Grading The Idols' Albums - Daughtry

Posted by Professor Chan on Thursday, April 05, 2007 at 6:13 AM EDT

Grading the Idols Albums - Daughtry

Howdy Class,

Welcome back to another action-packed edition of Grading the Idols' Albums. Today we're getting serious with Chris Daughtry. Or rather, the band Daughtry's eponymous album.

As usual I'm joined by Dean Kyle and Master Freech.

Album: "Daughtry"

Theme: Drippy love ballads sung with alt-rock mopery.

Best Song: "Home" the getting voted off song on Idol this season, or "There and Back Again" which almost achieves basic levels of "rocking out."

Cover: Daughtry, intense and serious with thumbs in pockets. Band-mates are blurry ghosts that lend support to the greatness of Daughtry without drawing any attention away from the seething turmoil of Daughtry's effervescence.

Inside photos: Daughtry looking stoic and serious with his geeky band-mates, thumbs in pockets. Daughtry looking petulent and serious in a stairwell. Daughtry by himself and serious with thumbs in pockets leaning against a wall. And a picture of an anonymous bald-headed guy with a gigantic back "tattoo" that reads: "Daughtry."

First person or entity thanked in the liner notes: "I'd like to thank the following people who have felt compelled to take interest in my career: Andy Waldek, Dan McCarroll, Stevo…"

Kyle: Wait, he didn't thank God?

Professor Chan: I guess not-- Hang on. I was reading page two of the thank you's. Page one reads: "First off, I'd like to thank God for the gift of music and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for being the greatest example of LOVE I know."

Kyle: Fwew! Order is restored to the universe.

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Professor Chan: Does he really have his name tattooed on his shoulders?

Kyle: I hope not.

Professor Chan: Saves him money now that he doesn't have to buy a custom jersey of his favorite team with his name across the back. I don't know, I think it's a fake.

Freech: Why? The guy named his band after himself but he'd draw the line at a tattoo of his name on his back?

Kyle: Nah, that'd be too pretentious.

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Follow along here: http://www.amazon.com/Daughtry/dp/B000IY04RC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0592008-2973749?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1175561390&sr=8-1

Song: 1. It's Not Over

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Nickelback

Sample Lyrics:

"Cause a part of me is dead and in the ground. This love is killing me, But you're the only one. It's not over."

Kyle: Let's see, she's "taken away everything" but he still can't get over her. Dude, she's long gone, moved in with another guy and has two kids but Daughtry STILL insists "It's Not Over." What a wuss. We all know what part of his anatomy is "dead and in the ground" don't we, guys?

Freech: It's not actively offensive. It's comparable to the elevator music of modern rock, though.

Professor Chan: This is attempting to rock, but still not getting there.

Freech: I'm surprised a rocker won American Idol.

Professor Chan: He didn't win. He came in fourth. But he still sold more albums than Taylor, McPhee and Yamin combined. You could tell the AI producers wanted him to win, though.

Kyle: Ooh, guitar solo.

Professor Chan: (checks liner notes) It's some guy named Phil X.

Kyle: The first of many face-melting Phil X solos, I hope.

Profesor Chan: I hope you're being sarcastic.

Kyle: Phil X is a lame rock monicker. It's like they took one of the nerdier first names and added a single letter as a last name, and that's supposed to make him tough. Ooh, Phil X is hard.

Professor Chan: Not as hard as Dexter Q, or Milton Z, though.

Kyle: Don't forget Urkel P, he's a bad mo-fo.

Song: 2. Used To

Pearl Jam Rip-Off Band Daughtry is Aping: Fuel

Sample Lyrics:

"We used to have this figured out; We used to breathe without a doubt."

Kyle: How come he couldn't call it "How we used to be" instead of "Used To"? Is it the same reason it's "Daughtry" instead of Chris Daughtry?

Professor Chan: See, Chris is cost conscious. Now he's saving money by leaving out words on the lyrics sheet as well.

Freech: At least it's grammatically correct.

Professor Chan: But it's so generic it's meaningless.

Freech: This music is so generic. There's no hooks to keep your interest. It's just three minutes of music. It's enough time to take you from the lobby to the 10th floor in an elevator. You can put this CD on and ignore it.

