Cook, Federer, Chuck.
written: 4:51 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

See? Nothing to write home about. It's been painfully uneventful and I'm sick to the guts of the four-wall confinements of my bedroom, and more generally, my house. Sian, sian, sian. I'm actually looking forward to the doctor's appointment on Thursday so that I can go somewhere that isn't my house, or my grandma's house.

Since I have nothing else to talk about, I'm going to write about David and Roger. If inspiration strikes, I might go on to talk about other things...but um, I kind of doubt it.

1. David Cook - "David Cook"

I finally got round to properly listening to the CD after the exams ended. I played it once after I came back from the Federer KL Road Trip and half-listened to it while I was reading the KL exhibition match thread on RF.com, so I didn't digest the songs too much.

I have now. In a nutshell, I still prefer Analog Heart, probably by far. Quite apart from how the album cover is ten million kinds of fugs and how the self-titledness is so typical of a debut release by an Idol winner/ex-Idol contestant on a major record label, the music itself is also typical of a major record label. While Analog Heart bares its soul with its roughness around the edges, David Cook is polished, slick, smooth - and simultaneously, it robs me of what made me fall for David Cook the artist in the first place: the wide-eyed earnestness, the eagerness to please, the rawness of his music that yields after a while to a rare brand of genuine honesty that grips you with its imperfections and doesn't quite let go. Analog Heart is honest and speaks of emotions and situations that the listener can relate to, precisely because of the low productions level, the inexperience of the singer/musician/song-writer, and the desire of the singer/musician/song-writer to record those songs.

I don't question for even a second that the desire is still there. David wants this - badly. He sacrificed so much - more than I ever could - for this, and he's exactly where he wants to be. But as it often happens with major labels that operate like a typical business with the aim of profit maximisation in mind, the price of getting out to a vastly wider audience - an international audience, and not just the five people who attend your gigs - is the inevitable dilution of the in-your-face realness and honesty of the music - the song-writing, and especially, especially the lyrics.

The songs on "David Cook" are pleasant, catchy, melodious. A few of them could be major radio hits if his management/label/whomever market them right. They contain the requisite hooks that make the top ten charts and conform to the tried-and-tested winning formula: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, wailing strings/guitars/both leading up to bridge, high-octave bridge full of glory notes and vocal runs, then a five-second bout of silence for the listener to digest everything, and finally, the chorus, x2, and end, usually on a carefully-pitched, self-important last note. The best example of this? The album's first single, Light On.

The good news is, barring the bonus track (Time of My Life), Light On is easily the worst song on the whole album. I was right when I predicted that the rest of the album would be much better than the first single, which is the only song that I want to skip whenever I listen to the CD (and I would skip it if I weren't too lazy to get out of my chair and walk to the CD player to skip it. I need to find that remote control). The bad news is, while the songs are certainly not bad by any means, and they are pretty impressive for an American Idol release, they are generic. There is nothing special about them musically, even less so lyrically (which I will definitely get to later). David has never been a ground-breaking song-writer, but what he had going for him was that raw honesty that was on full display in the amateur production of Analog Heart. Now, with the help of a professional team and famous song-writers like Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, Rain Maida of Our Lady Peace, Chris Cornell, etc, his music is perfected, and with it goes everything that made - and makes - Analog Heart special.

The biggest problem with the album is that David wasn't given 100% freedom to do whatever he wanted. This doesn't surprise me, because Idol winners and contestants never are, and compared to the deal that Bo Bice got, I'd say that David scored himself a winner. That is the reality of his situation, and I think it'd be unfair for me to judge the album by anything more than that. And I guess, largely, it doesn't matter, because I know the kind of song-writer he is when he's left to his own devices - and that is the David Cook that I love, not the David Cook that RCA has polished up to produce radio hits.

And the best example? Only one song from the second indie album that he almost released before Idol happened made it to the CD: A Daily AntheM, or ADAM for short, a song he wrote for his brother. The only song whose song-writing credit is "Cook" and "Cook" alone, and it's the only song in the whole album that sounds exactly like him.

But perhaps the worst affront I have suffered as a David Cook fan by this album is the atrociously bland and generic lyrics that I'm guessing his co-writers have sicced upon all of us. One of the things that made me fall in love with his songs - and him - way back in February was his word nerdiness, and his endearing manner of writing the most clunky lines with these "big words", clunky lines that work nevertheless. While he was never a poet, he was a pretty damn good lyricist who managed to avoid cliches and offered something new to the table. Apart from the rare instances of misusing words, I never cringed at his lyrics...but with the new album, some of the lyrics are so damn cringe-worthy and cliche and cheesy and just plain bad that sometimes I tune them out in order not to drive myself insane.

An example:
"You whispered that you were getting tired
Got a look in your eye, looks a lot like goodbye
Hold on to your secrets tonight
Don't want to know I'm ok with this silence
It's truth that I don't want to hear
You're hiding regret in your smile
There's a storm in your eyes
I've seen coming for a while
Hang on to the past tense tonight
Don't say a word, I'm ok with the quiet
The truth is going to change everything" (from "Lie")

"Got a look in your eye, looks a lot like goodbye"? The sheer originality and craft in that line astound me. I am 99% positive that he either didn't write those lyrics, or one of his famous co-writers edited his original lyrics down to those...that atrocity. There is nothing in common between that, and this:

"Break your neck for some substance
This is temporary sanity, an exercise in vanity
So long to the ordinary day
Wrought with fictitious tales of how there's any other way
Hold on to anything at all
It's a long way down between the summer and the fall
If I told you that you're everything
Would you sing along?
Would you sing along?"

