Daughtry – Break The Spell

More cheeseball rock ballads about really meaning it, man

American Idol’s most successful male has reached cheesecaked heights on two previous discs by getting with collaborators like Max Martin and Richard Marx. Here, Chris Daughtry seems to have been given more leeway in the songwriting department, so there’s a rich give-and-take between his dedication to the emotional power of his material and how bad it is. Kelly Clarkson would turn down middling soft-rock ballads like ”˜Outta My Head,’ but Daughtry sings them with conviction ”“ perhaps because he knows it’s never been the power of his words (“My heart, I wear it on my sleeve”) but the depth of his schlocky conviction that gives a certain kind of lady the spells.

Key Tracks: “Crazy”, “Break the Spell”

★★
RCA