Kyle: No kidding. It's given me some more time to ponder the album cover. Do you think Daughtry has deformed thumbs, and that's why he keeps hiding them in his pockets?

Professor Chan: Moving on...

Song: 3. Home

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Hootie and the Blowfish

Samply Lyrics:

"I'm going to the place where love And feeling good don't ever cost a thing. And the pain you feel's a different kind of pain."

Professor Chan: This is the Idol loser song. When you get voted off the show your whole AI career passes in front of your eyes, to the gloomy strains of "Home."

Kyle: You sure it's not "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"?

Professor Chan: "The pain you feel's a different kind of pain." How can you feel a different kind of pain than pain? It's like he's saying "That pain that you feel..." well you're wrong, you don't feel THAT pain, it's a whole different kind of pain, and buddy, I know pain. Because I'm Daughtry and I'm serious.

Kyle: You could tell me this was any of 50 bands and I'd believe you.

Freech: "The miles are getting longer, it seems." So are these songs.

Kyle: Phil X is playing his 8th-notes, and that's what they call "rocking." Come on, dude pick up the pace. It's not metal unless the guitarist is doing 16th-note arpeggios.

Freech: Go home already, Daughtry and stop singing about it.

Song: 4. Over You

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Live

Sample Lyrics:

"Packed your bags and walked away. There was nothing I could say.

And when you slammed the front door shut, A lot of others opened up."

Professor Chan: Not to be confused with McPhee's "Over It." McPhee had a crush on a dude, but he didn't like her, so she's "Over It." Whereas Chris was digging a girl, but as soon as she left him he discovered he was "Over You." So the two songs are totally different.

Kyle: Once again Daughtry's moaning because some girl left him. Is this a different chick dumping him than on "It's Not Over" because the sentiment is remarkably similar. You left me and you broke my heart, and destroyed my happiness forever but nyah-nyah, I'm totally over you.

Freech: See, AFTER you left me I realized you were a soul-destroying, psycho-whore. I'm so glad it didn't work out, thank you for helping me see that.

Professor Chan: You know, I could see Kelly Clarkson singing this song. Is this another example of 19Entertainment hiring some hack songwriter to intentionally come up with the most banal, generic lyrics possible and the first person that comes along and feels like demeaning themselves by singing them gets to cut an album?

Kyle: Daughtry sounds like a whiny bitch on this album. Way to keep it real, dude.

Freech: Ooh, there was a guitar hook for half a second, but it quickly got lost in the wall of feedback and distortion.

Professor Chan: It's like he's daring us, "Oh, you think this album sucks... Here's even more wussiness! Now how much does it suck, bitch?

Freech: "I should've started running..." when this song came on.

Song: 5. Crashed

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Live, again.

Sample Lyrics:

"Could've been the death of me, But then you breathed your breath in me.

And I crashed into you, Like a runaway train. You will consume me, But I can't walk away."

Professor Chan: Ooh, a little harmonic minor scale, that pseudo-Arabian sounding stuff. I smell the Live influence on this one, definitely.

Kyle: Yeah, the music sounds like Live, but every time he starts singing it sounds like Nickelback.

Freech: And the melody is Neil Young's "Old Man."

Kyle: I bet Daughtry has posters of himself in his apartment. And when he takes chicks back to his pad, he puts on this album to get them in the mood.

Professor Chan: Another dreary, lumbering ballad. Hey, wait, this is the EXACT SAME SONG as "Over You."

Kyle: Every song on the album has the EXACT SAME tempo. This is like, 120 beats a minute. Maybe Phil X can't play anything faster than that.

Freech: How come so many pop songs use the same "runaway train" metaphor? What does it even mean?

Professor Chan: Yeah, because runaway trains are so common in 2007. "Our love is like a runaway train, you know what I'm talking about?" Uh, no, not really.

Song: 6. Feels Like Tonight

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Creed

Samply Lyrics:

"And it feels like tonight. I can't believe I'm broken inside.

Can't you see that there's nothing that I wanna do, But try to make it up to you?

And it feels like tonight, Tonight."

Professor Chan: Isn't Daughtry supposed to you know, rock at some point? This could be Phil Collins for all the "rocking" happening here.

Freech: How come Daughtry never finishes his thought? "It" Feels like tonight. What is "it"? He never says what it is. So frustrating.

