The album, "This Loud Morning" features several tracks co-written by Cook with other songwriters, including the Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Rzeznik and Tulsa native Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. The album's first single is "The Last Goodbye," and Cook performed it live Tuesday on the "Today" show.
.jpg)
Even though Cook, a Missouri native, recorded several indie albums with his bands before "Idol," many consider "This Loud Morning" to be his sophomore album.
But he's trying not to let the pressure get to him. "If I allow myself to buy into others' anxiety ... I've got enough of my own. I put a lot of pressure on myself with this record, but not necessarily to hit a certain sales threshold," Cook told USA Today. "I've had a few conversations in the past few months about how interesting it is that the last album sold 1.3, 1.4 million records and yet the views on my career are so skewed in opposite directions. "You take it for what it is. I'm really happy we sold 1.3 million records. If that's enough for somebody, awesome. If that's not enough for somebody else, OK."