By Danielle Choo-staff writer
David Cook at Concert For Hope in Washington DC (photo: Scott Vollweiler)
If you have ever read Shakespeare, you might remember dissecting the piece of work line by line in order to discover all the hidden symbolism and metaphors. You find the common ties that bind the story together and radiate a message to the reader. It suddenly becomes more than words on a page but rather something remarkable that you take a personal journey through. The words allow you to vicariously live through the author and become an active (rather than passive) participant in the story. Of course, music has the potential to draw all of the same parallels, with the added bonus of our auditory senses.
With the June 28th release of This Loud Morning, David Cook has truly presented a story for his audience to delve into with him. He has certainly achieved his goal of creating “an album, rather than a collection of songs.” Given this, much of the pressure he felt on this album was self-imposed. “I don’t ever want to make the same record…I would rather make a record that I’m extremely proud of that doesn’t sell any copies than make a record that sells 5 million copies and makes me feel like I compromised.” (This all seems a bit reminiscent of when he went against the norm of performing a song he had already done during finale week on American Idol, and clearly helped propel him to the top.)
This Loud Morning kicks off with what sounds like a music box, putting you in a trance-like state. So here we go people. We have entered David Cook’s early summer night’s dream. We’re about to “let the night do what the light never could.”
David Cook at Concert For Hope in Washington DC (photo: Scott Vollweiler)
Now, this music will captivate you in many ways, and this sleep-like condition is nothing short of deep. Cook told Broken Records that he wanted to create layers within this album, and as we start to peel them away one by one, the potent themes start to come forth. The album as a whole plays with a series of paradoxes, from light to dark, from This Quiet Night (his acoustic EP) to This Loud Morning. It becomes evident just how intricate the design of this record is. This is all soon to be revealed as we fall deeper into this reverie.
With the music box whispering in the background, it’s hard to fight off this dream-like state. The starter track “Circadian” gets the album whirling with the perfect blend of meaningful lyrics, guitar riffs, and undeniable creativity. The children’s choir singing “Mayday, somebody save me” is hauntingly beautiful and takes the song to a completely new level. Immediately we are struck with pure innovation, partially due to the producing skills of Matt Serletic. Despite noting different styles, Cook knew immediately that Serletic was the right fit. “I really wanted to give this album more of a cinematic feel, more layers, more emotion outside of the lyrics. I sat down with Matt…and he got it, without me saying anything. He was saying these things, that had I talked first, would have said the same things and at that point it just made sense.” The music box instrumentation, which is actually a blend of a toy piano and a glockenspiel, certainly brings the drama they were hoping for.
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