Winner of the ninth season of American Idol, the season that will forever be remembered as Simon Cowell’s last,
Lee DeWyze somehow eked out a victory against neo-hippie soulster
Crystal Bowersox, charming with a smarmy shyness that never quite seemed to jibe with a guy who kicked around bars in the suburbs for the better part of a decade. Other Idol winners were journeymen in disguise -- think cornball
Taylor Hicks or well-coifed rocker David Cook -- but
DeWyze’s major-label debut,
Live It Up, sounds like the work of a local band that was given a chance to run wild in a professional studio. 19 Recordings team their winner with an army of professionals led by Toby Gad and John Shanks but they don’t dictate the direction of the album; they shape
DeWyze’s singsong strum-alongs and MOR pop into something resembling a triple-A chart hit, letting similarities to
Jack Johnson,
Jason Mraz, and
John Mayer stand strong.
DeWyze can wrangle a pleasant melody, particularly when he’s favoring sunswept SoCal folk-pop. When things are light and simple on
Live It Up,
DeWyze seems like himself. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine