As I believe I've mentioned, my schedule is pretty tight this week, so this will probably be pretty short and sweet. After all, I don't have Gokey to kick around anymore, so there should be fewer tangents/rants.
On with the show!
1) Adam Lambert - "Mad World": Great choice, as this was an absolutely breathtaking performance the first time around (and I think this was the one that Simon awarded with a standing ovation). I also like the choice because there is not nearly as much of the so-called "screaming" that his detractors talk about (although that's not screaming...that is a very powerful, very controlled falsetto voice). He looks fantastic, the set looks great, and I think the vocal was actually BETTER this time than last time. He also hit the lower note on the end, which you may recall me saying that I wish he had done the first time around. Just a gorgeous, flawless performance.
2) Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine": Another great choice, as this was also my favorite of his from this past season. This is what I'm talking about when I say that although Adam is maybe the most talented contestant this show has ever seen, and he probably deserves to win, the first album I will probably buy from this season's cast is Kris's. Love the arrangement, love his treatment of the song. This is one of my top 2-3 favorite performances of the whole season.
3) Adam Lambert - "Change is Gonna Come": You know, I don't know how much more we can say at this point...this was another great vocal, as well as another great PERFORMANCE. He connects with his songs so well, probably due to his musical theater background, and I thought he did a great job with the emotional aspects of this song, which I'm sure has a good deal of meaning for him considering his background. And the suit rocked.
4) Kris Allen - "What's Goin' On": I didn't think this was a great song choice for him by Simon Fuller, but I liked what he did with it. He pulled out the congo and accoustic arrangement that he used previously on "She Works Hard For The Money," and I thought it worked here, as well. Vocally, he's not in Adam's ballpark, but I really enjoy how he arranges songs and manages to twist something that we have heard a gazillion times, like this one, and turn it into something "relevant," as Simon would say.
I know I'm breezing through these, but sorry....when the performances are this good, it doesn't give me anything to be snarky about. So far, this has been a concert I would pay good money to see.
5) Adam Lambert - "No Boundaries": Kara manages to follow the great Idol tradition of crappy coronation songs. Man, have any of these been good since Fantasia's? This isn't as bad as "This is My Now," but it's still pretty bad.
As for the performance, it was fine...the usual Adam vocal gymnastics, and it sounds good, but I have no interest in hearing this song again, which is not good considering we'll probably hear it about 70 billion times over the next 6 months.
6) Kris Allen - "No Boundaries": Yeah, this wasn't very good, but I'm not putting the blame for that at his feet. This song does not fit his style AT ALL, and it's too high for him, as well. I think it was probably written with their Golden Two (Lambert and Gokey) in mind. The less said about this, the better.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
- Well, at least the production staff is consistent...still can't bring a show in on time, even in the finale. I don't want to hear about the four-judge thing, because a professional production staff should have found SOME way to adjust for that by now. I mean, didn't ALL of us know that there would be four judges, like, three months before the season started? How did the production staff not get the memo?
- This was a very enjoyable show...two great performers, and both of them sounded great, with none of the "voice issues" that have plagued finales in years past.
I would honestly be happy with either of these two as the winner. Like I said, Adam probably deserves based on the fact that he has turned in consistent jaw-dropping performances, and has done things on this show that we've never seen before. But part of me actually wants Kris to win, just because I think he needs it more...Adam is going to be fine at this point, from a career perspective, no matter what, but Kris may need that extra push that being the American Idol WINNER brings.
- Loved seeing my girl Carrie again...and seeing that montage made it even more amazing that we ended up with such a quality top 2. Remember Normund? Freaking TATIANA? BIKINI GIRL?!?!?!?!
Tonight should be fun, and VERY interesting. I think most of Danny's votes probably went to Kris, for reasons that I have NO interest in discussing. With that in mind, for the last time this season...
Who SHOULD win: Adam
Who WILL win: Kris
And that's OK with me.
This may be the last you hear from me until after vacation...tune in then for all of my LOST thoughts, a review of GLEE (Short review...loved it, and it took me down memory lane in a big way), plus the countdown to kickoff begins...by the time I get back, we will be down to under 100 days!
Showing posts with label Idol 2009 recaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Idol 2009 recaps. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 3
OK, I was in a FOUL mood from the start this week...I miss Allison, and my extreme dislike for everything about Danny Gokey is really getting out of control. Plus, I'm irritated because in years past the top 3 have all performed three songs, but this year we only get two (just like in previous weeks when everybody sang one instead of two like in years past), because everybody involved with this show is stupid and can't do their job, so although it seems like this season has been going on for like 16 years we will have actually heard much less actual singing from these performers than we ever have in the past. Yeah, Randy, tell me again about how this is a SINGING COMPETITION.
Oh, and even though we are cutting 3 songs from the normal Top 3 Night, I guarantee you they still won't end on time. Imbeciles.
Whatever...on with it.
1) Danny Gokey - "Dance Little Sister": Yeah, this ought to help my mood. Freaking Danny Gokey dancing around like a tool, doing the white man overbite, forgetting the words at least twice (I think...I'm not familiar with the song, but it sounded like he was singing something different from the background singers), doing some stupid and annoying skatting with the saxophone player, and sounding better than he has any right to.
So he sang the song well, whatever...as soon as he starts talking, I'm reminded immediately of everything I don't like about him. Smug. Smarmy. That stupid fake laugh. Ugh.
And Paula, stop reminding people that you used to be a choreographer...we're watching you "dance" at your chair every week, and you appear to have gone through a rhythm-ectomy. It's just sad to be reminded that you used to be the "It" choreographer back in the 80's.
2) Kris Allen - "Apologize": First of all, I did not like this song choice for him at all. His falsetto is the weakest part of his voice, in my opinion, and the chorus of this song is almost all falsetto. He sounds pretty good, anyway, especially when he does the last chorus and comes out of his falsetto a little. More than anything, Kris always sounds current, and this was really no exception. He also seems genuine, which is more than I can say for OTHER contestants. Well, actually ONE other contestant.
I really had high hopes for Kara after the early part of the season, but she is dead to me at this point. I can see her point to Simon, that they expected him to change the song up a little, but then why pick the song and then blast him for just singing it? Why not pick a song that ALREADY sounds like what you want him to do? That's like asking him to cook you a steak, but instead of handing him a NY strip, you bring him a cow. Yeah, he could turn that into a steak, but why make him do all the work? I thought the point of the judges choice was to pick a song that the judges think fits the contestant as an artist. So if you don't WANT him to sound like One Republic, why hand him a One Republic song? Ugh.
3) Adam Lambert - "One": Now this SHOULD be exactly what I need to break me out of this funk. One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, sung by a guy who has consistently had amazing performances. But....this was awful. This was like everything that is NOT awesome about Adam, all balled up into a two-minute ball of suckiness. Too overdramatic, and way way WAY too many liberties taken with what is actually a gorgeous melody.
This was like the Kris Allen thing turned inside out...Simon actually handed Adam a NY strip, but then Adam cut it up into meatloaf.
This recap is making me hungry.
4) Danny Gokey - "You Are So Beautiful": As much as I can't stand this guy, I'm not going to the "Dead Wife" place with this one. A lot of the Internet community blasts this guy every time he sings a ballad, saying that he is just using the memory of his dead wife to get votes...I think it's silly and unfair to think he can NEVER sing another love song again.
What I CAN blast him on is his pretentiousness. That whole conversation with Ryan before he sang was just nauseating. "I sat together with my mentors and we laid out all the songs and blah, blah, blah, I'm so awesome, blahzzy, blahzzy." You have mentors, PLURAL? I get the concept, but who TALKS like that? Plus, he always acts like he is giving us some sort of genius insight, a glimpse into the mind of the fantastical Danny, and he won't SHUT UP. I think Ryan may actually punch him before I have a chance to.
The singing was good, although not the "Master Class" that Simon said it was, and I actually thought the arrangement was somehow boring and over the top at the same time.
5) Kris Allen - "Heartless": FINALLY, a performance that I really enjoyed. Totally re-imagined the song, but in a simple and scaled back way...very Kris Allen of him. Although I think Adam may be the greatest overall performer this show has ever seen, it's going to be Kris's album that I am most likely to buy, just because he sings my kind of music. This was by far the best of the night, in my opinion. I would buy this TODAY.
One more thing about Kara, then I'll shut up about her....she actually asked him why he didn't do that with "Apologize." Well, moron, it's because he was already planning on doing this arrangement and didn't want to do the same thing twice in one show, and plus he was under the mistaken impression that you asked him to sing "Apologize" because you thought he would sound good singing it. Idiot.
6) Adam Lambert - "Cryin": And Adam FINALLY does some Aerosmith, which we've been waiting for all season. Some EARLY Aerosmith, right, KARA? (sorry...NOW I'm shutting up about her). And while this is good, it really wasn't as good as I was expecting and hoping for. In fact, I thought it actually paled in comparison to Steven Tyler's original vocal, and I NEVER thought I would say that about an Adam Lambert performance. He ALWAYS takes liberties with the melodies, and normally I love it, but I guess tonight I just wasn't a big fan of the choices he made vocally.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
- They still went over by several minutes, even cutting three songs and scheduling the show to run until four past the hour. Unbelievable.
- There is no WAY they bring back four judges next year. This has been a disaster. I know most of my anger tonight was at Kara, but in all honesty I don't care which one of them goes as long as it's not Simon. It was pretty funny tonight that they had Randy and Kara pick Kris's song together, since there's really no difference between them anymore, other than the fact that Kara will still stand up to Simon (which is the only reason I would want her to stick around).
- The backup singers were WAY too loud tonight, especially on Adam's "Cryin'." Apparently the sound guys are just as incompetent as the Director.
- Has Simon ever openly begged us to vote for somebody before? I can't remember ever seeing that.
