Phillip Phillips’ “Home”: Review Revue

Becky Bain | May 24, 2012 2:06 pm

American Idol champion Phillip Phillips may be the show’s fifth WGWG (White Guy With A Guitar), but the Georgia native already has something not many other Idol winners possess: a universally loved coronation song.

“Home” was penned by Drew Pearson (who has worked with previous Idols Adam Lambert, Lee DeWyze and Casey Abrams) and UK singer Greg Holden. It was originally intended for Holden, but was submitted to Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine, who (accurately) thought it was perfect for Phil. The single is currently #1 on iTunes and has been getting an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and music bloggers. In fact, the one person who may not be that crazy about the song is Phillip Phillips.

“I don’t write songs like that,” Phillips told reporters of the track. “It’s a very good song and I’m glad people enjoyed it, but I’m itching to do my own stuff.”

“The song that I did tonight that supposedly is my single, it’s not really my single, I told them it’s not my single,” he continued. “I have my own stories to tell,” he said, “[But] I couldn’t do my song [on the finale]; we just didn’t have enough time.”

So what would Phil’s personally-written original tunes sound like? “Jazz and rock alternative sound; not really rock-rock — pretty different,” he says.

It’s too bad that Phillip doesn’t appear to be totally on board with the sound of “Home”, especially since pretty much everyone is shocked by how much they like it. Look below to see what we mean:

Popdust likes the song, and believes it “runs with the necessary thematic elements needed to market someone who came from a reality competition show, while picking up more interesting styles that focus on instrumentals and arrangement in addition to vocals.”

Idol Chatter thinks Phillips’ song is “very commercially viable and sounds like radio today mixed with a little old-school Simon and Garfunkel.” They add, “Home has to rank as one of the best Idol coronation songs ever.”

MJsBigBlog seems surprised, calling the song “actually pretty damn good” and “I’m not ashamed to admit that I downloaded this one.”

EW Music Mix gives the song an A-, and (like pretty much everyone else) likens it to Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes. They give it quite a compliment, saying, “The triumphant track is easily the coolest, most relevant song ever used as a reality TV coronation song.”

Rickey.org keeps it simple in their review: “I love this song. I hope it becomes a hit. It sounds like a remix of Mumford and Sons and Arcade Fire! Go Phillip!”

Spin, who titles their post “American Idol Shocker: Phillip Phillips’ Coronation Song ‘Home’ Doesn’t Suck” calls the tune “shockingly good — especially for an Idol coronation song, which have a tendency to be horrifyingly embarrassing.”

Vulture‘s Idol blogger Dave Holmes admits that he loves it, as it’s “the first of these Idol winner songs I can actually imagine becoming a hit song.” He gushes, “It is perfect for him: It’s right in his range, the arrangement updates his shtick to this decade, and a nation of pubescent girls imagines him singing its lyric directly to them. Game over.”

What do you think of Phillip’s coronation song? Did you download it? Or are still too bummed out that Jessica didn’t win? Sound off below!