YES! Me too! Archuleta is amazing but his vocal amazingness is kind of limited to ballads. Nothing against ballads, but there's an edge in Cook's voice that makes every song he sings interesting. I don't know how far he'll go though, probably further than Daughtry because he's got far better musical sensibilities, but most AI rockers struggle with the image of being a sell-out for winning a pop-singer's competition. Then again, maybe not.
 

fully agree. I actually forgot to mention that the reason why I liked Cook more was because of his versatility with songs. His vocal range is also fantastic. Perhaps I have a soft spot for AI rockers over other singers, but then again, why not, eh? hopefully he goes far; I can totally envision myself downloading all of his albums ;).
 

I didn't watch much of AI, but I've heard Cook sing and he is awesome. The problem for him is not only, as Mai said, does he need to shed the image of being a sell-out, but he also needs to write music that will sell. For all we know Cook could be an amazing musician but a terrible song-writer. It'd be a shame to see talent like his go to waste and I hope he's good. Also, Gautam, Cook had a band before he auditioned for AI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfsdygQ1laA

The song has promise even though the only thing I like about it is the cool guitar riff. I think he might be able to break the market.
The type of music he sings reminds me of Three Days Grace with a bit of Creed and a lot of Fuel (Daughtry sang Hemorrhage by them).
 

I thought he had a bit of Chad Kroeger in his voice. Just better, though. For some reason, I am thinking he will be a good songwriter. If he can take other songs and make them original, then he's definitely got the talent for originality, which, I would think, would include songwriting. Though I could be wrong. Also, I know that in his last band, he sang backup vocals, but I didn't check out the clip that you posted, so not sure if it's the same band you're talking of.