Cook began to concentrate working on this his second album after his first major tour, the Declaration Tour, concluded in December 2009.[3] While on the tour, he put down some riffs and lyrical ideas,[4] and started song-writing as a band towards the end of the tour.[5] He collaborated with a number of songwriters, early collaborators on his song-writing included Matt Squire, Brian Howes, Claude Kelly, Max Martin, Raine Maida, Scott Stevens and John Rzeznik.[6][7] More than 80 songs were written for the album, and 14 were tracked.[8] He had hoped initially that a single would be ready for release in April 2010 and the album that summer.[9] However, a producer for the album was not announced until May,[10] and recording started in June that year with producer Matt Serletic at the helm.[11]
Before recording, he said he has "lofty ideas" for his second album and described early songs written with Julian Emery and Jim Irvin as having "massive choruses" and "very U2-esque".[12] At the beginning his goal was to make an album that "really, really pushed the concept of dynamic".[12]
Theme
Cook wanted the album to have a loose theme within the record that is open to interpretation by the listener.[8] He described the opening song "Circadian" as being about "falling asleep and escaping the day, and using sleep as a reprieve", the middle of the album being "the gestation cycle of a relationship from start to finish", and the ending track "Rapid Eye Movement" being about waking up from a dream and having to face actual reality.[8]
Cook revealed "Rapid Eye Movement" was written early on in the writing process, and the song "opened up [his] thought process to the rest of this record".[13] On using sleep and dream as a narrative theme, he added, "I like that romantic idea of living an entire life for yourself while you’re asleep".
Album title
The title of the album is from a line in lyrics from a song on the album called "Rapid Eye Movement" – "Give me one more quiet night, 'fore this loud morning gets it right and does me in."[14]
AllMusic gave the album 3 out of 5 stars stating that "This Loud Morning winds up as an album that's primarily textural mood music for the morning, and one that's not all that loud either".[15]American Songwriter also gave the album 3 out of 5 stars stating that "This Loud Morning has a much more artistic vibe combined with a rawness evident in Cook's vocal performances not found on his previous Rob Cavallo produced release. This is refreshing considering Serletic's meticulous production style often results in songs becoming trapped in immense layers of over produced schlock. The album includes balanced amounts of strings, piano, and crunchy guitar, which all suit this more mature sounding material. Cook's more developed lyrics, melodic structures (he co-wrote all 12 tracks), and grittier vocal performances throughout the album abundantly display his overall growth as an artist."[16]Entertainment Weekly also gave the album a positive review. Entertainment Weekly stated that This Loud Morning, uses closing-credits-of-a-Michael-Bay-movie bombast too often to suffocate otherwise sweet, sometimes whimsical experiments like the album-opening Circadian.[18]
Singles
"The Last Goodbye" was the first official single from the album and was released on April 19, 2011.[19]
The song made its debut live on the American Idol (season 10) top 7 results show on April 21, 2011.[20] "The Last Goodbye" sold 22,000 copies in its first week and entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number five.[21][22]
"Fade into Me" is the second single from the album.[23] It was released on October 10, 2011.
This Quiet Night, is an EP packaged with This Loud Morning fan editions available exclusively via Cook's official music store and consists of acoustic performances of select album tracks.[32] The CD version became available when it was released as a Walmart exclusive on February 7, 2012.[33]
Track listing
No.
Title
Length
1.
"The Last Goodbye"
3:05
2.
"Right Here, With You"
3:13
3.
"Take Me As I Am"
4:00
4.
"Goodbye to the Girl"
4:13
5.
"Paper Heart"
3:22
Personnel
Band members
David Cook – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Monty Anderson – bass guitar
Kyle Peek – drums, backing vocals
Andy Skib – rhythm guitar, background vocals, piano
Neal Tiemann – lead guitar, acoustic baritone guitar
