | Amazon.com

Karen Hauer/Kevin Hunte – Hip-Hop (choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon
“Ice Cream Paint Job” by Dorrough
iTunes | Amazon.com

Kathryn McCormick/Legacy – Contemporary (choreographed by Stacey Tookey)
“2 Steps Away” by Patti LaBelle
iTunes | Amazon.com

Pauline Mata/Peter Sabasino – Jazz (choreographed by Wade Robson)
“Little Green Bag” by George Baker Selection
iTunes | Amazon.com

Ellenore Scott/Ryan DiLello – Argentine Tango (choreographed by Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo)
“Violentango” by Astor Piazzolla
iTunes | Amazon.com

Noelle Marsh solo - “For A Reason” by Zhane
iTunes | Amazon.com

Victor Smalley solo - “Navras” from Matrix Revolutions soundtrack
iTunes | Amazon.com

Bianca Revels solo - “Tootsee Roll” by 69 Boyz
iTunes | Amazon.com

Phillip Attmore solo - “Almost Like Being In Love” by Nat King Cole
iTunes | Amazon.com

Bianca's goodbye song - "Never Say Never" by The Fray
iTunes | Amazon.com

Phillip's goodbye song - "Where It Ends" by 16 Frames
iTunes | Amazon.com

Adam Lambert CD Snippets Available

Song snippets are now available for Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment CD at Amazon.co.uk. Since Amazon has been known to pull the snippets after the leaks are spread, here's a YouTube video with the 30-second song samples:



Snap judgment: It's very eclectic, and anyone who is still expecting a rock album is going to be in for a big surprise. My favorite of the new songs is "Aftermath", which Adam co-wrote with his friends Ferras, Alisan Porter and Ely Rise. I also like "Loaded Smile" (another Adam co-write, with Linda Perry) and the Pink song "Whataya Want From Me".

You can pre-order the CD at Amazon.com or buy the Collector's Edition at Adam's website for some extra goodies.

And take the poll and let us know which of the songs is your favorite based on these clips.

Idols On iTunes

Kris Allen's CD is now available for pre-order on iTunes, and it includes a bonus track called "From The Ashes". Jim Cantiello has said that this track is his favorite of the ones he has heard, but he does not know if this is the Mat Kearney co-write. Also unknown is whether or not those with the iTunes pass will receive this track as well. Emails have been sent to iTunes to inquire about that, and I will post here when that info becomes known.
Click here to pre-order Kris Allen

Carrie Underwood's third CD Play On drops today. It's available in stores and online at iTunes and Amazon.com. The "Cowboy Casanova" music video is also available at iTunes.

Carrie is being featured big-time on iTunes, with her first two CDs, Some Hearts and Carnival Ride, on sale for just $7.99. She also has an artist playlist that features David Cook's "Avalanche" (let the Undercooked shipping commence!)

Allison Iraheta's single "Friday I'll Be Over U" is back up on iTunes after being made available a few weeks ago and then mysteriously being yanked.
The single is available at iTunes and Amazon.com.

Kris Allen Photoshoot Video

This was unearthed this a week or so ago, but I didn't feel comfortable posting it on the blog until it officially showed up where it was supposed to show up, and it finally did. Popeater is touting this video as an exclusive behind-the-scenes video, even though everyone's pretty much seen it already (LOL). But it's always worth a second (or 20th) look because Kris looking hot while "Live Like We're Dying" is playing is never a bad thing.

An XL'ent (Idol) Xmas Show

Guitar-happy Idols Kris Allen and Jason Castro will be performing at the Dec. 18 XL'ent Xmas 2009 show at the Orlando House of Blues, hosted by XL 106.7 in Orlando. Also performing are The Fray and Leona Lewis. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday, Nov. 6 at Noon ET at Ticketmaster and House of Blues box office.

Jealous of anyone who gets to attend. That sounds like a great show.

Jason performed live in the studio at the radio station recently. Click here to check out videos and photos.

Kris has a lot of shows lined up the rest of the year. Here's a list of his confirmed upcoming performances (There are other TV appearances planned, but we don't know the dates yet):

Nov. 8 - Live in the Vineyard (Napa, CA)
Nov. 13 - Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (NBC)
Nov. 17 - Good Morning America Concert Series (ABC)
Dec. 1 - 107.9 The End Jingle Ball (Sacramento, CA)
Dec. 4 - 101.9fm THE MIX Miracle Near State Street (Chicago, IL), with The Fray and Colbie Caillat
Dec. 6 - KISS 98.5 Kissmas Bash (Buffalo, NY), with Sean Kingston, Hey Monday, Cobra Starship, Keri Hilson, Jason DeRulo
Dec. 7 - XLO Acoustic XMas (Worcester, MA), with Barenaked Ladies, Ingrid Michaelson, Joshua Radin
Dec. 11 - Z100 Jingle Ball (New York, NY), with Taylor Swift, John Mayer, The Fray, Jordin Sparks and more
Dec. 18 - XL'ent Xmas 2009 (Orlando, FL), with The Fray, Leona Lewis, Jason Castro