American Idol - If You Can Smell What The Cook Is Rockin'

David Cook Idolizes a new generation of mild rockers

In a genuine surprise, Goo Goo Doll styled rocker David Cook found himself awarded with one of the top prizes in modern media, the title of American Idol! Just last night, the judges were saying despite Cook's best efforts he was out classed by teenage boy wonder David Archuleta. And indeed, last night was the best episode of the season as Archuleta reconnected with his naive soulfulness for the first time in months delivering heart filled renditions of Elton John's "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" and John Lennon's "Imagine" (though "Imagine" was a bit of a repeat but with more strings than I remembered). Cook emphasized versatility, starting with U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and a songwriter contest entered song that had the feel of 80's pop rock. Cook closed with an emotional but subdued "The World I Know" by Collective Soul. Though Cook connected and sang the hell out of each song, the judges (and I) thought a recommitted Archuleta had his goose Cooked (yes, that was an awful bad joke). This was even with me favoring Cook over Archuleta in the first place.

The near flawless episode (I even enjoyed the boxing metaphor) resulted in one of their best voter turnouts ever at 97 million. For the finale, predictably Idol went for the medleys, the new kid/old vet team ups and other various guest star appearances. I missed some of the show, so the highlights for me were George Michael performing "Praying For Time" and Cook's bar band soaked "Sharp Dressed Man" accompanied by ZZ Top themselves. It was thrilling to see the little 'ol band from Texas fire out one of their signature songs to a crowd of blank faced tweens. The rest of the entertainment came mainly from the fun of seeing who they would pull out of mothballs next, would it be Donna Summer? Or Bryan Adams? Or even Seal?

So David Cook aka Mr. rearrange-any-song-into-an-alt rock-ballad has won the title of American Idol. His occasional Bono / Chris Martin impulses set aside, Cook seems destined to release a competent record of commercial rock music. For AI fans searching to make up for giving Daughtry the early boot, David Cook is the true American Idol!