Customer Reviews

Daniel Powter

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is a phenomenal debut album from Daniel Powter. The stubbly-jawed, green-eyed, beanie-wearing 34 year old Canadian singer/songwriter gives a very impressive account of himself, and has already sold more than 100,000 albums, due mainly to a killer first single "Bad Day", something with which we can all identify.

"Where is the moment when we need it the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue sky's faded to grey
They tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carrying on

Stand in the line just ahead of the law
You're faking a smile with the coffee you go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces every time
And I don't need no carrying on

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day"

Powter wrote the songs on this album over a one year period, his musical taste inspired by childhood violin sessions, accompanying his mother on piano. The second single will be "Free Loop", but the excellent "Song 6" would also have been a great pick.

This album is definitely a keeper, other great tracks being "Jimmy Gets High" and "Lie to Me" (falsetto bits and all), "Styrofoam" and "Hollywood", but then every track is a potential single. The only problem is that there are only ten songs, and that's a crying shame.

Amanda Richards

This is no ordinary debut CD--when I got it as a gift a few days ago I had never even heard of Daniel! He's going to be a force to contend with by his peers. There's the strong and beautifully arranged song "Suspect" where he shows his feelings for another as he sings how "all (he's) thinking about is you." The CD also starts off rather strong with two songs entitled "Song 6" and "Free Loop." They are both great tracks, even though "Song 6" is more mellow and even has a somewhat '70s R & B feel to the melody while "Free Loop" has a quasi-rock feel to it. Look for songs like these to be on the airwaves in the coming months!

When we were discussing the CD, somebody said that the album is simply too short for the money you'll pay to own it. If they're trying to tell you that this CD is not worth your money, they are WRONG! Just one listen and you can tell that this album is a strong debut that leaves the listener already wondering what Daniel will do for his sophomore album. He can make his voice do a very interesting falsetto and he was brave to put different types of songs on his debut album. He took a chance and according to the charts it is only the beginning of the pay-off! As I mentioned earlier, there is a contrast in style between "Song 6" and "Free Loop." In addition, "Suspect" has a "harder" rock feel to the melody and "Jimmy Gets High" is quite a cynical story that yet is quite engaging and beautifully written all at the same time.

In short, I am VERY impressed with Daniel's debut album. The moving song "Give Me Life" with its great melody is well placed as the ending track, too. Daniel wrote songs for his CD which proves he can both write as well as perform. This is a great CD for his fans; but moreover it's a great CD for anyone who respects an artist bold enough to take a chance and produce an album that bends the rules to fit his own desires--there's simply no one single style of song on this CD. For any artist to be brave enough to take that chance tells me he'll--and I'll-- be back for more! Great work, Daniel!

Another great Canadian artist. Already big in Europe, Daniel Powter follows in the footsteps of other pop/rock mellow singer/songwriters like john mayer and jason mraz. The first single "Bad Day" was what first caught my attention with its radio friendly tune, but the rest of the album is great, with my favorite "jimmy gets high"

This CD was released in 9/2005, but has been pulled back for a re-release in 2006. The songs are amazing. Great style, great meanings, great talent! I have no idea what stone is reviewing negatively. All I can say is .... stone is from Australia and that expalins it. This artist is truly a talented songwriter. BUY IT!

This album is definately one of the greatest debut albums I've heard in a while. Aswell as including the new single Lie To Me, and the smash hit Bad Day, which is still sitting happily at the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, it also includes eight other great songs by this talented Canadian lad. The opening two songs are definately two of the strongest on the album. In them are Dan's suprisingly skilled high vocals, dubbed over a piano and other instruments that make the songs catchy. Followed by Bad Day, which I'm sure you've all heard, this song is very similar to the first two. Daniel explained he wrote this song (all of the songs all the album he wrote) after struggling through eight years of cocaine addiction. Suspect is one of the more uptempo songs on the album, in which we hear Dan's great high vocals again. Lie To Me, the second single, is a fantastic song about a relationship, Daniel uses falsetto and all. Jimmy Gets High and Styrofoam are two of the more relaxed songs on the album, also using a piano as the main instrument. I really like Hollywood, which is also an uptempo song. Lost On The Stoop and Give Me Life are great closures to the album, Give Me Life definately being the most moving song on the album. Daniel definately shows alot of talent here, I hope his second effort is this good!