Kyle: Who buys this? Who wants to listen to mid-tempo dreary "I'm broken up inside" pussiness?

Professor Chan: Over two million people bought this album.

Kyle: Yeah but who are they?

Freech: Just when you think the album can't suck any more, it finds a new way to lower the bar.

Professor Chan: I bet the Moody Blues could kick these guys' asses. And they're 60. They'd say "Oy, you guys are a bunch of poofs. We'll totally rock you with "Nights in White Satin."

Kyle: Even Neil Diamond is less of a pussy than these guys.

Professor Chan: "It feels like..." I was castrated.

Kyle: Ladies and gentlemen, I present Donny Osmond.

Freech: Of course it feels like tonight, it IS tonight or you couldn't be singing about it. You can't "feel like" something that hasn't happened yet. And since it's not about "last night" it's a completely meaningless sentiment. It's so stupid.

Professor Chan: "I never felt like this before." Liar, you felt exactly like this for the last four songs.

Kyle: It feels like I'm having a period.

Song: 7. What I Want (featuring Slash)

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Velvet Revolver

Sample Lyrics:

"I still remember all the stupid things that I've said and done,

But still, you stuck around with me when all your friends said, "Run!"

Givin' me a name, found myself in flames. Becoming everything for you again."

Freech: I remember a lot of stupid things he's said and done… this whole album.

Professor Chan: This rocks a little bit. I mean, it's the exact same song as Velvet Revolver's "Slither" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO8o6SMrXz0 (Daughtry's "What I Want" here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUb1MQoou_Q ) but at least a Daughtry song has momentum for once.

Freech: I admit it has a certain rocking essence to it.

Kyle: If he had Slash come to play on this song, why couldn't Daughtry have him play through all the songs. Having a rocking guitarist would've improved all the songs.

Freech: Not even Slash is that creative.

Professor Chan: Slash is like, "Sorry, man there's nothing I can do for that one."

Song: 8. Breakdown

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Nickelback

Samply Lyrics: Well, I'm sitting alone thinking about it all over coffee. And still crowdin' my space are the things you still hold against me. You cannot save me.

Professor Chan: Just great. Three bars in and Chris takes a big gasp of air BEFORE he sings. Couldn't the engineer cut that out? I mean, he hasn't even STARTED singing and he's sucking wind.

Freech: The lead singer of Muse gasps for air.

Professor Chan: Yeah, because he's singing the crap out of the song and if he doesn't take a breath of air his lungs will collapse. Daughtry hasn't even begun singing this wussy song and he's already wheezing.

Kyle: What kind of rocker contemplates things over a cup of coffee? Is he wearing a beret and reading Camus? Ooh, I'm so serious, I'm drinking coffee and writing a song about it.

Freech: If he's alone thinking about it, he wouldn't have made this album in the first place.

Professor Chan: He doesn't have to think too hard any more, he sold 2 million albums.

Song: 9. Gone

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Live

Sample Lyrics:

"Feeling like this could only mean, I'm sinking.

Feeling like this could only mean, I'm sinking.

Well, I'm sinking. Pull me up."

Freech: Hey Phil X has a nice guitar sound on this one. Way to go Phil. It took you 9 tracks, but you're finally contributing.

Kyle: He starts off with a sinking metaphor but you know it's going to take another three and a half minutes to drown.

Freech: None of this is eminently hateable. It's just pap.

Professor Chan: But does it have to be so boring? I mean, this song is exactly the same as "Breakdown." Which sounds exactly the same as "Crashed." It's so repetitive.

Kyle: I love rock. Calling this rock offends me, frankly. I don't care when Idol records vanilla R&B or weepy Aiken ballads, or spunky girl dance songs. But when they come in and screw up rock and roll with their drippy lyrics and fictional relationship songs, it just crosses a line, man.

Professor Chan: Amen, brother.

Song: 10. There and Back Again

Pearl Jam Rip-Off Band Daughtry is Aping: Fuel

Sample Lyrics:

"Lay down, my friend. Close your eyes, breathe in, And I'll take you there and back again."

Professor Chan: This almost rocks.

Kyle: Yeah, this is the first song I don't hate.

Freech: This isn't bad.

