AMG Review of Heartbreak on Vinyl

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

In many ways, Blake Lewis was the most original #American Idol contestant to ever get into the final two, the one guy who couldn't be classified, something that helped drive him while on the show, but proved his undoing on a major label, where his beat-boxing Brit-love never coalesced into something either marketable or interesting, partially because the powers that be emphasized his old-school hip-hop influences, pushing him toward cuts like "Brake Anotha." Freed from 19, he's brought all his disparate interests together on Heartbreak on Vinyl, which cut for cut is more rhythmic and melodic than A.D.D. and as a whole lot more memorable. Lewis doesn't separate his club rhythms and Morrissey obsessions, winding up with a record that sounds curiously and unwittingly like a soundtrack to a Eurotrash club, but in an appealing fashion because it feels uncontrived and often very catchy.