Band : Daughtry
Album Title : Leave This Town
Label : 19 Recordings - RCA
Distribution : Sony Music Belgium
Release date : September 2009
Review : CD

“Leave This Town”is the second studio album of the American rock band Daughtry.
The story of the band began when Chris Daughtry from North Carolina participated in the singing contest “American Idol 2006” and obtained a fourth place with his rugged voice. This led to a record deal and the release of a self-titled album in 2006. This album, filled with passionate rock vocals, sold largely more than 6 million copies worldwide, of which 4,5 million only in the USA.
And with the follow-up album “Leave This Town”, you can expect more of the same.
Radiofriendly arena rock, providing a mixture of mid-tempo rockers and ballads, blessed with the charismatic and warm voice of Chris Daughtry, which could be described as a combination between Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) and Ed Kowalczyk (Live).
Daughtry’s rock music stands for soulful intensity and it’s melodic with a bit of roughness.
But truth be told: the first half of the album is very strong, but the second half is less interesting.
Just like on the first album, the production was in hands of Howard Benson (for instance Creed, Hoobastank, Kelly Clarkson, Motörhead, My Chemical Romance, Papa Roach, POD, Theory Of A Deadman).
There’s no doubt that “Leave This Town” will be very successful in the USA and the first figures confirm this: an entry at the number one-spot in the Billboard 200 and already more than 700.000 copies sold after three months.
“Leave This Town” contains 12 songs and has a playing time of 47 minutes.
Highlights of the album are the opening track “You Don’t Belong”, the first single “No Surprise”(written with a little help from Chad Kroeger of Nickelback), “Everytime You Turn Around”, “Life After You”, “What I Meant To Say”, the superb powerballad “September”, the steady rocker “Ghost Of Me” and the piano ballad “Call Your Name”.

Can we expect tour dates outside the USA in 2010…?

77/100

Erik.