Professor Chan: But it's still not Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal isn't vague. Those guys are up front about their love of dragons, Tolkien, Satan and stuff. If they wanted to write a hobbit song they don't beat around the bush like Daughtry is. (It's stretching it… "There and Back Again" is the book Bilbo Baggins wrote about his experiences in "The Hobbit." Professor Chan is a nerd.)

Kyle: This album gets the rocking formula backwards. It's supposed to be 4:1 rockers to ballads, not the other way around. Also, you can't just make a rock album with four random people. You need to play together as a band for a while. Rocking is learned through osmosis.

Professor Chan: Well, these guys are Daughtry's buddies. They've been together for years.

Kyle: Oh, well, in that case they're pretty bad.

Professor Chan: There's no chemistry.

Kyle: It sounds like manufactured crap.

Freech: This song sounds like "Last Action Hero."

Professor Chan: All this venom, and this is the one song we don't hate.

Song: 11. All These Lives.

Pearl Jam Rip-off Band Daughtry is Aping: Live, yet again.

Sample Lyrics:

"Never gonna let you take my world from me.

The world outside these walls may know you're breathing,

But you ain't comin' in. You ain't comin' in."

Freech: "All these lives." Is he getting all Hindu? Then it must be Live.

Professor Chan: It keeps feeling like it's about to rock, but doesn't.

Kyle: Which you could say about Nickelback too.

Professor Chan: It never takes that leap off the ledge of pussy.

Kyle: It stays in the kiddie pool of suckiness, with it's water wings on.

Freech: I actually like this one. The lyrics are interesting. And even if the rock is lacking it sounds personal to Daughtry. Everything else he's sung so far sounds uber-generic.

Professor Chan: I think it's a public service announcement for child abductions. Child abduction is wrong. Good message.

Freech: There's passion in Daughtry's voice. I'll never be able to hum the melody and I'll forget the song in 30 seconds, but it's not bad.

Song: 12. What About Now

Pearl Jam Rip-Off Band Daughtry is Aping: Elton John

Sample Lyrics:

"Change the colors of the sky.

And open up to The ways you made me feel alive,

The ways I loved you. For all the things that never died,

To make it through the night, Love will find you."

Freech: Ugh, he ends on a weepy piano ballad. What a pantywaist.

Professor Chan: The sheer fruitiness of this song can only be expressed with this video I found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9WolgF55eU

Freech: What about now? Are you ready to rock yet, you sissy? How about now? Nope.

Kyle: He's got to cry. It's in his American Idol contract. Your first album has to have a song about weeping.

Freech: What about now? He still has nothing to say. How about... now? Nope, still nothing.

(Kyle, Professor Chan wave arms in the air)

Kyle: Now THIS is Christian Rock!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Professor Chan: Well that left a rancid taste in my mouth.

Kyle: They took what's become the "Rock album profile" and they created just another piece of manufactured crap. I'm disgusted. American Idol took the one genre I love and turned it into manure.

Freech: This featured tried and true American Idol trademarks: generic, cliche'd lyrics and imaginary relationships gone bad. It's so banal and meaningless. This is just alt-rock walls of sound. Boring, tedious and unoriginal.

Professor Chan: I figured out of all the Idols, Daughtry would be the one I'd pay money to listen to his rock album. But this isn't "rock." This is some unholy crap the radio stations call "Hot Adult Contemporary" and some polyester leisure suit-wearing demon-spawn producer excreted and recorded as an album. I'm still upset. I mean, sure, I bought the other albums, but only as a joke. This is personal.

BONUS TRACKS:

Okay, for bonus tracks we badly needed to play some REAL rock music to make us happy again. I randomly chose several albums from my collection and played them in rapid succession.

Bruce Dickinson - "Chemical Wedding."

Professor Chan: Sing to me, Bruce. Ahh, feeling better already.

Freech: See how the Human Air Raid vocals cut through the song like a hot butcher knife? Daughtry's vocals are like a punch in the arm… A limp-wristed girly punch.

Kyle: I bet Daughtry would crap his pants if he heard this. Bruce Dickinson could kick all of Daughtry's asses, and he's only five feet tall.

Professor Chan: So is Daughtry. This isn't even Bruce's best album. "Balls to Picasso" is better. I wrote my first screenplay to that record.

