Daughtry’s fourth album Baptized allows the band to stretch out his wings creatively while still sticking to the rock principles that have made Chris Daughtry the third best-selling Idol.
With a slide-guitar fueling the song, the album starts out with title-track “Baptized”, then moves the electronic charged single “Waiting For Superman”; a far cry from the almost-acoustic version he played live on his last tour. Other songs do follow suit with more production involved like the hand-clapping “Battleships” and the Lifehouse-esque “Witness”. Daughtry still shows they can rock out with “I’ll Fight” and keep it simply with the acoustic driven “The World We Knew”. The band channel their inner Train on the foot-stomping “Long Live Rock and Roll” but throughout the album Chris Daughtry’s vocals are outstanding as always.
Having several producers on hand for this album may have also added to the unique sound with Claude Kelly (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), Martin Johnson (Boys Like Girls), Rock Mafia (Miley Cyrus), Sam Hollander (Train, One Direction) and Idol alum Kara DioGuardi.
With three solid rock albums behind them, you can’t blame Daughtry for branching out their sound on Baptized. Every musician has the right to think outside the box and hopefully fans will take this journey with them.