How I ranked the performances:
Kris, "Heartless"
Kris, "Apologize"
Danny, "You Are So Beautiful"
Adam, "Cryin"
Danny, "Dance Little Sister"
Adam, "One"
Who SHOULD go home: Danny (again, this is based on the whole season, not just this one night)
Who WILL go home: Danny
I know, I'm probably wrong, considering that Adam vs. Danny has been a foregone conclusion for a while now. I just think America might pleasantly surprise me this week. I checked DialIdol this morning, and the three are unbelievably close, with Danny on the bottom. Since DialIdol doesn't factor in text votes, I think that doesn't bode well for Danny since I think his demographic is less likely to power-text. We'll see.
Oh, and even though we are cutting 3 songs from the normal Top 3 Night, I guarantee you they still won't end on time. Imbeciles.
Whatever...on with it.
1) Danny Gokey - "Dance Little Sister": Yeah, this ought to help my mood. Freaking Danny Gokey dancing around like a tool, doing the white man overbite, forgetting the words at least twice (I think...I'm not familiar with the song, but it sounded like he was singing something different from the background singers), doing some stupid and annoying skatting with the saxophone player, and sounding better than he has any right to.
So he sang the song well, whatever...as soon as he starts talking, I'm reminded immediately of everything I don't like about him. Smug. Smarmy. That stupid fake laugh. Ugh.
And Paula, stop reminding people that you used to be a choreographer...we're watching you "dance" at your chair every week, and you appear to have gone through a rhythm-ectomy. It's just sad to be reminded that you used to be the "It" choreographer back in the 80's.
2) Kris Allen - "Apologize": First of all, I did not like this song choice for him at all. His falsetto is the weakest part of his voice, in my opinion, and the chorus of this song is almost all falsetto. He sounds pretty good, anyway, especially when he does the last chorus and comes out of his falsetto a little. More than anything, Kris always sounds current, and this was really no exception. He also seems genuine, which is more than I can say for OTHER contestants. Well, actually ONE other contestant.
I really had high hopes for Kara after the early part of the season, but she is dead to me at this point. I can see her point to Simon, that they expected him to change the song up a little, but then why pick the song and then blast him for just singing it? Why not pick a song that ALREADY sounds like what you want him to do? That's like asking him to cook you a steak, but instead of handing him a NY strip, you bring him a cow. Yeah, he could turn that into a steak, but why make him do all the work? I thought the point of the judges choice was to pick a song that the judges think fits the contestant as an artist. So if you don't WANT him to sound like One Republic, why hand him a One Republic song? Ugh.
3) Adam Lambert - "One": Now this SHOULD be exactly what I need to break me out of this funk. One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, sung by a guy who has consistently had amazing performances. But....this was awful. This was like everything that is NOT awesome about Adam, all balled up into a two-minute ball of suckiness. Too overdramatic, and way way WAY too many liberties taken with what is actually a gorgeous melody.
This was like the Kris Allen thing turned inside out...Simon actually handed Adam a NY strip, but then Adam cut it up into meatloaf.
This recap is making me hungry.
4) Danny Gokey - "You Are So Beautiful": As much as I can't stand this guy, I'm not going to the "Dead Wife" place with this one. A lot of the Internet community blasts this guy every time he sings a ballad, saying that he is just using the memory of his dead wife to get votes...I think it's silly and unfair to think he can NEVER sing another love song again.
What I CAN blast him on is his pretentiousness. That whole conversation with Ryan before he sang was just nauseating. "I sat together with my mentors and we laid out all the songs and blah, blah, blah, I'm so awesome, blahzzy, blahzzy." You have mentors, PLURAL? I get the concept, but who TALKS like that? Plus, he always acts like he is giving us some sort of genius insight, a glimpse into the mind of the fantastical Danny, and he won't SHUT UP. I think Ryan may actually punch him before I have a chance to.
The singing was good, although not the "Master Class" that Simon said it was, and I actually thought the arrangement was somehow boring and over the top at the same time.
5) Kris Allen - "Heartless": FINALLY, a performance that I really enjoyed. Totally re-imagined the song, but in a simple and scaled back way...very Kris Allen of him. Although I think Adam may be the greatest overall performer this show has ever seen, it's going to be Kris's album that I am most likely to buy, just because he sings my kind of music. This was by far the best of the night, in my opinion. I would buy this TODAY.
One more thing about Kara, then I'll shut up about her....she actually asked him why he didn't do that with "Apologize." Well, moron, it's because he was already planning on doing this arrangement and didn't want to do the same thing twice in one show, and plus he was under the mistaken impression that you asked him to sing "Apologize" because you thought he would sound good singing it. Idiot.
6) Adam Lambert - "Cryin": And Adam FINALLY does some Aerosmith, which we've been waiting for all season. Some EARLY Aerosmith, right, KARA? (sorry...NOW I'm shutting up about her). And while this is good, it really wasn't as good as I was expecting and hoping for. In fact, I thought it actually paled in comparison to Steven Tyler's original vocal, and I NEVER thought I would say that about an Adam Lambert performance. He ALWAYS takes liberties with the melodies, and normally I love it, but I guess tonight I just wasn't a big fan of the choices he made vocally.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
- They still went over by several minutes, even cutting three songs and scheduling the show to run until four past the hour. Unbelievable.
- There is no WAY they bring back four judges next year. This has been a disaster. I know most of my anger tonight was at Kara, but in all honesty I don't care which one of them goes as long as it's not Simon. It was pretty funny tonight that they had Randy and Kara pick Kris's song together, since there's really no difference between them anymore, other than the fact that Kara will still stand up to Simon (which is the only reason I would want her to stick around).
- The backup singers were WAY too loud tonight, especially on Adam's "Cryin'." Apparently the sound guys are just as incompetent as the Director.
- Has Simon ever openly begged us to vote for somebody before? I can't remember ever seeing that.
How I ranked the performances:
Kris, "Heartless"
Kris, "Apologize"
Danny, "You Are So Beautiful"
Adam, "Cryin"
Danny, "Dance Little Sister"
Adam, "One"
Who SHOULD go home: Danny (again, this is based on the whole season, not just this one night)
Who WILL go home: Danny
I know, I'm probably wrong, considering that Adam vs. Danny has been a foregone conclusion for a while now. I just think America might pleasantly surprise me this week. I checked DialIdol this morning, and the three are unbelievably close, with Danny on the bottom. Since DialIdol doesn't factor in text votes, I think that doesn't bode well for Danny since I think his demographic is less likely to power-text. We'll see.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 4
YES!! SLASH is in the house!! Of course, I can't tell that he really did all that much "mentoring," but it still would have been freaking awesome to get to rehearse while he played.
So, on with Rock Night....also known as The Night That Danny Gokey Became Dead to Me (SPOILER!!!!)
Oh, and we're doing duets tonight....why? Oh, that's right. Because the people directing this show are imbeciles and have forgotten how to get a show in on time, so we apparently can't do two solos each. Oh, and because they decided to add a fourth judge, and the imbeciles directing this show still haven't managed to adjust this far into the season. One of these judges has to go next season. I don't care which one, as long as it's not Cowell.
1) Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love": Hey, Slash gave him the same advice I gave him last week...we know what you can do in the upper register. Try doing some more in your lower register, because that is awesome as well.
He comes out certainly looking the rocker part...leather, chains, spiky hair, tons of eyeliner. Then he opens his mouth...and gives maybe the most incredible performance I've ever seen on this show. Seriously. I know I say that almost every week with him, but I really mean it this time. Just incredible....vocally, of course, but also his performance. Dude is a Bloody Rock God.
I'm so sick of people saying, "If he wins, he won't sell any albums 'cuz he's just gonna do Broadway." Um, no...he's going to do THIS. And I will be at Walmart the day it comes out.
The guy is obviously not an idiot...he makes great song choices every week, and he seems to have an excellent grasp as to how much he can get away with when it comes to his "flamboyance." You think he's going to put out an album of him just singing the soundtrack to Wicked? No, because he's smarter than that.
By the way, I would totally buy an album of him singing the soundtrack to Wicked. Shut up.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Cry Baby": My favorite Janis Joplin song, by the way. Janis is kind of underrated as a singer, I think...she had a massive range, and Allison has to start this pretty low on the verses. I think she kind of swallowed a couple of the lower notes. But when she got to the chorus, it was fantastic. This song is perfect for her voice, and I think she DID take just enough liberty with the melody, despite Simon's claim that it was "copycat." I loved this, although I am kind of nervous for her on the tour...I'm not sure if her voice is going to hold out.
Kara really got on my nerves, starting here..."Another Piece of My Heart?" Really? Cause we can NEVER hear enough of that song, right?
I liked that she kind of stood up for herself to the judges...I've never agreed with what Simon has said about her having a lack of personality. And what she said to them was good, I thought...not disrespectful or rude, just explaining why she made the choice she did.
PLEASE let her out-last Gokey. PLEASE.
3) Kris Allen/Danny Gokey - "Renegade": And here we go with the pointless duets. Seriously, what is the point in this? I can see doing this on the finale, but we're not supposed to be voting on who can handle a duet best, are we?
Anyway...in the spirit of fairness, I actually watched Adam and Allison's duet first. So this one had a lot to live up to. And...they didn't. Their harmonies start out OK, and they end OK, but the middle was a hot mess. Kris was cracking all over the place, and they are both trying to do too much riffing, which causes the harmonies to get screwed up. Also, they look VERY uncomfortable...again, in fairness, you can maybe chalk that up to them not having a dress rehearsal due to the stage malfunction, but that didn't seem to affect Adam and Allison.
After the performance and the judges' commentary, Kris looked TICKED, didn't he? He was kind of having a bad night...first, he has to perform with Gokey, then he doesn't get to rehearse, then they schedule him to sing his solo RIGHT after this (which is really unfair), then Simon throws him under the Danny Bus.
