The only ones I’ve sought out have been Elliot Yamin and Blake Lewis.
Yamin’s is a genuine departure from the Idol formula, I like what he’s done and he carves a niche well.
Lewis’ was boring overprocessed crap.
No AI folks, but I do own an album by Kurt Nilsen, who won Norwegian Idol (and apparently World Idol, which I never even knew once existed).
Example (his own song): Kurt Nilsen – Never Easy
And if Lars Eriksson from Swedish Idol ever comes out with an album, I will probably buy it. The guy auditioned with “It Ain’t Me Babe” by Bob Dylan and a really good self-written song (“Rejected Love”). And he sang “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the show. And most of all, he gave the funniest ever performance on a cheesy theme night with 1968’s “Det börjar verka kärlek banne mig”. The controversy of whether this was “disrespectful” to Idol made it even better.
I will say that Bar-Ba-Sol is a really good song. Probably the only one on Cook’s album that I’d consider to be worthy of a real artist.
I think Cook can actually write songs, and he’s a good performer. Perhaps when he gets out from under the evil influence of 19 entertainment he’ll do something more interesting.
I forgot the biggest thing I can’t stand about those post-idol albums: They are over-produced. They are so over-produced that Phil Spector would take time out from killing someone to tell the producers to tone it down a little. The production of those albums sucks the life right out of them.
Take Kris Allen - the guy was great when he sang and played his guitar. His most memorable performances were solo acoustic numbers. So what do they do with his album? Wrap it in synthesizers, drum tracks, overdubs, and all sorts of other crap. They should have put out an album that sounded more like James Taylor than the Jonas Brothers. But noooo…