Billboard Chart History

Week - Date - Position - Weekly Sales - Total Sales

01 19th April 2006 #9 89,213 89,213
02 26th April 2006 #9 47,321 136,494
03 3rd May 2006 #18 37,722 174,256
04 10th May 2006 #23 35,595 209,851
05 17th May 2006 #32 37,173 247,024
06 24th May 2006 #34 26,253 273,277
07 31st May 2006 #26 32,617 305,894

Bad Day caught my ear the first time I listened to it, but I was never able to get the name of the artist, or the song title while listening on the radio. So I started looking online (at the time, I thought the song was titled You Had A Bad Day :-p) and found all the information on iTunes; then I looked it up on Amazon.com and saw it there too.

With this information, I started looking in several stores trying to find the CD, but nobody had it. Then finally, at one of the stores I was told the CD had not yet been released here in the US, that it would be out April 11th.

You see, I don't believe in buying a CD just becasue I like one song, sometimes I've done it and... major disappointment! Fortunately, iTunes and Amazon.com had the song list and I was able to listen to the 30sec samples availabe. I could not believe how good they were.

I got the CD yesterday! If before I thought it was very good, I was wrong... IT'S WAAAAY BETTER THAN I THOUGHT! It's AWSOME!

So do yourself a favor and go get this CD, you will not be disappointed.

The Good
Soothing piano and warm strings blend well with Powter's high falsetto on "Song 6." The track starts off slow, but picks up with a punch on the chorus. You really can't listen to the radio, watch television, or surf the web without coming across the mega-hit "Bad Day." You can't deny this song's appeal. It actually has sad lyrics, but it's set to inspiring music. The chorus has a great vocal flow. Electronic beats and sound effects dominate "Suspect." Powter's vocals sound like a higher-pitched version of Brian Johnson's (AC/DC), with less gravel. "Jimmy Gets High" is a piano laden track about making it in the music industry. Although if you want to go deeper than that; it's about making it in life. On "Hollywood," Powter compares his dance floor crush to a Hollywood starlet and how he would treat her as such.

The Bad
The album is rather short (37 min.). The other songs really pale in comparison to "Bad Day."

The Verdict
To call Daniel Powter's music `rock' is a stretch I know, but you can't avoid the appeal of his hit song "Bad Day." Despite that song's appeal, I just didn't feel that the rest of the tracks on the album really measure up to "Bad Day's" relatable theme and emotional delivery. Who knows, Powter could be the next Elton John or the next one hit wonder.

Listening to the album for the first time as I write this (the last track, "Give Me Life" has got me toe-tapping as I sit at my desk) . . .and man am I enjoying it!

"Bad Day" is the pop tune that got me interested, but it's not representative of the whole album. The CD is way more interesting, complicated, and groovy than that. The best comparison I've got is Robbie Williams. Not because Daniel sounds like him, per se, but that like Robbie, he's just got a whole lot more going on than your average pop star. He's sways easily from low key guy-at-the-piano ("Bad Day") to singing falsetto on a funky track that'll have you doing the requisite head bop to the beat ("Song 6" or "Give Me Life"). All around, a smart purchase.

All the tracks are amazing. The new single directed by Marc Webb, Free Loop, is soooooo great. Be sure to check out the video on Muchmoremusic or VH-1 - it's so great.

The allure of Daniel Powter's megasmash "Bad Day" isn't too tricky to nail down. You can have three guesses if you really need them, but it's a truism that dates back to "Row Row Row Your Boat": don't a supersimple melody and a chorus you can immediately pick up win the race ten times out of ten? And if it's written and sung by a blissfully photogenic, sullen-ish mopeyhead who understands that a fabulous accent and a soupcon of vocal yearning make an irresistibly killer cocktail, so much the better. And if it gets played in its entirety once a week on the country's number one television series, that's the triple-double everyone prays for.

What irks me is, "Bad Day" is an okay song at best (there's utterly no doubt in my addled mind that my amazing David Gray could write seven better ones in his sleep tonight), and given that we as a nation were so melodically malnourished for the entire first third of the year, it's little wonder we embraced with both biceps the first decent, initially unique record that rolled down the pike. What irks me violently is, we've gone so far afield of where we were musically that we could a) let ourselves be captivated by some middling, paint-by-numbers slice of tripe sung by some whiny killjoy who wouldn't have been given the time of day a scant twenty years ago in the high-cotton halcyon days of George Michael and Sting; and b) believe that said captivation is understandable and even forgivable because, hey, it beats Beyonce.