Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Abi Carter, the Season 22 American Idol, released her debut album, Ghosts in the Backyard, on Friday.

“Ghosts in the Backyard” features 10 songs, three of which Abi previously released as singles, “Peppermint Sky,” “Some People Need Drugs” and “Comfortably Numb.”

Standouts among the seven new tracks include “The Lamppost,” “I Don’t Need Help” and the title track.

The album straddles the line between singer-songwriter and pop and Abi released it independently, meaning she had control over the content.

That’s a drawback in terms of marketing.

That’s a major plus in terms of content.

Had Abi been under label control, here’s betting she would have been pushed in more of a pop direction.

And would have been discouraged from recording an album consistently solely of songs she wrote or co-wrote.

This is also the quickest we’ve gotten an album from an Idol winner since the show moved to ABC.

Now fans will hopefully help spread the news that the music is out.

I’m encouraged by the fact that “Peppermint Sky,” releaseed in July, is approaching 300,000 streams on Spotify.

I’m discouraged by the fact that the superb followup single, “Some People Need Drugs,” has barely more than 50,000.

At midnight Saturday, 24 hours after its release, “Ghosts in the Backyard” was number 34 on Apple Music’s Pop Albums chart.

Writes Abi on Instagram: “I literally cannot put into words how much this album means to me.

“I have wanted to be an artist since as early as I can remember and this day is incredibly monumental for the little girl in me who dreamed of making music one day.

“I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I have loved making it.”