Today, three new albums were released that I was expecting eagerly: David Cook‘s self-titled debut album, Dido’s Safe Trip Home and Nickelback’s Dark Horse. As always, the links provided here lead to the US iTunes Music Store.  Also, I’ll be reviewing Live’s first live CD/DVD called Live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam.  This link only takes you to the CD on the iTunes Store, the DVD can be purchased at FriendsOfLive.com. Now, on with the reviews.

• David Cook (Nov 18, 2008): American Idol’s 2008 winner David Cook released a solid debut album. If you remember the songs he chose as an American Idol contestant, he always did a great job putting his signature and style on them. The same happens with this record. It sounds like him, not like a boxes new rock artist. Declaration, the opening track for the album is a strong one, but don’t be fooled. All throughout the record you’ll see different aspects of him.You have the hard guitar riffs like in Bar-Ba-Sol and the soft ones, like Lie. Also included as a last track is the debut single after winning American Idol released a while ago, called Time of my Life. 
• Dido – Safe Trip Home (Nov 18, 2008): This is Dido’s forth album as a solo artist. Her previous works are Breakthrough: (1999), No Angel (2001) and Life for Rent (2003). Safe Trip home is a great comeback album for Dido, you can clearly see her signature sounds and her voice is always amazing as usual. One of the most appealing tracks to me is It comes and it goes, starts off differently than her usual self but overall, when you listen the record as a whole,is an amazing experience. Citizen Cope guest stars on one of the tracks.
• Nickelback – Dark Horse (Nov 18, 2008): This 11 track album is their sixth as a band. Every time the exceed their selves. Their breakthrough Silver Side Up back in 2001 was setting a high point for the band to repeat their success. After The Long Road from 2003, wich several considered not as successful as the previous record, it surely was different and refreshing. With their 2005 hit album All The Right Reasons, they raised the bar for this upcoming record. Now, with Dark Horse they did a great job. The record starts with the second single released before the album, called Something in your Mouth, a very hard rocking song that gets the mood started.Then follows Burn it to the grown and,my favorite single Gotta be Somebody. They have a few slow tunes, but overall it’s a rock record the way it’s supposed to be. Hard guitar riffs, a very rock star attitude and smashing tunes that will leave you wanting more.
• Live – Live at The Paradiso, Amsterdam (Nov 11, 2008): Live’s first widly distributed live concert. They shot it in Amsterdam, this past June. The fan base they have in Holland and Germany is huge, as well as the Australian fans. I bought this along a DVD that in comparison to the CD version, has They Stood Up for Love as a featured song in the concert. The way Ed, Gracey, Taylor and Pat sound – along with Adam Kowalczyk (Ed’s brother), is amazing. They are one band that really deliver what their fans expect at a gig: A true sound very much like the one they listened to on the official recording. The fans at The Paradiso make you feel like you are in between all that craziness and make you wish you were there – or at least that happened to me! They play songs from all their records, even Operation Spirit, a song from their debut album Mental Jewlery released back in 1991. This is a strong album for Live, they also include two previously unreleased songs called Forever and Purifier, which leads me to expect a new studio album sometime next year.

So, hope you enjoyed my reviews for this week, I’ll gather a few albums for next time! If you want an album reviewed just let me know!