Phillip Phillips – The World From The Side Of The Moon

Text: Sherman Yang

American Idol winner Phillip Phillips releases his debut album The World From The Side Of The Moon which includes his coronation song, ‘Home’, which was also featured during NBC’s coverage of the summer Olympics as well as the Clint Eastwood movie, ‘Trouble With the Curve’. The song has a strong folk sound and is one of the more commercially successful coronation songs from the American Idol franchise.

‘Where We Came From’ was the only other track to be pre-released before the album launch. The song is sadly forgettable and does not make a good first impression for the rest of the album.

The first track on the album, ‘Man On The Moon’ was the inspiration for the album title and not the Transformers movie. It speaks of viewing things from a different perspective, looking down at yourself, which was what Phillips mentioned, representing where he is at this stage in his career

Phillips co-wrote the song ‘Drive Me’ with his brother-in-law, Ben Neil, whom he attributed to have influenced his decision to enter the music industry. The track is one of the more “fun” sounding tracks on the album. Phillips had originally hoped that this track would have been his coronation song instead.

Although the album has been compared to material from the Dave Matthews Band and Mumford & Sons, Phillips’ album sounds more like a pop/folk crossover with less of a rock edge which the other two bands have. On the whole, while the music is beautiful, the similarity in style to the other two more established bands leaves very little originality as to what we can listen to and identify with Phillip Phillips.

Recommended tracks: ‘Home’, ‘Drive Me’, ‘Man On The Moon’

Rating: 3.5/5