And what exactly was Danny complaining about after the performance? Dude, shut up. EVERYBODY is dealing with the same crap tonight. Stop making everything about you, as usual. This is when the anti-Danny anger really started boiling over, in case you're wondering.
4) Kris Allen - "Come Together": You know, if we had not already heard Adam and Allison, I probably would have liked this more. I REALLY liked the arrangement, which considering that I am a Beatles fanatic is saying something. I actually think it would have sounded better as an acoustic version, but he probably couldn't get away with going unplugged on Rock Week. Again, I think he took a good song and tweaked it just enough that it was a "Kris Allen" performance rather than a copy. I liked it. He still looks like a chimp, though.
5) Danny Gokey - "Dream On": UGH. Nice things first...for the first two lines he sounds really nice. Then he started running into some breath and pitch problems. Then he went into the chorus, and it just got awful. Pitch problems EVERYWHERE. Anytime he had to hold a note more than a few beats, he lost the pitch. And he says "Truuueewwww." And the screaming, my God, the screaming. Just an utterly painful performance.
And THEN, of freaking COURSE, he gets all jerky and condescending with the judges. "I'll have to watch it back"...."It wasn't THAT bad"....you know, the downside of a written medium like this one is that there is no way I can emphasize how smarmy and douchey he sounded with just words. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.
I predicted way back in my critique of his Top 36 performance that I would end up with an irrational level of hatred for him if he stuck around. The weird part is that what finally pushed me over the edge were NONE of the things that I thought would end up causing me to want to kick him in the teeth. He hasn't mentioned his Dead Wife in weeks, he's only been about 50% Archuletta in his song choice. I had no idea at the time that he was going to turn out to be such a smarmy, arrogant little twerp. Huh...sometimes life still finds a way to surprise you, I guess.
****UPDATE****
You know what, I forgot to mention something else that turned my boiling anger into molten lava of hate regarding Danny...that stupid part in the song where he was kind of singing along with the guitar. Ugh. Just...
I believe Michael Scott put it best: I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.
(By the way...that link to the Michael Scott quote just became one of my new favorite websites).
Oh, and then to add to my annoyance, Kara tells him he should have done some EARLY Aerosmith, like "Cryin'" or "Crazy."
Yeah....I'm just going to move on.
6) Allison Iraheta/Adam Lambert - "Slow Ride": Ahhh....this was EXACTLY what I needed to cleanse the palate. A little Fog Hat, performed by my top 2 by a MILE. Not much to say about this, other than it was just fun. They sound awesome together, you can tell they are having a great time...everything that was not good about the Danny/Kris duet, just done perfectly. I would definitely pay to see this, and I will be listening to it on YouTube on a loop until Fox takes it down.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is definitely the most talented top 4 they have ever had...I guess the wild card/judges save/only 3 out of 12 advance stuff actually did its job.
And, of course...they STILL manage to somehow NOT end on time, causing me to miss the end of Fringe. Good LORD...how can the biggest show in the history of television have such dunces running the show? You only have FOUR PERFORMERS. How do you not manage to come in on time?
Here's how I would rank the performances tonight:
Adam solo
Adam/Allison
Allison solo
Kris solo
Kris/Danny
(....)
(....)
(....)
(....)
Danny solo.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Kris and Danny
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Allison. Because America is stoopid.
Who SHOULD go home:
Danny. Please....for the love of all that is good and right.
Who WILL go home:
Kris.
Danny is going to be in the final 2, people. I plan on buying 6 more cell phones between now and then so that I can power dial for Adam on all 6.
So, on with Rock Night....also known as The Night That Danny Gokey Became Dead to Me (SPOILER!!!!)
Oh, and we're doing duets tonight....why? Oh, that's right. Because the people directing this show are imbeciles and have forgotten how to get a show in on time, so we apparently can't do two solos each. Oh, and because they decided to add a fourth judge, and the imbeciles directing this show still haven't managed to adjust this far into the season. One of these judges has to go next season. I don't care which one, as long as it's not Cowell.
1) Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love": Hey, Slash gave him the same advice I gave him last week...we know what you can do in the upper register. Try doing some more in your lower register, because that is awesome as well.
He comes out certainly looking the rocker part...leather, chains, spiky hair, tons of eyeliner. Then he opens his mouth...and gives maybe the most incredible performance I've ever seen on this show. Seriously. I know I say that almost every week with him, but I really mean it this time. Just incredible....vocally, of course, but also his performance. Dude is a Bloody Rock God.
I'm so sick of people saying, "If he wins, he won't sell any albums 'cuz he's just gonna do Broadway." Um, no...he's going to do THIS. And I will be at Walmart the day it comes out.
The guy is obviously not an idiot...he makes great song choices every week, and he seems to have an excellent grasp as to how much he can get away with when it comes to his "flamboyance." You think he's going to put out an album of him just singing the soundtrack to Wicked? No, because he's smarter than that.
By the way, I would totally buy an album of him singing the soundtrack to Wicked. Shut up.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Cry Baby": My favorite Janis Joplin song, by the way. Janis is kind of underrated as a singer, I think...she had a massive range, and Allison has to start this pretty low on the verses. I think she kind of swallowed a couple of the lower notes. But when she got to the chorus, it was fantastic. This song is perfect for her voice, and I think she DID take just enough liberty with the melody, despite Simon's claim that it was "copycat." I loved this, although I am kind of nervous for her on the tour...I'm not sure if her voice is going to hold out.
Kara really got on my nerves, starting here..."Another Piece of My Heart?" Really? Cause we can NEVER hear enough of that song, right?
I liked that she kind of stood up for herself to the judges...I've never agreed with what Simon has said about her having a lack of personality. And what she said to them was good, I thought...not disrespectful or rude, just explaining why she made the choice she did.
PLEASE let her out-last Gokey. PLEASE.
3) Kris Allen/Danny Gokey - "Renegade": And here we go with the pointless duets. Seriously, what is the point in this? I can see doing this on the finale, but we're not supposed to be voting on who can handle a duet best, are we?
Anyway...in the spirit of fairness, I actually watched Adam and Allison's duet first. So this one had a lot to live up to. And...they didn't. Their harmonies start out OK, and they end OK, but the middle was a hot mess. Kris was cracking all over the place, and they are both trying to do too much riffing, which causes the harmonies to get screwed up. Also, they look VERY uncomfortable...again, in fairness, you can maybe chalk that up to them not having a dress rehearsal due to the stage malfunction, but that didn't seem to affect Adam and Allison.
After the performance and the judges' commentary, Kris looked TICKED, didn't he? He was kind of having a bad night...first, he has to perform with Gokey, then he doesn't get to rehearse, then they schedule him to sing his solo RIGHT after this (which is really unfair), then Simon throws him under the Danny Bus.
And what exactly was Danny complaining about after the performance? Dude, shut up. EVERYBODY is dealing with the same crap tonight. Stop making everything about you, as usual. This is when the anti-Danny anger really started boiling over, in case you're wondering.
4) Kris Allen - "Come Together": You know, if we had not already heard Adam and Allison, I probably would have liked this more. I REALLY liked the arrangement, which considering that I am a Beatles fanatic is saying something. I actually think it would have sounded better as an acoustic version, but he probably couldn't get away with going unplugged on Rock Week. Again, I think he took a good song and tweaked it just enough that it was a "Kris Allen" performance rather than a copy. I liked it. He still looks like a chimp, though.
5) Danny Gokey - "Dream On": UGH. Nice things first...for the first two lines he sounds really nice. Then he started running into some breath and pitch problems. Then he went into the chorus, and it just got awful. Pitch problems EVERYWHERE. Anytime he had to hold a note more than a few beats, he lost the pitch. And he says "Truuueewwww." And the screaming, my God, the screaming. Just an utterly painful performance.
And THEN, of freaking COURSE, he gets all jerky and condescending with the judges. "I'll have to watch it back"...."It wasn't THAT bad"....you know, the downside of a written medium like this one is that there is no way I can emphasize how smarmy and douchey he sounded with just words. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.
I predicted way back in my critique of his Top 36 performance that I would end up with an irrational level of hatred for him if he stuck around. The weird part is that what finally pushed me over the edge were NONE of the things that I thought would end up causing me to want to kick him in the teeth. He hasn't mentioned his Dead Wife in weeks, he's only been about 50% Archuletta in his song choice. I had no idea at the time that he was going to turn out to be such a smarmy, arrogant little twerp. Huh...sometimes life still finds a way to surprise you, I guess.
****UPDATE****
You know what, I forgot to mention something else that turned my boiling anger into molten lava of hate regarding Danny...that stupid part in the song where he was kind of singing along with the guitar. Ugh. Just...
I believe Michael Scott put it best: I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.
(By the way...that link to the Michael Scott quote just became one of my new favorite websites).
Oh, and then to add to my annoyance, Kara tells him he should have done some EARLY Aerosmith, like "Cryin'" or "Crazy."
Yeah....I'm just going to move on.
6) Allison Iraheta/Adam Lambert - "Slow Ride": Ahhh....this was EXACTLY what I needed to cleanse the palate. A little Fog Hat, performed by my top 2 by a MILE. Not much to say about this, other than it was just fun. They sound awesome together, you can tell they are having a great time...everything that was not good about the Danny/Kris duet, just done perfectly. I would definitely pay to see this, and I will be listening to it on YouTube on a loop until Fox takes it down.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is definitely the most talented top 4 they have ever had...I guess the wild card/judges save/only 3 out of 12 advance stuff actually did its job.
And, of course...they STILL manage to somehow NOT end on time, causing me to miss the end of Fringe. Good LORD...how can the biggest show in the history of television have such dunces running the show? You only have FOUR PERFORMERS. How do you not manage to come in on time?