Hammerfall - "Crimson Thunder"

Professor Chan: Double-bass drum Power Metal. Aggression returning. Testicles dropping. It sounds like the army of Chaos is descending on hapless villagers. These guys will never stop to ponder "what is broken inside of me."

Kyle: Listen, the guitar is playing 32nd notes. Suck it Phil X. There are other tempos besides 120 beats a minute.

Freech: And it wouldn't hurt Daughtry to lighten up a bit. Does the dude ever smile? Even the most serious bands have a laugh from time to time.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela – "Rodrigo Y Gabriela"

Professor Chan: Flamenco-Metal. This is great, especially because there aren't any weepy vocals. This is just a guy and a girl playing acoustic guitars.

Kyle: Wow, they have the audacity to play different tempos, IN THE SAME SONG! What a mind-blowing concept, huh Daughtry?

Freech: This is just a clean acoustic guitar sound that's creating powerful melodies that blow Daughtry's thin wall of distortion and noise away.

Kyle: Gabriela could kick all of Daughtry's asses by herself. She looks tough.

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Next Week

Speaking of Hobbits, next week we're taking a stroll down to Chogo Chuzzleton's Pub and Turnip Shop and have a listen to Elliott Yamin's spanking new album.

Grading The Idols' Albums - Clay Aiken

Posted by Professor Chan on Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 10:55 AM EDT

GRADING THE IDOLS’ ALBUMS

Welcome back to my brand-new masochism experiment, Grading the Idols’ Albums. This week I’m here with Dean Kyle, but sadly Master Freech left the country to avoid doing another CD review. (Just kidding, he’s on vacation in Florida.)

Professor Chan: Today’s album is Clay Aiken’s debut CD “Measure of a Man.”

Kyle: I thought we were going to do the Idol winners’ albums first.

Professor Chan: I did say that, but we’re going to review whatever albums I can find cheap in the stores. And don’t pretend you didn’t request Clay Aiken’s album next.

Kyle: (sheepishly) To make fun of. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I knew the title of this album before we got started. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Professor Chan: You can’t imagine how embarrassed I was when I actually went to purchase the damn thing. I got this and Daughtry at the same time, and I was nervous the tattooed, pink-haired female clerk would give me a “what a loser” look. That’s why I also bought Iron Maiden’s latest album, so I could salvage some manliness after paying for this CD.

Kyle: Man, what is it with record-selling clerks that have that air of musical superiority?

Professor Chan: Forget Napster, THAT is why all record stores went out of business. I even had a back-up story in case they quizzed me about why I was paying hard-earned cash for Aiken. “It’s for a bachelor’s party.” I’ll probably have to use that one when I try to return it for a refund.

Kyle: What, you’re not keeping the Aiken?

Measure of a Man – Clay Aiken.

Professor Chan: Today we’ll be examining Aiken’s album track by track. The theme of this album is “I’m a stalker.” So we’ll also check out the Stalker imagery in all of his songs.

Follow along at home here:

http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Man-Clay-Aiken/dp/B0000AGWEC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/102-0592008-2973749?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1174339498&sr=8-3

TITLE: Measure of a Man

Best Song: If you had a gun aimed at us… “Invisible.”

Genre: Clay Aiken is his own genre. Or guys with girlish high voices who sing wussy ballads.

Picture on fold-up fan poster: Pensive but bemused Aiken in denim jacket.

First Person or Entity thanked on the album: “First off I’d like to thank all my stalker homies…” Just kidding. Clay thanks “God, The Alpha.” Of course.

Theme: First half of the album is “I’m a stalker.” Second half is “I’m singing heartbreak songs about girls. Seriously. I’m talking about girls. I even say “she” in the songs.”

TITLE: 1. Invisible

SAMPLE STALKER LYRIC: “If I was invisible, Then I could just watch you in your room. If I was invisible, I’d make you mine tonight.”

Professor Chan: That is all you need to know about this album.

Kyle: The entire song is kind of an ode to stalkers everywhere.

Professor Chan: And how their life would be so much easier if they could have the power of invisibility.

Kyle: I personally would like super strength. Or stretching.

Professor Chan: You know, it’s sad to admit that this song is better than anything on Taylor Hicks album.

Kyle: It’s sad to admit that I’ve heard this song before.

Professor Chan: At least on this song Clay shows off that he can sing.

