Lee DeWyze continued the media tour to promote his post-Idol album, “Live It Up,” on Monday by appearing on Today and performing the lead single, “Sweet Serendipity.”
Tuesday, he’ll celebrate the release of the album by appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly.
This is certain: So far, Lee can’t celebrate too much love from music critics.
I’ve read three reviews of “Live It Up” so far (see links below), and none of them are very complimentary. US Magazine calls the album about as “exciting as watching paint dry.”
Ouch.
Give Lee this. He had input on the album. On Today, much was made of the fact that he helped write 10 of the 11 tracks.
“It’s not that I looked down on singing other people’s songs,” Lee said. “I think it was more for me just being a huge part of my album. I wanted to look at it and know I had a lot to do with it.”
Look, folks, it’s not as though this is the first time that’s happened.
Two years ago, David Cook wrote or helped write 10 of the 13 tracks on his debut album, and track number 13 shouldn’t count because it was the Idol coronation tune.
The result: A solid album that went platinum.
One year ago, Kris Allen helped pen nine of the 13 songs on his debut album.
The result: A major disappointment. And the lowest Billboard 200 debut ever for an album from an Idol winner.
Here are the “Live It Up” reviews so far, followed by video of Lee’s performance this morning.
US Magazine: Gives Lee 1.5 stars.
Entertainment Weekly: Gives Lee a C.
Chicago Tribune: Gives Lee 2 stars out of 4.
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10 Comments
Thank you. Yes! And, if you include the kick-@$$ hidden and bonus tracks (Kiss on the Neck, My Last Request, Breathe Tonight), David Cook wrote/co-wrote 13 of 16 tracks on his debut album.
-n
Thank you for clarify this!
Kris’s album was good tho. The sales were underwhelming for an idol cd, but the album was solidly good.
Oh, just a little biased aren’t you? Why have all the good reviews been conveniently left out of your blog? For instance, Newsday, a NON-idol blog, which has much more credibility that those idol bloggers you chose to quote says
“But DeWyze is a scrapper and “Live It Up” (RCA) shows it. He crafted the best post-“Idol” debut since Carrie Underwood by playing to his strengths and knowing where he could fit into the pop landscape….”
You tried to make it look like they were non-Idol bloggers by saying Entertainment weekly, instead of Michael Slezak, whom everyone knows was a Crystal supporter and is very bitter than America chose Lee over his Crystal.
And btw, if you include Lee’s bonus tracks, he wrote 12 of the 13 songs! Better percentage of songs written by Lee than ANY other idol, winner or not.
I’ll look up the Newsday review and include it if I can find a link.
If you know of any others, please pass them along.
The goal is to be all-inclusive, not exclusive … as long as they’re media reviews.
Newsday just tweeted me the link to their mobile app with their review giving Live it Up a B+. I tried the link from my PC and it works. Thanks for posting alternate opinions. I shouldn’t have been so harsh and assumed that you were being biased (slaps own wrist).
@newsday
It’s also avaible on our mobile app: http://bit.ly/ah1UjY
19 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
I’m sorry, but Live It Up, is an amazing album and it has some very great songs, and i’m glad that Lee was involved in the writing process, because the songs are awesome.
Here’s another review that gives Lee 7.8 out of 10 from “The Dam Nation” > However, after listening to the whole record, I think this is a pretty solid stuff. Squarely mainstream, though a bit generic, which was pretty much what I was expecting. Most of the tracks manage to be radio-friendly but more eclectic than I thought, and it’s so much more introspective than most of the albums that’s out there now. It is eclectic yet, at the same time, coherent. http://j.mp/aF0p0w
I like the song by song review included. Pretty much agree with his opinion except I think “A Song About Love” is a 10/10. So much soul in that song, you can feel it and that’s what I truly love about Lee’s music. Take a look at the Walmart Soundcheck video released today. http://soundcheck.walmart.com/lee-dewyze All the songs performed, except Sweet Serendipity, are so much better than the recorded version now that Lee has a band and has had a chance to change them up, like he often does.
Always Acoustic’s review: http://www.alwaysacoustic.com/2010albumreviews/leedewyzeari.html
“The sickest song on Live it Up is the acoustic ballad “A Song About Love.”
No score, per se, but another good narrative review.