Here's how I would rank the performances tonight:
Adam solo
Adam/Allison
Allison solo
Kris solo
Kris/Danny
(....)
(....)
(....)
(....)
Danny solo.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Kris and Danny
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Allison. Because America is stoopid.
Who SHOULD go home:
Danny. Please....for the love of all that is good and right.
Who WILL go home:
Kris.
Danny is going to be in the final 2, people. I plan on buying 6 more cell phones between now and then so that I can power dial for Adam on all 6.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 5
Hey, it's Rat Pack night!! So, the mentor is noted Rat Packer...ummm...Jamie Foxx? What, is he a respected Sinatra historian and I just didn't know it? Is he Sammy's illegitimate son? No? Ohhh....that's right. The Soloist hit theaters on April 24...starring Jamie Foxx. Well, that's just blatant hucksterism, then, isn't it?
THIS....is AMERICAN IDOL!!!
1) Kris Allen - "The Way You Look Tonight": First, let me say this...Kris was looking very sharp tonight. I'm secure enough in my heterosexuality to point that out (obviously...I blog about AMERICAN IDOL, for Pete's sake).
I love this song, and I thought Kris did a very good job with it...I loved the first part, when he was sending out the crooner vibe. The middle was just OK for me, dawg...I don't like his falsetto voice, and this little R&B part just seemed unnecessary to me. I get what he was doing by trying to change up the original a little, I just didn't really like it all that much. I also think he should not have ended with the falsetto...his falsetto voice is just not strong enough to pull that off.
Despite what this is starting to sound like, I actually did enjoy this...probably in a 2-way tie for my second favorite of the night. I just would have enjoyed it more if he had sang it straight, but that's probably going to be the way I feel about everybody since I love this style of music and think these songs are some of the most beautiful ever written.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Someone to Watch Over Me": I absolutely LOVED this...I watched it three times in a row, and then called Carrie in to watch it with me. Gorgeous song, she sang it pretty much straight, backed off the power in all of the right places...plus, she doesn't look like she picked her clothes out of Hot Topic tonight. This was gorgeous, and my favorite of the night by far.
I agree with half of what Simon said to her...I don't think the problem is her personality. I actually enjoy her personality. But I do think she lacks confidence, and her reaction when he asked her if she thought she could win was pretty telling. The correct answer is "Yes." No qualifiers, no backtracking.
Oh, and I have to once again call Paula out on the pre-written commentary. Yes, it makes her sound more coherent, but it's also blatantly obvious that she's not coming up with it on the spot.
Come on...this is an exact quote: "We all know the driving force that your vocals posses...but what you delivered tonight had an innocent sensibility that was both alluring...and very tender." All delivered with the subtlety of a 10th grader who has been given her first lead in the school play. You're telling me that Paula A) came up with that on the spot, and B) managed to get it out succinctly? Methinks someone got a little nervous when they brought Kara in, and decided to take steps to make sure there are no more screw-ups like the "I thought Jason Castro already sang twice" fiasco from last season.
Moving on...
3) Matt Giraud - "My Funny Valentine": Yeah, I think Jamie just didn't have anything useful to add, got bored, or whatever, and sent Matt out...only to have the producers say, "Jamie, Baby...we're letting you come on this ratings behemoth of a show for no other reason than you have a movie coming out...you have to give us SOMETHING to work with here." So they called Matt back in, so that Jamie could "advise" him.
He actually gave good advice that I wish ALL of the mentors would give Matt...it's the same advice that Tarrantino gave him. Don't fall so in love with the vocal gymnastics that you forget to sing the freaking song.
Once he started singing, though, I was confused...did Jamie tell him to LOWER the key? I thought he told him to RAISE the key. Regardless, now Matt is singing in his lower register, and it is pitchy for me, dawg. He seems uncomfortable. He's just flat all over the place until he gets to the end. I did like the ending, but he should have just held that last note out...he can't help himself, though, and he has to break off into the little falsetto run at the end. His falsetto is not NEARLY as good as he thinks it is.
I have no clue what Simon was listening to...I'm usually pretty much in lockstep with him, but I didn't get his effusive praise of that mess at ALL.
4) Danny Gokey - "Come Rain or Come Shine": Here's my take on Danny...I really do love to listen to him sing almost every time he performs. I just can't watch him. When he's being "sincere" he strikes me as smarmy, and when he goes into the "big" parts, I just don't buy him as a performer. I've brought up Taylor Hicks before in comparisons to Danny, and I still stand by it when it comes to performance style...spastic, I guess, is the word I'm looking for.
Again...vocally, this was a FANTASTIC performance. I just listened to it again on YouTube (without watching, sound only), and I can't find one single thing wrong with it. I just don't connect with Danny, apparently. And...somehow, to me, Adam manages to come off as more humble than Danny. Not sure how he's pulling that off. But Danny, in his reactions to people, just strikes me as smug.
I don't know...I'm sure people will tell me I'm just being mean or whatever, but don't you have those people who you just don't like, even if you can't put your finger on why, and everybody else seems to love them and thinks you're crazy for not liking them? Yeah, it's like that.
Oh, and, Randy...AMERICAN IDOL IS NOT A SINGING COMPETITION. STOP SAYING THAT. SERIOUSLY...NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU SAY IT, IT DOESN'T MAKE IT TRUE. IT WAS NEVER A SINGING COMPETITION. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A POP STAR COMPETITION. IF YOU DON'T GET THE DIFFERENCE, THEN YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION FOR THE LAST...I DON'T KNOW...40 YEARS OF MUSIC HISTORY.
OK...all better now.
5) Adam Lambert - "Feeling Good": I'm telling you, when he came sashay/strutting down the stairs, I thought for sure this would be the week that Adam just unleashed on America with full fury (if you don't know what I mean by that, then check this out). As it turns out, it was another pretty typical Adam performance. Honestly, this is maybe my least favorite of his performances...I actually enjoyed "Ring of Fire" more, just due to the sheer audacity of it. I am amazed by what he can do vocally, but I would actually like to hear him do a song one time WITHOUT exploring the upper reaches of his range (if we've even heard the upper reaches of his range yet). And the tongue thing is starting to be distracting. But, this was still very good, and he is just so much more "complete" as an artist than anybody else on this show that it's not even funny.
Loved Simon's comment to Randy: complaining about Adam being too theatrical is like complaining about a cow who moos.
Final thoughts:
Allison was my favorite tonight, followed by a two way tie between Adam and Kris, then Danny, then Matt.
I LOVE these songs, and they are perfect for a show like this. They are beautiful enough that you can just sing them straight (like Allison did), because they are written for great singers. But there is also a lot of freedom in the melody so that you can change it up if you want to and still sound great (like Danny did).
Hard to come up with a bottom two this week...everybody except one was really, REALLY good.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Including my personal (and as yet unexplained) bias: Danny and Matt
Without my personal (and as yet unexplained) bias: Kris and Matt
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Matt
Who SHOULD go home:
Matt
Who WILL go home:
Matt
THIS....is AMERICAN IDOL!!!
1) Kris Allen - "The Way You Look Tonight": First, let me say this...Kris was looking very sharp tonight. I'm secure enough in my heterosexuality to point that out (obviously...I blog about AMERICAN IDOL, for Pete's sake).
I love this song, and I thought Kris did a very good job with it...I loved the first part, when he was sending out the crooner vibe. The middle was just OK for me, dawg...I don't like his falsetto voice, and this little R&B part just seemed unnecessary to me. I get what he was doing by trying to change up the original a little, I just didn't really like it all that much. I also think he should not have ended with the falsetto...his falsetto voice is just not strong enough to pull that off.
Despite what this is starting to sound like, I actually did enjoy this...probably in a 2-way tie for my second favorite of the night. I just would have enjoyed it more if he had sang it straight, but that's probably going to be the way I feel about everybody since I love this style of music and think these songs are some of the most beautiful ever written.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Someone to Watch Over Me": I absolutely LOVED this...I watched it three times in a row, and then called Carrie in to watch it with me. Gorgeous song, she sang it pretty much straight, backed off the power in all of the right places...plus, she doesn't look like she picked her clothes out of Hot Topic tonight. This was gorgeous, and my favorite of the night by far.
I agree with half of what Simon said to her...I don't think the problem is her personality. I actually enjoy her personality. But I do think she lacks confidence, and her reaction when he asked her if she thought she could win was pretty telling. The correct answer is "Yes." No qualifiers, no backtracking.
Oh, and I have to once again call Paula out on the pre-written commentary. Yes, it makes her sound more coherent, but it's also blatantly obvious that she's not coming up with it on the spot.
Come on...this is an exact quote: "We all know the driving force that your vocals posses...but what you delivered tonight had an innocent sensibility that was both alluring...and very tender." All delivered with the subtlety of a 10th grader who has been given her first lead in the school play. You're telling me that Paula A) came up with that on the spot, and B) managed to get it out succinctly? Methinks someone got a little nervous when they brought Kara in, and decided to take steps to make sure there are no more screw-ups like the "I thought Jason Castro already sang twice" fiasco from last season.
Moving on...
3) Matt Giraud - "My Funny Valentine": Yeah, I think Jamie just didn't have anything useful to add, got bored, or whatever, and sent Matt out...only to have the producers say, "Jamie, Baby...we're letting you come on this ratings behemoth of a show for no other reason than you have a movie coming out...you have to give us SOMETHING to work with here." So they called Matt back in, so that Jamie could "advise" him.
He actually gave good advice that I wish ALL of the mentors would give Matt...it's the same advice that Tarrantino gave him. Don't fall so in love with the vocal gymnastics that you forget to sing the freaking song.
Once he started singing, though, I was confused...did Jamie tell him to LOWER the key? I thought he told him to RAISE the key. Regardless, now Matt is singing in his lower register, and it is pitchy for me, dawg. He seems uncomfortable. He's just flat all over the place until he gets to the end. I did like the ending, but he should have just held that last note out...he can't help himself, though, and he has to break off into the little falsetto run at the end. His falsetto is not NEARLY as good as he thinks it is.
