Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Ever dream of getting a beatbox lesson from former American Idol finalist Blake Lewis?

For $100, it’s yours.

Blake Lewis has announced plans to release his third album in April.

That’s one of the offers Blake is making as part of a Pledge Music campaign to help fund his new album.

Today marked the kickoff of the 72-day campaign, where folks can pre-order a download of the album and qualify for updates on the album-making process for as little as $10.

Now, about the exciting part of this announcement — Blake’s third album.

It’s going to be called “Portrait of a Chameleon” and he plans to release it in April.

Blake says he’s already finished mixing and matching the album and calls it “11 songs of pure magic.”

“I’ve been working on this album for over a year and I couldn’t be any happier with how it sounds,” he writes on his PledgeMusic campaign. “From the very beginning I’ve been working on this project with no outside collaboration (labels) and being influenced only by the music that has inspired me since I started performing.”

The album marks Blake’s first independent release and he calls it his “finest piece of work to date.”

That’s saying something. Since finishing second to Jordin Sparks in Season 6, Blake has released a pair of under-appreciated albums, “Audio Day Dream” in 2007 and “Heartbreak in Vinyl” in 2009.

He’s also raising the prospect that 2014 could be a memorable one in terms of releases from former Idol contestants.

After all, we’ve already gotten fine independent albums from Megan Joy and Elise Testone. And we’re less than two months into the year.