It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, new, old, and everything in between. 

Today’s selection is Jordin Sparks, the debut studio album by Jordin Sparks. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

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Album: Jordin Sparks

Artist: Jordin Sparks

Idol Placement: Season 6 Winner

Release Date: November 20, 2007

Singles: “Tattoo”, “No Air”, “One Step at a Time”, “This Is My Now”

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Stream the Album:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

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Fun Facts:

• Jordin described the album as a cross between Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce.
• The album received mostly positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly calling it “effervescent fun” and USA Today describing it as “ultra-catchy.” The R&B-focused magazine Vibe, on the other hand, called Sparks “Walmart-safe” and said the album “reeks of generic blandness.”
• One of the album’s writers, Cathy Dennis, co-wrote Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Britney Spears’ “Toxic”.
• The album peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 200 and is certified platinum.

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We’ve posted a few questions in the comments to help spark discussion, but feel free to comment on anything you’d like.

Have an album you’d like to see featured in the Album Club? Drop us a modmail.

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, guilty pleasures, new, old, and everything in between. Each week Every now and then we’ll feature one album for the subreddit to listen to and discuss. 

Before we get to the album, a quick update: we're going to end our Retro Idol rewatch of Season 8. The number of people participating in the live chats has ranged from seven to zero. Having reached the Hollywood Week round with no comments in the chat, it feels like it’s time to put it to bed. Apologies to anyone who was enjoying this. I’m glad we tried it, but the off-season is generally very quiet around here and things are no different this year. Don’t worry, we’ll still do stuff. 

Our next Album Club selection is Many Colors by Leah Marlene. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

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Album: Many Colors

Artist: Leah Marlene

Idol Placement: 3rd Place, Season 20

Release Date: March 4, 2022

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Stream the Album:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

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Fun Facts:

• Leah was named a Top 50 finalist in NPR’s 2025 Tiny Desk Contest.
• Fellow Season 20 finalist Fritz Hager performs background vocals on the track “Noise”.
• Leah’s Idol single, “Flowers”, reached #6 on the iTunes chart.
• Leah’s dad is a member of Canadian 80s rock band Honeymoon Suite, which has over 50 million streams on Spotify.

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We’ve posted a few questions in the comments to help spark discussion, but feel free to comment on anything you’d like.

Have an album you’d like to see featured in the Album Club? Drop us a modmail.

Welcome back to our Retro Idol Live Chat of Season 8! We’re pressing play together each week and live chatting the entirety of Season 8, from auditions all the way to the finale.

How it works:

• Every Monday night we’ll all start the designated YouTube episode(s) at the same time. 
• Here’s the playlist we’ll be working from, dutifully collected by an internet stranger.
• We’ll watch, comment, relive the drama, and pretend it’s 2009 all over again.
• This post has the full schedule.

Tonight: Hollywood Week! It's spread out over three episodes: here's the first one, here's the second one, and here’s the third one. At 8:05pm Eastern, PRESS PLAY AND GO!

Welcome back to our Retro Idol Live Chat of Season 8! We’re pressing play together each week and live chatting the entirety of Season 8, from auditions all the way to the finale.

Tonight’s our last audition round! Next Monday: Hollywood Week! 

How it works:

• Every Monday night we’ll all start the designated YouTube episode(s) at the same time. 
• Here’s the playlist we’ll be working from, dutifully collected by an internet stranger.
• We’ll watch, comment, relive the drama, and pretend it’s 2009 all over again.
• This post has the full schedule.

Tonight's auditions have a runtime of two hours total and are spread out over three episodes: here's the first one, here's the second one, and here’s the third one. At 8:05pm Eastern, PRESS PLAY AND GO!

Welcome back to our Retro Idol Live Chat! We’re pressing play together each week and live chatting the entirety of Season 8 (the Kris/Adam season), from auditions all the way to the finale.

How it works:

• Every Monday night we’ll all start the designated YouTube episode(s) at the same time. 
• Here’s the playlist we’ll be working from, dutifully collected by an internet stranger.
• We’ll watch, comment, relive the drama, and pretend it’s 2009 all over again.
• This post has the full schedule.

Tonight's auditions are spread out over two episodes: here's the first one and here's the second one. At 8:05pm Eastern, PRESS PLAY AND GO!

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, guilty pleasures, new, old, and everything in between. Each week (or thereabouts) we’ll feature one album for the subreddit to listen to and discuss.