I have no clue what Simon was listening to...I'm usually pretty much in lockstep with him, but I didn't get his effusive praise of that mess at ALL.
4) Danny Gokey - "Come Rain or Come Shine": Here's my take on Danny...I really do love to listen to him sing almost every time he performs. I just can't watch him. When he's being "sincere" he strikes me as smarmy, and when he goes into the "big" parts, I just don't buy him as a performer. I've brought up Taylor Hicks before in comparisons to Danny, and I still stand by it when it comes to performance style...spastic, I guess, is the word I'm looking for.
Again...vocally, this was a FANTASTIC performance. I just listened to it again on YouTube (without watching, sound only), and I can't find one single thing wrong with it. I just don't connect with Danny, apparently. And...somehow, to me, Adam manages to come off as more humble than Danny. Not sure how he's pulling that off. But Danny, in his reactions to people, just strikes me as smug.
I don't know...I'm sure people will tell me I'm just being mean or whatever, but don't you have those people who you just don't like, even if you can't put your finger on why, and everybody else seems to love them and thinks you're crazy for not liking them? Yeah, it's like that.
Oh, and, Randy...AMERICAN IDOL IS NOT A SINGING COMPETITION. STOP SAYING THAT. SERIOUSLY...NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU SAY IT, IT DOESN'T MAKE IT TRUE. IT WAS NEVER A SINGING COMPETITION. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A POP STAR COMPETITION. IF YOU DON'T GET THE DIFFERENCE, THEN YOU HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING ATTENTION FOR THE LAST...I DON'T KNOW...40 YEARS OF MUSIC HISTORY.
OK...all better now.
5) Adam Lambert - "Feeling Good": I'm telling you, when he came sashay/strutting down the stairs, I thought for sure this would be the week that Adam just unleashed on America with full fury (if you don't know what I mean by that, then check this out). As it turns out, it was another pretty typical Adam performance. Honestly, this is maybe my least favorite of his performances...I actually enjoyed "Ring of Fire" more, just due to the sheer audacity of it. I am amazed by what he can do vocally, but I would actually like to hear him do a song one time WITHOUT exploring the upper reaches of his range (if we've even heard the upper reaches of his range yet). And the tongue thing is starting to be distracting. But, this was still very good, and he is just so much more "complete" as an artist than anybody else on this show that it's not even funny.
Loved Simon's comment to Randy: complaining about Adam being too theatrical is like complaining about a cow who moos.
Final thoughts:
Allison was my favorite tonight, followed by a two way tie between Adam and Kris, then Danny, then Matt.
I LOVE these songs, and they are perfect for a show like this. They are beautiful enough that you can just sing them straight (like Allison did), because they are written for great singers. But there is also a lot of freedom in the melody so that you can change it up if you want to and still sound great (like Danny did).
Hard to come up with a bottom two this week...everybody except one was really, REALLY good.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Including my personal (and as yet unexplained) bias: Danny and Matt
Without my personal (and as yet unexplained) bias: Kris and Matt
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Matt
Who SHOULD go home:
Matt
Who WILL go home:
Matt
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Idol thoughts - abbreviated Top 7
Sorry, under the weather today, so I won't be doing a full Idol recap this week.
Short and sweet:
The Great: Adam and Kris
The Good: Allison and Danny
The OK: Anoop and Matt
The Bad: Lil.
Who SHOULD go home: Matt and Lil. By the way, Kara and Randy have it wrong...the problem is not that Lil is not showing us who she is as an artist. The problem is that she IS showing us who she is as an artist.
Who WILL go home: Anoop and Allison. Just a gut feeling. And if Allison goes home this week, then that makes last week's save of Matt an absolute travesty.
Short and sweet:
The Great: Adam and Kris
The Good: Allison and Danny
The OK: Anoop and Matt
The Bad: Lil.
Who SHOULD go home: Matt and Lil. By the way, Kara and Randy have it wrong...the problem is not that Lil is not showing us who she is as an artist. The problem is that she IS showing us who she is as an artist.
Who WILL go home: Anoop and Allison. Just a gut feeling. And if Allison goes home this week, then that makes last week's save of Matt an absolute travesty.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 7
I was ultra, ULTRA excited about this week. It combines two of my favorite things: Idol and Tarantino. I was pumped to watch Tarantino really get to add some punch and energy to the performances...little did I know that he would be dealing with SIX ballads, and then Adam, which...what are you going to tell him about stage presence and performance?
On with the show...
1) Alison Iraheta: "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - Did not like the fact that she chose a ballad for the second week in a row, and I don't like that she is having to go first. With the problems she has had building a fan base, neither one of these were good for her, in my opinion.
As for the performance, am I wrong or did she miss some words going into the bridge? I didn't like the arrangement at all in the beginning (plus I thought it was a little low for her), but I thought she pulled it out in the end. Still love her voice, still love her, but this might have been her weakest performance, in my opinion.
2) Anoop Desai: "Everything I Do" - Anoop picks another ballad, but at this point it's a good choice for him. This is what he has proven to be good at. This was a GORGEOUS performance...near perfect vocally, and I thought he had an emotional connection with the song that we don't always get from him. Kara was right...taking pop songs and injecting his soulfulness into them is what his wheelhouse is.
3) Adam Lambert: "Born to be Wild" - Verbatim from my notes: Sounds like a techno version. Holy Crap. Maybe the most amazing thing I've ever seen on this show.
Seriously. That was just crazy. In a good way. Simon talks about "indulgent" performances all the time like it's a bad thing, but is there a better word to describe a rock star than indulgent? This was the most "indulgent" performance we have ever seen on Idol, and it was awesome. It wasn't the greatest vocal, but, man...it was fun, wasn't it?
Simon is trying to be a little negative, so that he doesn't seem to be playing favorites, but he can't even keep a straight face. Plus, when he said it reminded him of Rocky Horror, Adam was like, "SCORE!! I freaking LOVE that movie!" Ha!! And...yeah, that's kind of what it's like, so they're both right.
4) Matt Giraud: "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" - I thought Quentin gave him great advice (as he did pretty much all night)...don't fall so in love with the runs that you lose the lyric. Matt chose to totally ignore that, and lost not only the lyric, but the melody, the rhythm, and pretty much everything about the song. This started out OK, but as soon as he started doing all of the vocal gymnastics he went totally off pitch.
And it MUST have been bad, cause that's the first time I can remember Randybot actually DISCOURAGING contestants from doing runs and riffs. Something must have gone wrong with his programming.
5) Danny Gokey: "Endless Love" - Good grief, ANOTHER BALLAD. You can't blame the contestants, I don't guess, since they are picking independently. But I keep waiting for Delilah to start talking between each performance.
Anyway, there was one little pitch problem early on, but after that it was a very nice performance. Very nice and very boring. The harp was cool, though.
6) Kris Allen: "Falling Slowly" - YES. I LOVE this song. I've been known to listen to it 4-5 times in a row. I know, very manly, right? Shut up, this song is beautiful, and I'm only crying cause I stubbed my toe on my weight bench on my way to drop an engine into my pickup truck so I can go shoot some animals and do a bunch of other manly stuff. Ahem.
I thought Kris sang this very well, though he continues to confound me with his choices as to when to play his guitar. Maybe he thought it was too much like the original if he played and sang?
Regardless, it was a nice performance, and the backup singer(s) had one of their few bright spots of the season. I totally disagreed with both Randy and Kara...Randy thought it was pitchy from the start, and Kara thought it was his best moment so far. My thoughts were somewhere in the middle, but I am predisposed to love the song so I may be biased. I will now listen to that song on a loop as I finish this recap.
Here, you can listen, too...
7) Lil Rounds: "The Rose" - Once again, Q gives great advice that will ultimately be ignored. The key to selling this big change in the middle is to commit to the FIRST part, so that the audience is surprised when it turns into something more.
Anyway, I really liked the arrangement...I just would have enjoyed it more if it was sung by someone whose voice I really liked. Once it goes "gospel," she is pitchy ALL OVER. She's really just not that good, as it turns out. Very disappointing, considering I really liked her in her initial audition and in Hollywood. She's just really been exposed on the big stage.
I sort of feel what she's saying in her retort to Simon, and I thought she did it in a respectful way. She DID try to change the song up and do her own thing with it...the problem isn't so much that it's a "Bette Midler song" as Simon said, it's just that she doesn't sound that good singing it. Plus, somewhere along the way she became REALLY boring as a performer, and I totally didn't expect that when we first met her. I think she has really let the judges get in her head and it has locked her up mentally.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
- Hate, hate HATED the 2 judge format. Would have been much improved if they had let Simon speak every time and just alternate the other judge.
Even worse, they STILL didn't make it out on time, due mostly to those stupid conversations Ryan has to have over on the stools with the contestants. I understand wanting the audience to get to know the contestants, but they really ought to save that stuff for Wednesday night, and get rid of the stupid group number that everybody hates.
- Mentioned it a couple of times, but what was UP with all of the ballads tonight? I've been going to movies all of my life and I know for a fact that I have heard several upbeat songs. They would have been better off just limiting them to songs that were in Tarantino movies. Then someone could have sang Stuck in the Middle With You and cut Randy's ear off, as Shan suggested to me via Twitter.
PREDICTIONS:
Is this the week they start doing bottom two instead of bottom three?
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two: Matt and Lil
Who WILL be in the bottom two: Matt and...Alison. Just a gut feeling.
Who SHOULD go home: Based on this week, Matt. Based on body of work, Lil.
Who WILL go home: Matt
And just to throw it out there...I say again that if Kris or Alison ends up with the lowest number of votes they will be saved by the judges. Otherwise, they will save it until next week, which is the last week it could be used.