Kyle: He blows Taylor’s four note range out of the water. I’m not saying this is a good song, but I’d listen to it again before I’d check out any of Taylor’s weak-ass songs.

Professor Chan: That makes me weep. Like Taylor does all over his wussified album.

TITLE: 2. I Will Carry You

SAMPLE STALKER LYRIC: “I will carry your lifeless body back to my basement dungeon.” Okay, just kidding. “Everybody cries, Everybody Bleeds, No one ever said life’s an easy thing.”

Kyle: Dude, your fake lyric is scarier than the real one.

Professor Chan: I know. The only trouble I had was deciding which awesome stalker lyric to quote. How about this one: “Yeah I know it hurts, Yeah I know you’re scared, walking down the road that leads to who knows where.”

Kyle: That’s bone-chilling.

Professor Chan: “That turns my whole body into one giant goose bump”, to quote Paula Abdul.

Kyle: This song makes me feel like someone just got killed on “One Tree Hill.”

Professor Chan: What’s worse, I’d STILL listen to either of these songs before I played Taylor Hicks’ crappy album.

Kyle: Clay can sing, but this is like the soundtrack of “To Catch A Predator.”

TITLE: 3. The Way

SAMPLE STALKER LYRIC: "There’s something bout how you stay on my mind, there’s something bout the way that I whisper your name when I'm asleep."

PROFESSOR CHAN: Hoo, creepy.

KYLE: This sounds like a tired, post-Bobby Brown, Whitney.

PROFESSOR CHAN: This is the first certifiable dog on the album. The other two songs were okay, in their own Clay Aiken style, but this one's excruciating.

KYLE: This song is hurting my brain.

PROFESSOR CHAN: The good thing about Clay Aiken is after we hear the exact same verse-chorus twice we know where the song is going. I mean, it goes there 3-4 more times, but it's the exact same way that it goes there each time. Unlike Taylor's album where there was hidden crappiness to be found at the end of some tracks, we know exactly how crappy it's going to be for the next 3 minutes with Aiken.

(As we skip to the next song)

TITLE: 4. When You Say You Love Me.

SAMPLE STALKER LYRIC: "I've been watching you, from afar and the way you make your way around the bar."

PROFESSOR CHAN: The lyrics to this one are verging on non-stalker territory. He seems to be having normal human interactions with the gender neutral "you" of this song.

KYLE: Yeah, but you have to imagine Clay saying it in his Norman Bates/Mickey Mouse voice with nervous laughter at inappropriate places.

PROFESSOR CHAN: These Casio keyboard synth sounds are bugging me. Is this an Emerson, Lake and Palmer song?

KYLE: Yeah, you can tell the keyboardist is wearing a cape. This song sounds like Christian Rock to me, but much manlier.

TITLE: 5. No More Sad Songs

SAMPLE STALKER LYRIC: "No more sad songs, I'm letting you go now, Switched off switched on, I'm letting you know, you turned out the light."

PROFESSOR CHAN: We might have to put that "stalker theme" to rest now. This has moved away from watching "you" undress through your bedroom window into a really whiny emancipation song.

KYLE: Maybe he's calling her on the phone in a really breathy tone saying he can still see her even though her lights are off. Clay's got infra-red goggles.

PROFESSER CHAN: Even Clay's breaking up songs are a chaste kind of love. He's breaking up with her but he says "I used to have the longing to hear what was in your heart, But now it seems I’m over the fear of this falling apart."

KYLE: Ooh, dissed by the Aiken. I can imagine him curled up in his Backstreet Boyz pajamas having a good cry about his "relationship."

PROFESSOR CHAN: But if he breaks up with her who will he have to hold hands with and share milk-shakes?

KYLE: BFF no mo'.

TITLE: 6. Run to Me

SAMPLE STALKER LYRICS: "Hush, you don't have to say a word, Trust I'm not going to hate you for it, Feels like my touch only brings back the pain, Someday those memories will fade away"

PROFESSOR CHAN: Whew, we're back on firm stalker ground again. I was worried for a second.

KYLE: This kind of sounds like Aiken's "It's Raining Men."

PROFESSOR CHAN: Yeah, definitely "Raining Men" influenced in the melody line.

