Daughtry's 'Leave This Town' leaves much to be desired
Eric R. Danton
The Hartford Courant
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.14.2009
There's no way around it: Daughtry's new album is dumb. Dumb like taking a hit on 19 at the blackjack table, like trying to sell credit-default swaps in 2009, like -- well, you get the picture.
Daughtry himself (first name Chris) is not dumb, not even close. The one-time "American Idol" finalist is very smart in that he has managed to recycle 15 years' worth of angsty hard rock into "Leave This Town" (RCA), an album that is sure to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
It's a collection packed with groaning cliches and calculated banality, and while that's not so different from plenty of music in any era, "Leave This Town" is so formulaic, it could have come from a laboratory at DuPont, where they make plastic.
Right away, Daughtry shows the fellas that he's all man on the overdriven opener "You Don't Belong," yowling out accusations like a lovelorn sixth-grader whose crush is kicking another boy's shins. Oh, but don't ignore the ladies: On the more or less sensitive power ballad "Life After You," he suggests that there is no such thing, while the mournful "September" is pretty much every song you've ever heard about the good old days, leaving town and/or having it all to gain.
If only there were a reflective, mid-tempo tune about the inevitable end of what had been such a powerful love. Oh, wait, there is: "No Surprise." There's even a lure for country fans, with Vince Gill contributing vocals on the mournful, acoustic-ish "Tennessee Line."
For all the eye-rolling lyrical sentiments (brought to you by Daughtry, with help from Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody and others), Daughtry has rounded up a solid group of musicians, collectively also known as Daughtry, to help him realize this dream.
Unfortunately, his dream sounds an awful lot like a compilation of outtakes from all the bands whose influence -- and, not incidentally, commercial successes -- loom large on this record: Creed, Staind, Nickelback, 3 Doors Down. Trouble is, there's nothing interesting about questing for fame and fortune by repeating what others have already done, and the only thing worse than playing dumb is being boring.
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