By the way, if you want to see a really GOOD version of the song Matt G did tonight....
On with the show...
1) Alison Iraheta: "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - Did not like the fact that she chose a ballad for the second week in a row, and I don't like that she is having to go first. With the problems she has had building a fan base, neither one of these were good for her, in my opinion.
As for the performance, am I wrong or did she miss some words going into the bridge? I didn't like the arrangement at all in the beginning (plus I thought it was a little low for her), but I thought she pulled it out in the end. Still love her voice, still love her, but this might have been her weakest performance, in my opinion.
2) Anoop Desai: "Everything I Do" - Anoop picks another ballad, but at this point it's a good choice for him. This is what he has proven to be good at. This was a GORGEOUS performance...near perfect vocally, and I thought he had an emotional connection with the song that we don't always get from him. Kara was right...taking pop songs and injecting his soulfulness into them is what his wheelhouse is.
3) Adam Lambert: "Born to be Wild" - Verbatim from my notes: Sounds like a techno version. Holy Crap. Maybe the most amazing thing I've ever seen on this show.
Seriously. That was just crazy. In a good way. Simon talks about "indulgent" performances all the time like it's a bad thing, but is there a better word to describe a rock star than indulgent? This was the most "indulgent" performance we have ever seen on Idol, and it was awesome. It wasn't the greatest vocal, but, man...it was fun, wasn't it?
Simon is trying to be a little negative, so that he doesn't seem to be playing favorites, but he can't even keep a straight face. Plus, when he said it reminded him of Rocky Horror, Adam was like, "SCORE!! I freaking LOVE that movie!" Ha!! And...yeah, that's kind of what it's like, so they're both right.
4) Matt Giraud: "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" - I thought Quentin gave him great advice (as he did pretty much all night)...don't fall so in love with the runs that you lose the lyric. Matt chose to totally ignore that, and lost not only the lyric, but the melody, the rhythm, and pretty much everything about the song. This started out OK, but as soon as he started doing all of the vocal gymnastics he went totally off pitch.
And it MUST have been bad, cause that's the first time I can remember Randybot actually DISCOURAGING contestants from doing runs and riffs. Something must have gone wrong with his programming.
5) Danny Gokey: "Endless Love" - Good grief, ANOTHER BALLAD. You can't blame the contestants, I don't guess, since they are picking independently. But I keep waiting for Delilah to start talking between each performance.
Anyway, there was one little pitch problem early on, but after that it was a very nice performance. Very nice and very boring. The harp was cool, though.
6) Kris Allen: "Falling Slowly" - YES. I LOVE this song. I've been known to listen to it 4-5 times in a row. I know, very manly, right? Shut up, this song is beautiful, and I'm only crying cause I stubbed my toe on my weight bench on my way to drop an engine into my pickup truck so I can go shoot some animals and do a bunch of other manly stuff. Ahem.
I thought Kris sang this very well, though he continues to confound me with his choices as to when to play his guitar. Maybe he thought it was too much like the original if he played and sang?
Regardless, it was a nice performance, and the backup singer(s) had one of their few bright spots of the season. I totally disagreed with both Randy and Kara...Randy thought it was pitchy from the start, and Kara thought it was his best moment so far. My thoughts were somewhere in the middle, but I am predisposed to love the song so I may be biased. I will now listen to that song on a loop as I finish this recap.
Here, you can listen, too...
7) Lil Rounds: "The Rose" - Once again, Q gives great advice that will ultimately be ignored. The key to selling this big change in the middle is to commit to the FIRST part, so that the audience is surprised when it turns into something more.
Anyway, I really liked the arrangement...I just would have enjoyed it more if it was sung by someone whose voice I really liked. Once it goes "gospel," she is pitchy ALL OVER. She's really just not that good, as it turns out. Very disappointing, considering I really liked her in her initial audition and in Hollywood. She's just really been exposed on the big stage.
I sort of feel what she's saying in her retort to Simon, and I thought she did it in a respectful way. She DID try to change the song up and do her own thing with it...the problem isn't so much that it's a "Bette Midler song" as Simon said, it's just that she doesn't sound that good singing it. Plus, somewhere along the way she became REALLY boring as a performer, and I totally didn't expect that when we first met her. I think she has really let the judges get in her head and it has locked her up mentally.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
- Hate, hate HATED the 2 judge format. Would have been much improved if they had let Simon speak every time and just alternate the other judge.
Even worse, they STILL didn't make it out on time, due mostly to those stupid conversations Ryan has to have over on the stools with the contestants. I understand wanting the audience to get to know the contestants, but they really ought to save that stuff for Wednesday night, and get rid of the stupid group number that everybody hates.
- Mentioned it a couple of times, but what was UP with all of the ballads tonight? I've been going to movies all of my life and I know for a fact that I have heard several upbeat songs. They would have been better off just limiting them to songs that were in Tarantino movies. Then someone could have sang Stuck in the Middle With You and cut Randy's ear off, as Shan suggested to me via Twitter.
PREDICTIONS:
Is this the week they start doing bottom two instead of bottom three?
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two: Matt and Lil
Who WILL be in the bottom two: Matt and...Alison. Just a gut feeling.
Who SHOULD go home: Based on this week, Matt. Based on body of work, Lil.
Who WILL go home: Matt
And just to throw it out there...I say again that if Kris or Alison ends up with the lowest number of votes they will be saved by the judges. Otherwise, they will save it until next week, which is the last week it could be used.
By the way, if you want to see a really GOOD version of the song Matt G did tonight....
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 8
Time for the annual "Make Scott Feel Old" week, also known as "Songs From the Year You Were Born."
1) Danny Gokey: "Stand By Me" - This was a nice vocal performance, but I hated the arrangement and I was pretty bored by the whole thing.
Danny has reached the point in the competition where all he has to do is not screw up, and he will advance. Now, that mindset is not enough to WIN the competition, but it will keep you around. Danny is good on a pretty consistent basis, but he does not have that one big blow-you-away type performance yet, in my opinion, and he needs to pull one of those out if he wants to derail the Adam Lambert train.
The judges are pretty embarrassing in their overly enthusiastic praise of Danny, other than Simon who was dead on as always. Randybot even broke out the dreaded "It's a SINGING COMPETITION" falsehood that always makes me scream at the TV and throw things.
2) Kris Allen: "All She Wants to Do is Dance" - Again with the guitar you can't hear? I don't get it.
I did not like this song choice, or the arrangement. I guess he felt he needed to go up-tempo? He sang it OK, except that there were several of the high notes in the chorus that he did not quite reach and stayed a little under the pitch.
Randy actually got one right here...the band was distracting. Bad song choice, arranged badly, performed OK. Kris may be in trouble.
3) Lil Rounds: "What's Love Got to Do With It" - I think Lil has totally lost the thread mentally at this point. Like I said last week, I think she has become WAY too caught up in "Winning American Idol" and she is just out-thinking herself every week. Or maybe she's just not that good in the first place.
Anyway, this performance hit all of the low points...pitchy, flat, she was off rhythmically (I think because she was over-enunciating her words on the verses). She sounded pretty good on the glory notes, but the rest was just dull and flat.
And the judges are SOOOO done with her, too.
4) Anoop Desai: "True Colors" - Man, I enjoy him so much more when he is doing stuff like this than when he is bouncing around the stage pretending to be hip-hop. THIS is his wheelhouse...soulful ballads. I don't know that I would buy a whole album of this, but I know I would download this song. I thought it was a great choice, sung beautifully, and he seemed really genuine, unlike last week's Hip-Hop Karaoke.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "The Search is Over": COPY/PASTE:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
I will add that this, to me, was his worst vocal performance so far. Just painful to listen to at times. I still really like him, and hope for good things for him, but he is totally out of his league here and it's time to go home.
6) Allison Iraheta: "I Can't Make You Love Me" - Anybody else uncomfortable with a 16 year old (SIXTEEN!!!!!) singing about "turn down the bed" and "lay down with me"? Just me? OK then, moving on....
I absolutely love this song, and I thought it was a really good song choice for her. I think she "needed" to do a ballad to keep from being repetitive, and a Bonnie Raitt song is a good choice for her voice and her style. Her voice was awesome as always, and I think she changed the melody up just enough that it didn't sound copycat. Great job.
7) Matt Giraud: "Part Time Lover" - Dude...when are they going to learn that you don't sing songs that have been made famous by the masters?
I mean, if you know that you aren't going to be able to top the original then why try?
That's right...stay away from Chicken Little, if you don't want to be compared to him!
Seriously...this was a great choice for Matt, I thought, and he sang it pretty well, but man...can he sing just ONE note straight without going off into a series of riffs and runs? I think that's a crutch that a lot of people lean on if they don't have a great voice, and Matt falls into that category. His voice is good, and pretty unique, but not great, and he covers up unnecessarily by going off into riffs and runs all the time that would make Mariah blush.
8) Adam Lambert: "Mad World" - Wow, why are Ryan and the judges talking so fast? Anyway, looks like Adam is going to slow it down again, give us another tender performance, and the lighting is...HEY!!!! WHAT THE %$&!#? WHERE'D THEY GO?
Yeah...they went long last night. WAY long. I had my DVR set to tape 3 minutes past, and I still didn't get the last 3-4 minutes of the show. Luckily, I also record Fringe, which comes on right after that...
This was yet another virtually perfect performance, gorgeous song, perfect choice, blah blah blah. Seriously, isn't it a foregone conclusion at this point? I mean, SIMON gave him a standing ovation...I honestly don't remember that EVER happening before the finale.
Only one little nit to pick...I think he decided at the last minute to jump up to that last note (in the taped rehearsal we see when they are flashing the numbers, he ended on a lower note that I thought sounded better), so he had a MINOR little wobble getting up to it. But that was like Cindy Crawford's mole...it was almost necessary to confirm that we were watching a human.
