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 David Archuleta
"Crush"
Few people hated American Idol cherub David Archuleta
more than us over the course of last season. Steam would burst out of
our ears as the potato-headed crooner let loose treacly ballad after
treacly ballad, pandering to teenage girls not cool enough to
like the Jonas Brothers. But still, Archie's first
dalliance into non-Idol pop is a welcomed surprise. Confession: We just listened to
the thing six times in a row and we're not terribly angry about spin
seven. "Crush" makes Miley Cyrus sound like Radiohead; this is boxed-in
Top 40 muzak that plays it safe in every way possible. Every note,
guitar scratch, ad lib is placed with watchmaker exactness. Songs like "Crush" are great because they sound as if the
radio immaculately conceived them. Thankfully, Archuleta skips the snoozer ballad territory here and aims for midtempo pop-rock adorned with slick drums and lovey-dovey lyrics: "I'm tryin' tryin' to walk away/ But I know this crush ain't goin' away." On Idol, he often performed tunes that were out of his realm and experience,
coming across like a little kid acting like a grown-up. "Crush" is a
teenage jumble of hormones and romantic idealism — the lizard-tongued neophyte nails it.
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