The cover art work for "A Thousand Different Ways" sports a photograph of Aiken showing off his new hair style - the curls are gone. Inside the album is a collection of 14 songs most of which are cover songs chosen by Aiken himself as some of his favourites. Aiken had originally planned an album of original music, but admits that these days it is hard to find songs with good melodies. Aiken's voice lends itself well to producing some very good renditions of songs like Sir Elton's "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" and "Without You" by Nilson. While Aiken performs well on the cover tunes, the few original pieces that appear on the album are much better. Aiken lent his hand at helping to write some of the original songs.