PREDICTIONS:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Lil, and...Matt, I guess?
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Matt, and Kris
Who SHOULD go home: Scott
Who WILL go home: Scott
Now, once again I am a little spoiled, having seen the DialIdol predictions. They have Kris pretty solidly at the bottom. I'm hoping that's not true, but if it is then I predict that the judges will save him.
Here's why:
- Kris has had a very consistent run on the show, and was (in my opinion) the best of the week last week. This is the first week that he has not been great, and the judges may decide that one bad week is not enough to have him go home.
- They only have two more weeks after this week to use it (can't use it once we hit the top 5). If they were saving it for Adam or Danny, then it's not going to be used...those guys are going nowhere near the bottom until we are well into the top 5. Only other person I can see them saving it for would be Allison, who has been in the bottom 3 a couple of times (inexplicably), which is the only reason I can see for them NOT using it on Kris (if it comes down to that).
Thoughts?
1) Danny Gokey: "Stand By Me" - This was a nice vocal performance, but I hated the arrangement and I was pretty bored by the whole thing.
Danny has reached the point in the competition where all he has to do is not screw up, and he will advance. Now, that mindset is not enough to WIN the competition, but it will keep you around. Danny is good on a pretty consistent basis, but he does not have that one big blow-you-away type performance yet, in my opinion, and he needs to pull one of those out if he wants to derail the Adam Lambert train.
The judges are pretty embarrassing in their overly enthusiastic praise of Danny, other than Simon who was dead on as always. Randybot even broke out the dreaded "It's a SINGING COMPETITION" falsehood that always makes me scream at the TV and throw things.
2) Kris Allen: "All She Wants to Do is Dance" - Again with the guitar you can't hear? I don't get it.
I did not like this song choice, or the arrangement. I guess he felt he needed to go up-tempo? He sang it OK, except that there were several of the high notes in the chorus that he did not quite reach and stayed a little under the pitch.
Randy actually got one right here...the band was distracting. Bad song choice, arranged badly, performed OK. Kris may be in trouble.
3) Lil Rounds: "What's Love Got to Do With It" - I think Lil has totally lost the thread mentally at this point. Like I said last week, I think she has become WAY too caught up in "Winning American Idol" and she is just out-thinking herself every week. Or maybe she's just not that good in the first place.
Anyway, this performance hit all of the low points...pitchy, flat, she was off rhythmically (I think because she was over-enunciating her words on the verses). She sounded pretty good on the glory notes, but the rest was just dull and flat.
And the judges are SOOOO done with her, too.
4) Anoop Desai: "True Colors" - Man, I enjoy him so much more when he is doing stuff like this than when he is bouncing around the stage pretending to be hip-hop. THIS is his wheelhouse...soulful ballads. I don't know that I would buy a whole album of this, but I know I would download this song. I thought it was a great choice, sung beautifully, and he seemed really genuine, unlike last week's Hip-Hop Karaoke.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "The Search is Over": COPY/PASTE:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
I will add that this, to me, was his worst vocal performance so far. Just painful to listen to at times. I still really like him, and hope for good things for him, but he is totally out of his league here and it's time to go home.
6) Allison Iraheta: "I Can't Make You Love Me" - Anybody else uncomfortable with a 16 year old (SIXTEEN!!!!!) singing about "turn down the bed" and "lay down with me"? Just me? OK then, moving on....
I absolutely love this song, and I thought it was a really good song choice for her. I think she "needed" to do a ballad to keep from being repetitive, and a Bonnie Raitt song is a good choice for her voice and her style. Her voice was awesome as always, and I think she changed the melody up just enough that it didn't sound copycat. Great job.
7) Matt Giraud: "Part Time Lover" - Dude...when are they going to learn that you don't sing songs that have been made famous by the masters?
I mean, if you know that you aren't going to be able to top the original then why try?
That's right...stay away from Chicken Little, if you don't want to be compared to him!
Seriously...this was a great choice for Matt, I thought, and he sang it pretty well, but man...can he sing just ONE note straight without going off into a series of riffs and runs? I think that's a crutch that a lot of people lean on if they don't have a great voice, and Matt falls into that category. His voice is good, and pretty unique, but not great, and he covers up unnecessarily by going off into riffs and runs all the time that would make Mariah blush.
8) Adam Lambert: "Mad World" - Wow, why are Ryan and the judges talking so fast? Anyway, looks like Adam is going to slow it down again, give us another tender performance, and the lighting is...HEY!!!! WHAT THE %$&!#? WHERE'D THEY GO?
Yeah...they went long last night. WAY long. I had my DVR set to tape 3 minutes past, and I still didn't get the last 3-4 minutes of the show. Luckily, I also record Fringe, which comes on right after that...
This was yet another virtually perfect performance, gorgeous song, perfect choice, blah blah blah. Seriously, isn't it a foregone conclusion at this point? I mean, SIMON gave him a standing ovation...I honestly don't remember that EVER happening before the finale.
Only one little nit to pick...I think he decided at the last minute to jump up to that last note (in the taped rehearsal we see when they are flashing the numbers, he ended on a lower note that I thought sounded better), so he had a MINOR little wobble getting up to it. But that was like Cindy Crawford's mole...it was almost necessary to confirm that we were watching a human.
PREDICTIONS:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Lil, and...Matt, I guess?
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Matt, and Kris
Who SHOULD go home: Scott
Who WILL go home: Scott
Now, once again I am a little spoiled, having seen the DialIdol predictions. They have Kris pretty solidly at the bottom. I'm hoping that's not true, but if it is then I predict that the judges will save him.
Here's why:
- Kris has had a very consistent run on the show, and was (in my opinion) the best of the week last week. This is the first week that he has not been great, and the judges may decide that one bad week is not enough to have him go home.
- They only have two more weeks after this week to use it (can't use it once we hit the top 5). If they were saving it for Adam or Danny, then it's not going to be used...those guys are going nowhere near the bottom until we are well into the top 5. Only other person I can see them saving it for would be Allison, who has been in the bottom 3 a couple of times (inexplicably), which is the only reason I can see for them NOT using it on Kris (if it comes down to that).
Thoughts?
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 9
I'm still a little confused as to what the theme was supposed to be this week...Ryan said it was anything that was popular on iTunes this week? How exactly was "popular" defined? Supposedly, this was supposed to help make them more "current" this week, but I think there were only 2 or 3 "current" songs chosen, so I'm at a loss...it was good for me, though, because if it really was "current" songs they would all have been songs I have never heard of.
Anyway, on with the show!
1) Anoop Desai - "Caught Up": Perfect example...I'm guessing this was one of the more current songs on the playlist tonight, and I have never heard it. Nothing about it caused me to re-think my belief that I am not missing anything by staying away from current music.
Maybe it was because I didn't like the song, but I did not like this at all. The vocals were fine, but the performance made me uncomfortable...I was embarrassed for him, because he looked like a big ole dork. He says he wants to be an R&B artist, but I just don't see the R&B audience taking him seriously. The judges were right...this looked like another frat party performance, much like I said when he did "Beat It." He doesn't really put on a great show on stage...it's very "Walk to this side...pose. Walk to the other side....pose. Walk to the front...give the camera my "cool face.""
It reminded me of...me. When I was 9 years old, Thriller was released. I would put that album (yep...ALBUM) on and give a performance in my basement, performing the entire album to an imaginary audience. My performing style at 9 years old was very similar to what Anoop did last night. I can't see how that is a good thing.
For either of us, really.
2) Megan Joy - "Turn Your Lights Down Low":
Q: "Hey, Megan...which necklace do you want to wear tonight?"
A: "Well, I don't know....how about ALL OF THEM?"
OK, here's the thing with Megan. When she actually stays on pitch, I really like the tone of her voice...it's just that those moments are so few and far between. This started out AWFUL, got a little better by the end, but sorry darlin'...it's time to go.
I think a lack of experience is a big part of the problem with her, and I'm hoping the tour helps that because I think with some training and the right songs she could be a good artist. She's just nowhere near there yet.
3) Danny Gokey - "What Hurts the Most": Now THIS was good. Great song choice, sung beautifully, definitely my favorite performance of his so far this season. I do think he could have moved around a little more...I know what he was doing, since I myself said he looked like Taylor Hicks last week. But there is a happy medium.
That's just a nitpick, though...this was a very, very good performance. I loved him until he started talking his usual talk at the end that makes me want to smack him upside the head, but I'm choosing to ignore that. There were too few good performances this week.
4) Allison Iraheta - "Don't Speak": Good Lord, what is she wearing? She looks like a frakking clown. That is the definition of trying too hard.
Anyway...I love this song, it's maybe my favorite No Doubt track, and I can see why she would choose it. But it really doesn't work for her voice, I don't think...she is a better vocalist than Gwen Stefani, is the problem. She should have put this in a different key if she was going to do it, because it started WAY too low, and then it never got high enough to allow her to flex the golden pipes. She sounds fine, and I still love her, I just disagreed with the song choice. Like I have said earlier (and I think Randybot said tonight), just because you LIKE a song, that doesn't mean you need to be singing it on American Idol.
Kara was actually being nice in her commentary, the audience is just too stoopid to realize it. She IS a rocker girl, so there's no need to play dress up.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "Just The Way You Are": Copy-paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
6) Matt Giraud - "You Found Me": Ugh. This was another one that made me uncomfortable to watch. People want to know what Simon means when he says it was an "affected" performance, this was it...the growling, the phrasing, everything about it was just an imitation of the original.
Again, the judges were pretty much right on, as they were all night for once...he sounds much better when he leans more to the R&B side than when he does the sissy-boy pop rock stuff (like the Coldplay disaster during his top 36 performance).
