‘American Idol’ notes: Phillip Phillips’ song snippets, rumored next single

We’re keeping Thursday’s edition of “American Idol” notes strictly about Phillip Phillips, and there’s a really good reason for that: we have a chance to actually hear pieces of every song off of his debut album “The World From the Side of the Moon.”

Going into listening to some of the individual previews for this disc, we admit to having some trepidation, based on the fact that most of his actual performance on the show were either ones that we loved, or ones that we forgot about pretty quickly. This is a guy who is much more comfortable singing his own music than that of other people, and it shows through most of these songs. “Man on the Moon” is a great way to start off the album, as there are some great Barenaked Ladies vibes to the song. “Gone, Gone, Gone” takes a little bit of that, and also throws in some of the acoustic leanings of “Home.” Based on what we’ve heard of “Tell Me a Story” so far, this may be one of our favorite tracks on the whole album thanks to its folk leanings. “Can’t Go Wrong” almost has a little bit of a country feel.

There are probably one or two too many ballads on this song for a guy whose music is largely rolling and fun, and we are also not sure about the rumors (as evidenced by the photo above) that “Where We Came From” is the follow-up single to “Home.” Personally, we would be happier to see something like “Man on the Moon” or “Gone, Gone, Gone” in that position to show off a bit more of an uptempo side of him to casual audiences.

Ultimately, the most impressive thing about this album thus far is that it does genuinely feel like the sort of album that you knew Phillip would make: the David Matthews influences are palpable, and the lyrics are perfect and seem to come from his soul.

What do you think about this album so far?