Idol Chatter & Voice Views

After all, it’s been well more than a year since the 30-year-old was crowned the Season 14 American Idol champ.

Among the feedback he’s getting on his Facebook page:

* Brigida Salvioli: “Congratulations Nick! It’s (been) a long time coming, but it was worth the wait! Let the celebration begin!”

* Duki Weezi: “Album better than expected I’d rate it a strong B!”

* Jenn Bergstrom: “Only a B? Love every song on this album! A+ from me.”

Fans seem particularly taken with Nick’s new single, “Love Is Blind.” You can check out his performance of that song at the Miss Teen USA competition in the video above.

Now, the big question is: Will enough of those fans buy the album to reverse the trend of declining sales for American Idol winners.

The album’s also getting nothing but five-star reviews on iTunes. But it’s hardly tearing up the iTunes charts.

At 5 a.m., shortly after the album’s midnight release, “Hurricane” was sitting at 28 on the site’s overall album chart and number six on its pop album chart.

At 11 a.m., nearly 12 hours after it’s release, it was down to 29 on the overall chart and still clinging to number six on the pop chart.

We won’t find out how “Hurricane” does on the Billboard 200 for a couple of weeks. The last two American Idol winner releases debuted at number 14 (“Music Speaks” from Candice Glover) and number 24 (“Testify” from Caleb Johnson).

Nick addressed the long wait for his debut album in a recent interview with PopDust.

“If this were about eight or nine years ago with ‘Idol,’ it would have been a huge mistake because the buzz is so crazy from the show,” he said. “At this point, the last few ‘Idol’ albums haven’t done exceptionally great, whether they were rushed out or they took their time with it.

“Basically, we tried to make the best album. Also, I think I’m the first person who wrote the entire album post-show. That definitely made it take a little longer. I had to find the kind of genre I wanted and what the label was cool with. At the end of the day, I’m happy with it. That’s really what’s the most important.”