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David Cook, the smug-grinned rocker who won the most recent season of “American Idol,” has exactly two settings to his voice: Regular Howl and Anguished Howl. The beauty of his “Idol” run was in the way he deployed them. When reworking modern pop classics — Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello” — he’d begin with Regular, shift to Anguished for an unexpected line or three midsong, then retreat. In this way Mr. Cook managed to appear meaningful, restrained and at times even clever.

Some residual counterintuitive strokes remain on Mr. Cook’s self-titled major debut album. But largely he stakes firm and unusually appealing claim to territory few covet: middlebrow ’90s rock, one part hard and one part alternative, an unabashed mix of heft and melody. On “Idol” he covered bands like Our Lady Peace and Collective Soul, much to the distaste of Simon Cowell. But this is where Mr. Cook’s heart and vocal range live. (He wears his self-consciousness about his “Idol” win on his sleeve; his obligatory post-“Idol”-victory single, “The Time of My Life,” is buried as a bonus track a full 11 minutes after this album’s final song.)

No amount of rasp can obscure Mr. Cook’s essential geniality, though, a limitation that turns out to be an asset. Like the genre he loves, Mr. Cook is hampered here by dim, amorphous songwriting (much of it contributed by members of his beloved ’90s bands). It’s only his broad, capable voice that redeems empty songs like “Declaration” and “Heroes,” and adds shade and texture to “Permanent,” about Mr. Cook’s relationship with his brother, who has cancer.

On “Avalanche,” an otherwise punishing love song, Mr. Cook tries the opposite trick from his “Idol” playbook, slipping into dulcet mode for a few lines. It’s there too on parts of “Lie,” the album’s highlight, and also its best-written track. “Hold on to the past tense tonight,” he tells a lover on the verge of leaving. “Don’t say a word/I’m O.K. with the quiet.” Finally Mr. Cook has forgone the Howls for a third way, giving hope there could someday be a fourth, a fifth or even more.