Idol Chatter & Voice Views

And its performance in terms of sales and on the music charts will be fascinating to watch.

Nick will become the first American Idol winner to release his post-show debut after his successor has already been crowned.

He’ll also be the first to release it under the mantle of the Big Machine Label Group.

Can Nick and Scott Borchetta team up to reverse the trend of spiraling sales for releases from American Idol champs?

The debut album from Candice Glover didn’t land until nearly a year after she won Season 12. The result: “Music Speaks” debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 — second worst ever for an album for an Idol winner. And its first-week sales of 19,000 were the lowest ever.

Idol tried the opposite approach with Season 13 winner Caleb Johnson, rushing his debut album just three months after his victory. It made no difference. “Testify” debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 — worst ever for an Idol winner. Its first week sales of 11,000 were even worse.

Now comes “Hurricane,” the pop debut from Nick. Half of the 12 tracks are already available on iTunes. Among the best so far are “Howl at the Moon” (check it out above) and “Get You Home.”

And, of course, it will also include “Beautiful Life,” the Idol coronation song Nick debuted oh so long ago.

You can still pre-order the album — and get an autographed copy of a physical CD and check out all sorts of other bundles — by heading here.

The album title is sorta ironic considering how long it’s taken to arrive, but Nick has repeatedly shown his appreciation for fans’ support on his Facebook page.

“I wanna thank all of my fans for the support,” he wrote over the weekend. “I know this album took some time, but you all stuck by me.”