Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Michael Johns

“Don’t Look Down”

1. Here We Go; 2. Bless My Soul
3. Don’t Look Down *
4. Life Is Okay (with Brooke White)
5. Never Coming Back
6. Japan *; 7. A Little Different *
8. Tell Me; 9. Come On Come On
10. Killing Sphere *; 11. Teaching *
12. View From Up Here
13. Don’t Look Down (Acoustic) *
14. You Are Here; 15. Hold On
16. Real Life
17. River Of Life / Don’t Lose Your Head

* Instrumental tracks

Before we start with this week’s CD Spotlight, a quick reminder. This is a big week for fans of former Idols.

Kelly Clarkson’s fourth album, “All I Ever Wanted,” featuring “My Life Would Suck Without You,” comes out Tuesday.

Looks like there will be a 14-track standard CD and a 16-track deluxe version featuring videos as well.

That very same day, album number two from season five Idol champ Taylor Hicks hits stores. It’s called “The Distance” and features 11 tracks, including the single “What’s Right is Right” and, according to the Amazon.com track listing, a duet called “A Woman’s Got to Have It” with Elliott Yamin.

Oh, and before we get down to the business at hand, one other note: Kelly will appear on Idol’s Wednesday results show to perform her latest hit.

Now, on to Michael Johns and “Don’t Look Down.” The soundtrack album was made with collaborators Rye Randa and Jeff Foxworth for a documentary following snowboarder Shaun White’s quest for the gold medal in the men’s halfpipe at the 2006 Olympics. (That’s Shaun, not Michael, on the cover for the benefit of the Idol illiterate).

Remember when Michael Johns sang Aerosmith’s “Dream On” in what turned out to be his Idol swan song? Well, you get a lot of Michael Johns, the rocker, on this album.

Fortunately, this time he’s not trying to match Steven Tyler shriek for shriek. So those disappointed with that Idol performance (me included) are going to be pleasantly surprised by this effort.

The album features 17 tracks. But this being a soundtrack, seven are instrumental. Most of the rest feature Michael on the vocals.

Particularly good are “Come On, Come On,” “You Are Here” and the album closing “River of Life.”

The latter is a song Johns, Randa and Foxworth originally recorded for a documentary called “Ithuteng” about a school dedicated to turning around the lives of students in post-Apartheid South Africa.

The best track by far, though, comes when Michael slows things down to sing “Life Is Okay” with fellow season seven contestant Brooke White.

The album is available for download from both Amazon and iTunes, and “Life Is Okay” was also released as an iTunes single two weeks ago.

You can sample all the songs free — full-length versions, too — on Michael’s MySpace page.

They should impress, not to mention whet your appetite for the Michael’s first post-Idol studio album, due out sometime in May.

UPCOMING IDOL CD RELEASES

March 10: Kelly Clarkson: “All I Ever Wanted”

March 10: Taylor Hicks: “The Distance”

April 7: George Huff, self-titled

May 5: Elliott Yamin, “Fight for Love”

May 19: Ruben Studdard, “Love Is”

June 2: Brooke White: “High Hopes and Heartbreaks.”

Note: Michael Johns announced on a February Idol results show that he plans to release his first CD in mid-May.

RECENT RELEASES

Feb. 3: Melinda Doolittle, self-titled

Melinda’s Reviews:

Miami Herald

Boston Herald

Jan. 20: ”Don’t Look Down,” an independent soundtrack with music written by former Idol contestant Michael Johns, Rye Randa and Jeff Foxworth. Michael does most of the vocals (except on “View from Up Here”.) The soundtrack features “Life is Okay,” a duet featuring Michael with Brooke White.

Jan. 20: Sanjaya Malakar: “Dancing to the Music in My Head,” a five-track EP, released the same day the book “Dancing to the Music in My Head: Memoirs of the People’s Idol” came out.