My friend Ken and I decided to listen to an album every day this year. Each week is themed. At the end of each week, we rank what we listened to. To be clear, we aren’t ranking every album that fits the theme. We are only ranking what we chose to listen to during the last seven days.
This week’s theme is “American Idols disappointments,” meaning performers who won American Idol that didn’t find outstanding success after the show. “Disappointments” definitely overstates what we are looking for, though. We really just wanted to listen to champions who weren’t Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood. We honestly didn’t even want to touch those whose success was on a level below, like Jordin Sparks or Philip Phillips. But we couldn’t come up with a better word.
#7 You Got 'Em All by Trent Harmon (2018 - Season 15)
Ken and I have listened to a lot of albums this year—274 to be exact. That’s more albums than there have been days. Even so, I can still tell you something about each of those albums. Well, almost. Trent Harmon changed that.
Trent Harmon, American Idol’s season 15 winner, left so little impression on me with his debut album that I actually forgot that we listened to it. When I went to put this article together, I briefly thought we only listened to six albums. Now that I’ve gone back, I can tell you a few things about it:
It’s boilerplate, radio-friendly pop country
Track three, “Hold On,” opens with one of the most trite lyrics of the year: “Ain’t nothing but heartbreak on the 6 o’clock news / Well, they might as well call it the 6 o’clock blues.”
The cover art for the lead single, “There’s a Girl,” might be the worst cover art I’ve seen this year
Point three feels like a bit of an exaggeration. We’ve seen some doozies this year. Just last week, we had to look at the eyesore that is the cover art from Creed’s Human Clay. But Trent Harmon takes the cake.
#6 Testify by Caleb Johnson (2014 - Season 13)
The first few seasons of American Idol turned out genuine superstars. In fact, you didn’t even have to win the show to launch a big career. Jennifer Hudson. Chris Daughtry. Adam Lambert. These performers became household names after losing.
But the show started to lose its magic touch as the 2000s wore on. I’d argue that the last season to produce a genuine star was season 11, when Philip Phillips took home the crown. Caleb Johnson was the victor in one of those post-Phillips seasons.
Caleb Johnson wants to be a rock star. Between the aforementioned Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert, American Idol had a decent track record with producing rock stars. Caleb Johnson is not one of those successes. His album Testify sounds like an overblown tribute to Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell if someone had described Bat Out of Hell to you, never let you listen to it, and told you to make an album that sounded like it. It’s all theatrics and bombast without the humor or the substance.
#5 Taylor Hicks by Taylor Hicks (2006 - Season 5)
Like most of the country, my family was deep in our American Idol obsession when season five aired. From the auditions, I was rooting for one contestant: Taylor Hicks. I don’t regret it. Taylor Hicks was a fun performer. But in a season with Katherine McPhee and Chris Daughtry, there is no way Taylor Hicks should have won.
Taylor Hicks is not a bad singer. If you showed up to a wedding and he was fronting the band, you’d walk away thinking it was the greatest wedding band you’d ever seen. But Hicks doesn’t have the chops or the feel to carry an album of original music.
Taylor Hicks is also interesting because, for someone who won a music competition, he hasn’t released that much music. Frankly, you don’t have to look that far to find other Idol winners whose musical output has been meagre. Season 12 winner Candice Glover has released a single album in the 13 years since her win. Season 18 winner Samantha Diaz never even dropped an album. Winning a singing competition is one thing. Having a music career is another.
#4 David Cook by David Cook (2008 - Season 7)
David Cook is another aspiring rocker from Idol-ville. No, his vocal power does not approach the aforementioned Idol losers Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert. But I would listen to David Cook sing for a thousand hours before turning on his fellow rocking victor Caleb Johnson again.
David Cook’s self-titled record is the first album we listed to this week that actually had some standout tracks. “The Time of My Life” is a strong power ballad about accomplishing your dreams very much in the Idol winner tradition (e.g., “A Moment Like This”). “Declaration” is an equally powerful number with some intriguing guitar work. I didn’t need nearly 50 minutes of his music, though.
#3 Kris Allen by Kris Allen (2009 - Season 8)
Kris Allen arrived at exactly the right and the wrong time. The season 8 winner had the perfect smooth tone for the soft rock that found success on the radio during the 2000s with acts like The Fray, The Script, Train, and Jason Mraz . His “Live Like We’re Dying” is not only a perfect example of this sound but an excellent song. He was a man made for the moment.
But given that I can easily call to mind so many others working in this style, there was also stiff competition. Allen also won Idol just after the popularity of this sound was beginning to crest. It was everywhere, but it was about to be nowhere. Thus, it shouldn’t surprise you that the follow up to his post-Idol debut sold a tenth of the copies.
#2 Soulful by Ruben Studdard (2003 - Season 2)
Ruben Studdard is one of those winners who made us feel bad in using the word “disappointment” to describe the artists this week. Rubben Studdard is not Carrie Underwood, but he’s also not a failure. He’s sold millions of albums and scored two top ten singles, along with continuing to tour and landing periodic acting gigs.
Also, Studdard is a great R&B singer. From originals, like “Sorry 2004,” to covers, like “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” Ruben Studdard knows how to bring heartbreak to life. It’s honestly a shame he didn’t become as a big a superstar as some of his Idol compatriots.
#1 Gone for the Days by Lee DeWyze (2024 - Season 9)
Lee DeWyze might have the quintessential post-American Idol career. After winning the contest in 2010, DeWyze’s first album sold 153,000 copies. A year later, RCA Records dropped him. His 2013 album sold 3,000 copies.
But Lee DeWyze is not like his fellow winners who have mostly abandoned music making despite their commercial prospects dwindling. He has continued to make play. DeWyze’s 2024 effort Gone for Days was released independently. And he seems to be better for it.
Without the need to work with professional songwriters and chase mass audiences, DeWyze has carved out a nice lane for himself, a singer-songwriter with stylistic similarities to other recent songsmiths, like Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan. No, Lee DeWyze is not a generational singer, but his voice remains strong enough that maybe he could have a surprise hit outside of the Idol machine.
Shout out to the paid subscribers who allow this newsletter to exist. Along with getting access to our entire archive, subscribers unlock biweekly interviews with people driving the music industry, monthly round-ups of the most important stories in music, and priority when submitting questions for our mailbag. Consider becoming a paid subscriber today!
Recent Paid Subscriber Interviews: Pitchfork’s Editor-in-Chief • Vinyl Specialist • Spotify’s Former Data Guru • Hall of Fame Songwriter• John Legend Collaborator • Broadway Arranger • Indie Label Founder• Fender Exec
Recent Album a Day Themes: Butt Rock • Q but No Queens • 1990s Hip-Hop • Trading Favorites • Concept Records • Peaked at 200 • Alliterative Artists • Hip-Hop Groups • Supergroups • Punk Ladies • Short and Sweet • Long Closers • This Year
Want more from Chris Dalla Riva? Get a copy of his book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves wherever books are sold.
I'm so out of touch with 21st century pop culture that I'd literally never heard of any of these people until now.
Glad you thought “Live Like We’re Dying” is excellent because I’ve always felt the same. And so representative of that era.