One advantage of reaching the A-list is that you've earned enough capital to be honest about your taste. Johansson's set of Tom Waits covers is a high point in the star-digs-indie movement. Cut with Sitek, featuring Bowie (!), and impassioned by Scarlett, it's a surprising and dignified effort.
In May of 2008, which David you liked on "Idol" said a lot about who you were. Cook, eventual winner over Archuleta, has taken the show's familiar "rock ballad guy" role to a more credible place, and his husky-voiced hit, "The Time of My Life," doesn't require secret listening sessions.