"This temporary insanity, an exercise in vanity"; "Wrought with fictitious tales..." Yes, this is David Cook - and no wonder, too: it's from "A Daily AntheM". It's a shame, really; his lyrics aren't worth analysing anymore. They're now just schmaltzy words strung together by sheer coincidences of letters and convention - nothing more, nothing less.

Having said all that, I do enjoy the album. I don't love every single song and definitely like some more than others, but I can't expect any more than this from an Idol release. It's a good effort, and although I hate to say that it's not the record that would stand the test of time like he wanted, if it does well, it'd at least pave the way for more, better things to come in the future. And if "David Cook" is a mere stepping stone to better things to come, then sure, I'll take it, thanks.

Okay, time for some Cook pimpage. Some of the songs that I like more than the others on my list of Songs That I Like:

2. TMF, or: The Man Federer

I finished reading the Federer biography last night. My conclusion? He's really, REALLY The Man, and not just because of his on-court dominance, but because of who he is, too. The incident that impressed me most is probably how he took it upon himself to organise a fund-raising exhibition match after the 2004 tsunami that hit Southeast Asia. This was after he'd already donated US$16,000 to help the victims.

Despite my fangirl tendencies, I honestly don't have blinkers on when I perceive the people that I admire. I don't blindly exalt everything that Roger does as Amazing! and the only time I lose some objectivity is probably in regards to his tennis. Still, I can't help but ask myself if he has any flaws at all when I was reading the book...and thankfully, the answer is "yes": he's a bit of a control freak when it comes to his career, he can be self-absorbed (apparently he has a habit of reading newspaper articles about himself the morning after a match. Must be boring to be his girlfriend at times), and he's not the most exciting person around. When he was younger, after moving out of his parents' house and renting an apartment with his friend to focus on training, his life consisted of two things: tennis, and his Playstation.

I mean, really.

But then, if his biggest flaw is that he's boring, then oh my god, I STILL WANT HIM.

More seriously though, I don't think there's one thing disingenuous about him at all. I don't think he's capable of being fake and anything but candid with the media, even if what he says comes across as arrogant at times. And yet, he's not an arrogant person at all; he tells it as it is and doesn't hide behind some phony facade. What you see is pretty much what you get with him, and for someone of his stature, it's pretty amazing.

The book, on the other hand, isn't really that amazing. I was hoping to learn how he went from a temperamental racquet-throwing Federer to the wall of calm and cool that he is today, but apart from some mentions of his temper in the first chapter, the book doesn't deal with it. It doesn't deal with him as a person very much, and focuses mostly on his career, his wins and losses, his initial struggle to get to the top. It's a lot of fact-telling which is damn boring for the average person, and if I didn't like him so much, I wouldn't even bother reading it. His mom said that she uses the book as a reference to his career - and that's exactly what it is.

I think he deserves a more in-depth biography. I REALLY WOULDN'T MIND WRITING IT AT ALL. I'd even do it for free!

I also watched his 2003 Masters Cup matches against Agassi, the round robin and the final. The final paled in comparison to the round robin. The latter was exciting, and match point was just the best thing I've seen in a while. A running cross-court forehand winner that landed on the right-angle between the service line and the singles sideline - I have no idea how he did that, but he did it, and it was absolutely beautiful. I replayed it about ten times - it was THAT great.

The final was a tad boring, and he won it with an ace. He reacted more emotionally after winning the round robin, which makes sense since it was his first win against THE Andre Agassi. It was also more closely-fought, unlike the final where Agassi got bagelled in the second set.

I'm watching the matches that I have in chronological order now. The next one is the Masters Cup final against Lleyton Hewitt in 2004. Hewitt was probably the first tennis player I liked, way back in secondary school...which was also before Roger began his dominance. I also briefly liked Juan Carlos Ferrero/Fererro for a while, but obviously neither of them got me hooked on tennis.

There's just no one like Roger Federer.

3. "Chuck"

I finally started watching Season 2 of Chuck.

I hereby declare it to be the best show that's still running, which I'm watching.

It mixes comedy and drama so well, and at the heart of everything, the characters are real, their emotions are real, even if the context in which they operate is utterly ridiculous. I mean, the whole premise of the show - the eponymous protagonist opening an email and downloading an entire top-secret computer database into his head - makes absolutely no sense, but it doesn't matter because the show doesn't take itself seriously and knows how to have fun with its absurdity. And simultaneously, the writing is so sharp, the characterisation so solid and with such great continuity, that sometimes the plot takes backseat to the characters. You feel for all of them, and every single one of them is real, and what they go through and their responses are so genuine. It sounds ridiculous to say that the show resonates emotionally with me...but it does.

It's absolutely fantastic. I'd recommend it to everyone. The acting is understated and top-notch, mind-blowing because of how understated it is.

Chuck is absolutely, absolutely fantastic. My favourite show since Veronica Mars ended, without a doubt.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010