This week’s Album Club selection is Daughtry by Daughtry. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

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Album: Daughtry

Artist: Daughtry

Idol Placement: 4th Place, Season 5

Release Date: November 21, 2006

Singles: “It’s Not Over”, “Home”, “What I Want”, “Over You”, “Crashed”, “Feels Like Tonight”, “What About Now”

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Fun Facts:

• Rolling Stone’s review of the album: “Just because he can howl like a motherfucker doesn't mean he's not a cheeseball.”
• Daughtry spent 148 weeks in the Billboard Top 40. It’s the fastest-selling debut rock album in SoundScan history and the best-selling album of 2007.
• The album garnered four Grammy Award nominations: Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.
• Slash plays lead guitar on “What I Want”.
• David Hodges, who co-wrote “What About Now”, also co-wrote David Archuleta’s “Crush” and dozens of songs by Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Haley Reinhart, David Cook, Allison Iraheta, Katharine McPhee, Benson Boone, and other Idol alumni.

***

Streaming Links:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

***

5 Questions and Scoring

(Feel free to answer one of them or all of them and elaborate on your response if you’d like.)

• Best song?
• Most underrated song?
• Least favorite song?
• Favorite vocal moment?
• Does the album hold up? Why/why not?
• Overall score from 1 to 10?

We’ve also posted each question separately in the comments to help guide the discussion.

Have an album you’d like to see featured? Drop us a modmail.

Just a reminder that our Season 8 rewatch begins tomorrow. We'll be live-chatting the entire season, from auditions to the finale, each Monday at 8pm Eastern for the next few months.

The live chat post will go up shortly before 8pm. All the details are in this post. Hope you can make it!

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to forgotten deep cuts, guilty pleasures, new, old, and everything in between.

Each week we’ll feature one album for the subreddit to listen to and discuss throughout the week. This idea came from one of you in our recent offseason survey, so thank you, mysterious anonymous Redditor.

This week’s Album Club selection is Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

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Album: Breakaway

Artist: Kelly Clarkson

Idol Placement: Season 1 Winner

Release Date: November 30, 2004

Singles: “Since U Been Gone”, “Behind These Hazel Eyes”, “Because of You”, “Walk Away”, “Breakaway”

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Fun Facts:

• The song “Breakaway” was originally intended for Avril Lavigne, who co-wrote it.
• The album won Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
• Roughly half the album was co-written by future American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.

***

Streaming Links:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

***

5 Questions and Scoring

(Feel free to answer one of them or all of them and elaborate on your response if you’d like.)

• Best song?
• Most underrated song?
• Least favorite song?
• Favorite vocal moment?
• Does the album hold up?
• Overall score from 1 to 10?

We’ve also posted each question separately in the comments to help guide the discussion.

Have an album you’d like to see featured? Drop us a modmail.

Season 8 had it all:

• Ryan Seacrest high-fiving a blind man
• Norman Gentle
• The incubation of Megan Joy (caw! caw!)
• Eyeliner discourse
• No boundaries
• A contestant’s voting number accidentally connecting to a phone sex line
• West Side Story-style fist fights about who should’ve won
• And, of course, an epic battle between Kris, Adam, Danny, Allison, and some of the most memorable contestants in Idol history

Now, we’re going back. 

Based on a poll we recently conducted, Season 8 has been selected for our first ever Retro Idol Live Chat. Starting Monday, June 1 at 8pm Eastern, we’ll press play together each week and live chat the entirety of Season 8 in real time, from auditions all the way to the finale.

Along the way, we’ll see guest performances from Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Wonder, Queen, and many others.

How it works:

• Every Monday at 8pm Eastern, we’ll all start the designated YouTube episode(s) at the same time. 
• Here’s the playlist we’ll be working from, dutifully collected by an internet stranger.
• We’ll watch, comment, relive the drama, and pretend it’s 2009 again in the live chat.

A few notes:

• Nobody is expected to make it every week. This is supposed to be fun, not homework.
• If participation is extremely low, we may discontinue this since coordinating it does take some behind-the-scenes work.
• Three episodes appear to have vanished from the internet: Episode 16 (a semifinal round), Episode 22 (a results show), and Episode 36 (another results show). If anyone finds them anywhere, send a modmail.

The full schedule and episode list are posted in comments below.

See you Monday, June 1 at 8pm Eastern for the first audition episode!

Going to sit this out? How could you be so heartless.