KYLE: (reads lyrics) "As soon as you get that feeling, run to me." What "Feeling" is he talking about exactly? Why is Clay always so vague and coy with his words and emotions? He's toying with us.

PROFESSOR CHAN: This song has interesting chord changes and Aiken is singing fine, but otherwise it's musical Insominex.

KYLE: Yeah, next time I need some z's, I'll turn to "Run to Me."

TITLE: 7. Shine

SAMPLE STALKER LYRICS: "In the mirror of your soul. I know that you know, you are not forsaken. Hey butterfly open up your weary eyes, and realize it's a trip we're taking."

PROFESSOR CHAN: Such terrible lyrics. What the hell is Aiken talking about? It's all mixed metaphors and painful cliché’s.

KYLE: I hate synthetic drums. This was definitely a cost-effective album. It's just Clay, his stuffed animals and his drum machine in the recording studio.

PROFESSOR CHAN: I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves on this one.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/clayaiken/shine.html

TITLE: 8. I Survived You

SAMPLE STALKER LYRICS: "I see the picture clear now, the fog has lifted. The wool you tried to pull over my eyes was clever. Yeah you're gifted."

KYLE: I don't know if I can survive the rest of this album. I'm slowly dying... Lyrics... so trite and hackneyed.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Stay with me, Kyle. No man is left behind. Hey, Butterfly, open up your weary eyes.

KYLE: Which telenovela is this the theme song for? I bet it's "Amor Sin Limites."

PROFESSOR CHAN: I think Clay is trying to set the record for mirror metaphors on this album.

KYLE: (skips the rest of song) Sorry, I couldn't take it any more.

TITLE: 9. Solitaire

SAMPLE LYRICS: "And keeping to himself he plays the game, Without her love it always ends the same, While life goes on around him everywhere, He’s playing Solitaire"

KYLE: Ugh, again with the electronica shit.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Seriously, though. This album was recorded in 2003. Get some decent patches for your synths, dude.

KYLE: This guy makes John Tesh look edgy.

PROFESSOR CHAN: This song defines "Easy Listening." It requires no effort to listen to it. There's no energy spent on paying attention, or giving a damn. It's pop music white noise. So calming.

KYLE: It's like I just took an Ambien. I feel like I should call my grandmother and tell her I love her.

PROFESSOR CHAN: I've come to the conclusion that Clay isn't singing in metaphors. He means everything literally. Like when he's looking in a mirror, he's actually looking in a mirror. And when he's singing about the fog lifting, he's really talking about running through the fog.

KYLE: And he's really watching you sleep through your bedroom window. He actually is out there, in the bushes.

PROFESSOR CHAN: This should be called The Prozac album. Or "Songs for the Old Folks Home." It's so warm and fuzzy.

KYLE: Ooh, glory note. So that's the end of the album, right?

PROFESSOR CHAN: Nope. There's three more songs.

KYLE: We've got three more? Three more f'ing songs?!?! I feel like we've been listening to this for seven hours.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Come on, we got to push on. We're doing this for the orphans, remember?

KYLE: What orphans?

TITLE: 10. Perfect Day

SAMPLE LYRICS: "I was fading last night, lost out in the cold, Couldn't see the light then she opened up the door, I came in from the dark, fell into her arms just in time."

PROFESSOR CHAN: It's like love metaphors 101.

KYLE: Damn, man. These synths are terrible. And they're all over the place. It's like they spent all their money on tracks 1 and 2, and then had to nickel and dime the rest of the stupid album.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Ooh, 80's synth flutes and electro drums, oh, how I love you. (skips song)

TITLE: 11. Measure of a Man

SAMPLE LYRIC: "Would he stand before you, When it's down to the wire, Would he give his life up to be all he can, Is that, is that, is that how you measure a man?"

KYLE: Hey, is Hurricane Katrina still taking donations?

PROFESSOR CHAN: It does have that starving kids commercial feel to it, doesn't it? This is clearly supposed to be Clay's big anthem.

KYLE: I've heard this song before.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Yeah, me too. It was called "Perfect Day" track 10. It's the same exact song.

KYLE: No, I mean, I heard this on the radio, or in an elevator or something.

PROFESSOR CHAN: No, really. It's the same song. Let me play it back.

KYLE: No, man. It's okay, I trust you.

