American Idol revisited

So I know I said that I was giving up on American Idol but that was obviously a lie because I've watched the past couple of weeks since the themes weren't completely terrible. I can't say I'm really impressed by any of the contestants this year though. Some of my thoughts:

- I'm not on the David Cook love train. I think he sings and performs well and he is doing something different from your average American Idol contestant but it seems that all he's doing is turning every song he chooses into a rock ballad (with an existing arrangement) and really, I've heard it all before. His sound is very reminiscent of a lot of those "alternative rock" bands from the 90s like Our Lady Peace and Live and Fuel and Soundgarden and Bush...bands that I listened to back when I was in high school. So I find the notion that he's "unique" or "current" or "original" to be pretty preposterous and all the praise is actually majorly turning me off. Maybe he is among Idol contestants but in the grander scheme of things? Not so much. I did listen to a couple of songs off his solo album from a couple of years ago (at this site) and if it was like 10 years ago I might have been into it, but I got over that stage a long time ago.

- I've been finding myself really curious if these people can write songs as well as sing. I might be completely wrong here but Brooke especially strikes me as a singer-songwriter type, and I think that if she were allowed to always have the piano or the guitar and just do her own thing I might actually like her. She's been doing alright but I don't think having to do all these different genres and prove her versatility is really working for her. I really wish that American Idol would make them sing at least one original song like on Rock Star so we could get more of a preview of what kind of music they'd actually release. Who knows if I'd like any of it (since apparently I'm a music snob) but it'd be a lot more interesting than having to listen to 2 weeks of Beatles in a row or Dolly Parton (yeah I'm going to be skipping next week)...