General Information

“I want my album to be an exhausting experience, in that you listen to it and have to take a breath to collect yourself, and immediately need to listen to it all over again. I want people to hear it and feel like they just ran a 5K marathon.”

US Release Date: November 18, 2008
Billboard 200 chart debut: Number 3 with 279,000 copies sold.

In February 2009, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

The album broke digital sales records for a new artist selling 59,000 copies.

Track Listing

• Declaration (written by David, Johnny Rzeznik, and Gregg Wattenberg)
• Heroes (written by David, Cathy Dennis, and Raine Maida)
• Light On (written by Chris Cornell and Brian Howes)
• Come Back to Me (written by Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, and Zac Maloy)
• Life on the Moon (written by David, Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, and Zac Maloy)
• Bar-ba-sol (written by David, Danny Grady, and Dan Dixon)
• Mr. Sensitive (written by David and Raine Maida)
• Lie (written by David, Amund Bjørklund, Espen Lind, and Zac Maloy)
• I Did it for You (written by David and Raine Maida)
• Avalanche (written by David and Kevin Griffin)
• Permenant (written by David, Raine Maida, and Chantal Kreviazuk)
• A Daily AntheM (written by David)
• Kiss on the Neck (written by David and Neal Tiemann) – hidden track
• The Time of my Life (written by Regie Hamm)

Bonus Songs

• My Last Request (written by David, Jess Cates, and David Hodges)
• Breathe Tonight (written by David, Sam Hollander, and Dave Katz)

Song Information

A Daily AntheM

Was featured during the auditions of American Idol’s 8th season.

Come Back to Me

“It’s the idea of love amidst separation. ‘Come Back To Me’ is about loving someone you can’t be near.”

CBTM was the second single released from the album.

Declaration

David likens the song to “me standing on top of a building and declaring my intentions for this album”.

Heroes

Heroes is a homage to his supportive family.

Lie

“ … whereas ‘Lie’ is about being in a dysfunctional relationship that you don’t want to end because you still see the good in it.”

Life on the Moon

“What I like about that song is that it represents the last year of my life without perverting the last year of my life. It’s written so that it could be about the whole Idol journey, but it doesn’t have to be.”

Light On

The first single from his debut album. Light On debuted at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video debuted as #1 on VH1.

Permenant

“We recorded ‘Permanent’ in two takes and everyone in the room was crying. I actually had to leave at one point because it was so emotional. As a musician, any time you can create something where the end result is exactly what’s in your head, well there’s a heaviness to that moment and it overwhelmed me. I’ve been writing songs for ten years and that was the first time I’d felt it. I think there’s an honesty throughout the record that culminates in that song.”

The song is addressed to his older brother, Adam, who was battling brain cancer when the album was released.

David performed the song on the eighth season finale of “American Idol”. The performance was released on iTunes with profits benefitting Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.

The Time of my Life

The winning single from “American Idol”. The song was released immediately post his AI win and is a bonus track on his debut album.