PROFESSOR CHAN: No. I'm gonna do it. (Chan plays "Perfect Day." He skips back to "Measure of a Man.";) See, they're identical. The question I have for Clay is, how do you measure a man?

KYLE: I don't know, thumb and forefinger?

PROFESSOR CHAN: I guess the follow-up question is, did Clay intentionally have a penis joke for an album title, or was he innocently oblivious?

KYLE: This song may be long and boring, but it still has more soul than the entire Taylor Hicks album.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Oh, dude, that's just kicking a man in his measure.

TITLE: 12. Touch

SAMPLE LYRICS: "All I want is your touch, all I want is your heaven right here by my side, every night. All I want is your touch, all I want is your tenderness here in my life, every morning and night. Girl cause your touch is so right."

KYLE: Enough with the electronic keyboard bullshit. I'm tired of this crap.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Revenge of the Synth tracks. This one's using the pre-programmed Latin rhythm on the keyboard.

KYLE: This sounds like a gay dance club track. But then it's also an uplifting Christian love-your-neighbor song. It's schizophrenic.

PROFESSOR CHAN: He walks that fine line between gay and Christian.

KYLE: I think he's singing this song to his gardener.

(Professor chan hits Eject!)

PROFESSOR CHAN: Okay, that's enough Aiken for one day.

KYLE: That's enough Aiken for a lifetime.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Whoa, hold it. I paid good hard cash for Clay's new album. So we're gonna damn well listen to it. But I need to recover from this one first.

KYLE: Ugh, I'm feeling nauseous.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

PROFESSOR CHAN: Well that was pretty awful.

KYLE: Man, after the first two songs I thought it was going to be a cakewalk. They were kind of peppy and not horrible. But it really fell off a cliff after that.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Yeah, right when "Wacky" Willy Gabowski and his Amazing Casio Orchestra showed up, it turned ugly real fast.

KYLE: There must've been a lot of disappointed teenagers on Christmas morning that year.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Why don't they just give me their $12 bucks and I'll hurl a lump of coal upside their head.

KYLE: Yeah, that's got more entertainment value.

PROFESSOR CHAN: Oh, hey, that reminds me. I can probably get my hands on Aiken's Christmas album, if you want to review that one some time.

KYLE: As long as it's not a Taylor Hicks Christmas album, I'm game.


Next Week:

Kyle, Freech and I tackle Katharine McPhee!

VFTW Song Review: Katharine McPhee's "Open Toes"

Posted by thefunnystone on Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 6:11 AM EST

Open Toes, off Katharine McPhee's newest album, Bumblebee Hooker of Melisma, is a masterpiece. Not since Fantasia's Baby Mama has an Idol's post-show song captured the depths of VFTW so beautifully. We can only hope and pray it becomes her second single.

While appearing on American Idol, Katharine (or as she likes to be known now, K-Slut) was known for her soaring, timeless ballads that captured the hearts of America. Capitalizing on this, Katharine decided to urinate all over her previous success to create this Beyoncé wannabe track about wearing open toed shoes. In an effort to help heal the world, Katharine suggests that all people should wear open toed shoes in an effort to stop apartheid. Brilliant!

With poignant lyrics such as "I like to listen to the click clack, shoes like this make me hate flats" and "Never too many open toes, a girl needs plenty open toes!" slamming against a hip backbeat, Katharine defines the struggle that females must feel in the 21st century, being held back by men. Why bother going to vote when you can pick up a brand new pair of heels at the mall? The songs raises so many interesting points.

Katharine also claims that gay men will love Open Toes, saying "I have this feeling it's going to make them want to put on their little open- toe shoes and walk around West Hollywood." Well spoken, Katharine. And she's right. I'm gay and I love Open Toes! It's the musical trainwreck of the year that proves she is a complete idiot, so I listen to it over and over and picture the awful music video that is soon to follow, laughing myself to sleep. Then, when I wake up, my cat is always in my room howling. So I play Open Toes again to get Fluffy to leave my room and run away in terror because she can't stand the sound of Katharine's screeching. When I leave for work, I play Open Toes on a loop while I'm gone to deter any burglars from breaking in. Ten seconds of Open Toes and they go deaf and run screaming from the building, wishing they'd never come by. It's such a versatile song! Wait... is that not what she intended?

4 thumbs down out of 5.

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