Pageant's

Album: Leave This Town
Artist: Daughtry
Label: RCA, 2009
Reviewer: Shauna Brock

Track Listing:
01 You Don’t Belong
02 No Surprise
03 Every Time You Turn Around
04 Life After You
05 What I Meant to Say
06 Open Up Your Eyes
07 September
08 Ghost of Me
09 Learn My Lesson
10 Supernatural
11 Tennessee Line
12 Call Your Name

The important thing with music is that it connects to the listener – no matter the reason. Whether it’s because that instrumental moment takes you, soaring, above the clouds, or because that one lyric touches you deep in your soul and sends shivers up and down your spine. There’s no accounting for what moves people. For some, the music means as much as the image and so they scream and cry over the Jonas Brothers and the like. For others, they only care about the lyrics and they pretend they are too damn cool to let it be known that internally, they react like those fangirls who scream and cry. For those people, those people who are too cool to admit to the Hinder and Fall Out Boy albums they have on their ipods, may I suggest an album for you to wave proudly: Daughtry’s Leave This Town.

I wasn’t paying attention, really. It was a Daughtry album. I thought I knew what to expect. And then, exactly halfway through, one single moment in the song “Open Up Your Eyes” caught me completely off guard and I leapt, reaching for the liner notes to read along with the lyrics. I can’t tell you that moment. I wish I could. But it was then that I realized this was more than a simple followup to the more than adequate debut from the former American Idol contestant and the guys he keeps around him as a band.

Leave This Town is exactly what you want from a sophomore album. The song structure is very familiar and wanders little from what Daughtry has already established as a style, there is clear growth in the band; lyrics are deeper and the music composition is stronger. Daughtry’s voice, which at times on the first album is thin and almost tinny comes across full blooded and is as able to rock with classic melodies as it is able to croon and break your heart.

The album is a bit of a roller coaster of talent and style and as with the debut album, there are guest musicians. This time around Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger and country music star Vince Gill make appearances in the writing and singing credits. This is a slight letdown from the kickass appearances from Slash and Brent Smith (Shinedown) on the first record. The album also doesn’t really pick up until song four: “Life After You.” The first song, “You Don’t Belong,” will make any hard rock fan happy, but the two that follow are good, forgettable radio hits. But by “Life After You,” the album finds its way.

It isn’t the music that drives Leave This Town. Instead, it is the goose-bump-raising way that Chris Daughtry delivers the heart wrenching lyrics. His one-too-many-whiskey’s voice, which feels to be so much better suited for harder rocking riffs, rings out loudly across ballads such as “September” and “Tennessee Line.” Songs such as “Open Up Your Eyes” that start out slow but quickly build to a pounding beat, prove that Chris has one of the strongest ranges in rock music right now and as a result, the whole package of the band comes together beautifully.

If there is any true criticism for Daughtry it is that they are perhaps a bit too radio-ready and it actually is a bit disconcerting. Whether that is a record company decision or one made by the band is unclear. As with the first album, there are multiple moments when it feels that songs should push further than what is presented. These are the very songs that are safe and comfortable and will race straight to the top of mainstream radio charts while the best songs on the album are left for those who still buy whole album packages instead of just downloading the hits off itunes. For five guys who look like they’d be comfortable at the bottom of a mosh pit, they seem to back away from the risks that could give them true respect in the rock world. Those criticisms do not stop Leave This Town from being a moving, powerful album. Even though it is a bit heavy on the instrumental layering, the focus is on the lyrics, as it should be. So my only question is: what next, boys?