I’ll be honest: I completely wrote Kris Allen off after Danny Gokey was eliminated. After all, Simon, Paula, Kara and Randy clearly favored Adam Lambert, and not without good reason: Lambert reeks of rock and roll, what with his amazing voice and rocking style. Which is not to say that Kris Allen sucks donkey balls—he is no doubt a phenomenal artist, but between him and Lambert, there’s no question (to me, at least) who stands out.

But it was America, not the judges, who chose whom to award the title of American Idol, and with 100 million votes cast, the decision was made loud and clear. Hopefully, most of those who voted for Allen chose him because they thought he deserved the title. Undoubtedly, of course, there are some who voted for Allen for other reasons—perhaps human instinct, which moves us to root for the underdog.

Kris Allen has a great career in front of him.

But in my opinion, Adam Lambert has the potential to go beyond “great”. He has all the makings of a Rock and Roll legend, with or without the title of American Idol. His leathery get-up, dark eyeliner and freaking wicked hair remind me of My Chemical Romance‘s Gerard Way and—I will probably draw some flak for this—even Elvis Presley. (Yeah, Elvis didn’t wear eyeliner [did he?], but you get the point.)

So Kris Allen is this year’s American Idol. But you really have to stop and wonder: with all respect where it is due, who really won the title?

[Image taken from americanidol.com. Had to crop Gokey out of the picture—sorry, dude!]

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.

In the meantime, let me share my latest music find. While I was in Naga, I stopped by their local Odyssey store in LCC Mall to purchase, among other things, a copy of Duffy’s album Rockferry (2008). I’d only heard her once before (on either Leno or Letterman, singing “Mercy”), but I liked her style and decided to check out her album.

To put it simply, Rockferry is brilliant. All the songs in the album share a common “vibe”, if you will, but at the same time they run the gamut as well. On the one hand, you have a fierce number like Mercy:

You got me begging you for mercy /Why wont you release me / I said release me

On the other hand, you have Please Stay, a slow song that harkens back to 50s-and-60s-era music:

I loved you before / I even knew your name / I wanted to give you / My heart / But when you came back / After leaving me one time / Oh, I knew, yes I knew / That the heartaches / Would start

And then there’s the soothing, calm, lounge-type song like Stepping Stone, perfect for coffee shops (serving suggestion: pipe this song through your speakers with the volume turned two or three notches down) or just chillaxing out at home:

But I will never be / Your stepping stone / Take it all / Or leave me alone / I will never be / Your stepping stone / I’m standing upright / On my own

Image originally from Amazon.com

It takes a lot for an album to make me an instant, total fan of an artist (it took a while for even Fall Out Boy’s Infinity on High and The Fray’s How To Save a Life to grow on me), but that’s exactly what Duffy did with Rockferry. Her music might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it fits my (eccentric) taste, and so Rockferry—all 17 songs of it—finds comfortable space in my iTunes library.

[Rockferry Deluxe Edition - Amazon]

©2010 Deantastic!. All Rights Reserved.