7) Lil Rounds - "I Surrender": Dumb, dumb song choice. Good grief...how do they all keep screwing this up? They can pick virtually ANY song that Idol can get clearance for, and yet they continue to make stupid choices.
Lil is a good vocalist...not a great vocalist, but a good one. What made Lil a contender (way back in a time that I can barely remember now) was that she was FUN. She made the audience have a good time, and her voice was just good enough that you didn't care if it was perfect, as long as you were having fun. What she is NOT good enough to do is stand there in a prom dress and sing Celine Dion. The vocals were fine, but I don't think they were good enough to win over any fans that she didn't already have.
Here is the thing that I think a lot of them (not just Lil) are missing: Stop trying to win American Idol, and just worry about going out and giving a kick-butt performance every week. If you do that, the votes will take care of themselves. The only ones who worry about stuff like "oh, you did something similar last week, you have to do something different now" are the judges and idiot recappers like me. If you just go out and be awesome, then people will vote for you.
Case in point:
8) Adam Lambert: "Play That Funky Music": Seriously, when you hear that somebody is going to do this on American Idol, do you think "Oh, that is a stellar song choice"? No. But Adam just goes out and performs his butt off, has a blast, the band has a blast, the audience has a blast, the judges have their mind blown and forget to be critical...this is the way you win American Idol. Just be awesome...you don't have to play mind games with the voting audience.
I enjoyed this on TV, but I can't imagine how awesome it must have been seeing it live. It's just such a fun song for the audience, and he is dancing around using the whole stage, the band is going nuts, his voice just keeps going higher and higher and you think that he is going to reach the ceiling, and then he blasts on through that and keeps on going...I would have been going bananas, too.
9) Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine": OK, here is the problem with Kris, and I'm not exaggerating just to make a point (which I have been known to do, believe it or not): After Adam sang, I was looking at my notes, realized that there had only been 8 performers...and I could not for the life of me remember who was left. It's not his fault...he comes out every week, does a great job, makes good decisions with his song choices and arrangements, and I really enjoy his performance...and then 5 minutes later I completely forget that he exists.
Maybe this week will change that, because THIS was my favorite performance of the night. This is one of my all time favorite songs, so he already had that going for him...but then he sang it beautifully, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing and hearing him on the keyboard, and he did just enough with the arrangement that it didn't come off as an impression of the original. Great, great performance...hopefully I will remember it when it comes time for him to sing again next week.
Final thoughts:
If you couldn't tell, I was not overly impressed with the performances this week. I don't know if I was just tired and cranky when I watched it or what, but I was disappointed with almost everybody...I only really liked Danny, Adam, and Kris.
The judges were amazingly coherent tonight...I even thought that Randybot made some great points, which caused me to really question my mental state. I do think, however, that a lot of what Paula said was pre-written (maybe by her, maybe by her assistant)...didn't it sound like she was reading a lot of the time? And using too many multi-syllable words?
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Everybody but Danny, Adam, and Kris.
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Megan, and Matt
Who SHOULD go home: Megan
Who WILL go home: Megan
Anyway, on with the show!
1) Anoop Desai - "Caught Up": Perfect example...I'm guessing this was one of the more current songs on the playlist tonight, and I have never heard it. Nothing about it caused me to re-think my belief that I am not missing anything by staying away from current music.
Maybe it was because I didn't like the song, but I did not like this at all. The vocals were fine, but the performance made me uncomfortable...I was embarrassed for him, because he looked like a big ole dork. He says he wants to be an R&B artist, but I just don't see the R&B audience taking him seriously. The judges were right...this looked like another frat party performance, much like I said when he did "Beat It." He doesn't really put on a great show on stage...it's very "Walk to this side...pose. Walk to the other side....pose. Walk to the front...give the camera my "cool face.""
It reminded me of...me. When I was 9 years old, Thriller was released. I would put that album (yep...ALBUM) on and give a performance in my basement, performing the entire album to an imaginary audience. My performing style at 9 years old was very similar to what Anoop did last night. I can't see how that is a good thing.
For either of us, really.
2) Megan Joy - "Turn Your Lights Down Low":
Q: "Hey, Megan...which necklace do you want to wear tonight?"
A: "Well, I don't know....how about ALL OF THEM?"
OK, here's the thing with Megan. When she actually stays on pitch, I really like the tone of her voice...it's just that those moments are so few and far between. This started out AWFUL, got a little better by the end, but sorry darlin'...it's time to go.
I think a lack of experience is a big part of the problem with her, and I'm hoping the tour helps that because I think with some training and the right songs she could be a good artist. She's just nowhere near there yet.
3) Danny Gokey - "What Hurts the Most": Now THIS was good. Great song choice, sung beautifully, definitely my favorite performance of his so far this season. I do think he could have moved around a little more...I know what he was doing, since I myself said he looked like Taylor Hicks last week. But there is a happy medium.
That's just a nitpick, though...this was a very, very good performance. I loved him until he started talking his usual talk at the end that makes me want to smack him upside the head, but I'm choosing to ignore that. There were too few good performances this week.
4) Allison Iraheta - "Don't Speak": Good Lord, what is she wearing? She looks like a frakking clown. That is the definition of trying too hard.
Anyway...I love this song, it's maybe my favorite No Doubt track, and I can see why she would choose it. But it really doesn't work for her voice, I don't think...she is a better vocalist than Gwen Stefani, is the problem. She should have put this in a different key if she was going to do it, because it started WAY too low, and then it never got high enough to allow her to flex the golden pipes. She sounds fine, and I still love her, I just disagreed with the song choice. Like I have said earlier (and I think Randybot said tonight), just because you LIKE a song, that doesn't mean you need to be singing it on American Idol.
Kara was actually being nice in her commentary, the audience is just too stoopid to realize it. She IS a rocker girl, so there's no need to play dress up.
5) Scott MacIntyre: "Just The Way You Are": Copy-paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
6) Matt Giraud - "You Found Me": Ugh. This was another one that made me uncomfortable to watch. People want to know what Simon means when he says it was an "affected" performance, this was it...the growling, the phrasing, everything about it was just an imitation of the original.
Again, the judges were pretty much right on, as they were all night for once...he sounds much better when he leans more to the R&B side than when he does the sissy-boy pop rock stuff (like the Coldplay disaster during his top 36 performance).
7) Lil Rounds - "I Surrender": Dumb, dumb song choice. Good grief...how do they all keep screwing this up? They can pick virtually ANY song that Idol can get clearance for, and yet they continue to make stupid choices.
Lil is a good vocalist...not a great vocalist, but a good one. What made Lil a contender (way back in a time that I can barely remember now) was that she was FUN. She made the audience have a good time, and her voice was just good enough that you didn't care if it was perfect, as long as you were having fun. What she is NOT good enough to do is stand there in a prom dress and sing Celine Dion. The vocals were fine, but I don't think they were good enough to win over any fans that she didn't already have.
Here is the thing that I think a lot of them (not just Lil) are missing: Stop trying to win American Idol, and just worry about going out and giving a kick-butt performance every week. If you do that, the votes will take care of themselves. The only ones who worry about stuff like "oh, you did something similar last week, you have to do something different now" are the judges and idiot recappers like me. If you just go out and be awesome, then people will vote for you.
Case in point:
8) Adam Lambert: "Play That Funky Music": Seriously, when you hear that somebody is going to do this on American Idol, do you think "Oh, that is a stellar song choice"? No. But Adam just goes out and performs his butt off, has a blast, the band has a blast, the audience has a blast, the judges have their mind blown and forget to be critical...this is the way you win American Idol. Just be awesome...you don't have to play mind games with the voting audience.
I enjoyed this on TV, but I can't imagine how awesome it must have been seeing it live. It's just such a fun song for the audience, and he is dancing around using the whole stage, the band is going nuts, his voice just keeps going higher and higher and you think that he is going to reach the ceiling, and then he blasts on through that and keeps on going...I would have been going bananas, too.
9) Kris Allen - "Ain't No Sunshine": OK, here is the problem with Kris, and I'm not exaggerating just to make a point (which I have been known to do, believe it or not): After Adam sang, I was looking at my notes, realized that there had only been 8 performers...and I could not for the life of me remember who was left. It's not his fault...he comes out every week, does a great job, makes good decisions with his song choices and arrangements, and I really enjoy his performance...and then 5 minutes later I completely forget that he exists.
Maybe this week will change that, because THIS was my favorite performance of the night. This is one of my all time favorite songs, so he already had that going for him...but then he sang it beautifully, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing and hearing him on the keyboard, and he did just enough with the arrangement that it didn't come off as an impression of the original. Great, great performance...hopefully I will remember it when it comes time for him to sing again next week.
Final thoughts:
If you couldn't tell, I was not overly impressed with the performances this week. I don't know if I was just tired and cranky when I watched it or what, but I was disappointed with almost everybody...I only really liked Danny, Adam, and Kris.
The judges were amazingly coherent tonight...I even thought that Randybot made some great points, which caused me to really question my mental state. I do think, however, that a lot of what Paula said was pre-written (maybe by her, maybe by her assistant)...didn't it sound like she was reading a lot of the time? And using too many multi-syllable words?
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Everybody but Danny, Adam, and Kris.
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Scott, Megan, and Matt
Who SHOULD go home: Megan
Who WILL go home: Megan
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 10
Motown night! They should turn this into a mini-Idol Gives Back...after all, Motown is located in a third world country.
Kara IMMEDIATELY ticks me off by saying Alexis fell victim to bad song choices for "the last few times." First of all, there have only been two performances by her since she wowed everybody with "Never Loved a Man," and two weeks ago was when she did Dirty Diana, which seems to be right up Kara's "dirty it up, Alexis" alley. So, I start the show in a bad mood already. I really just need to start fast forwarding through this part every week.
On with the show!
1) Matt Giraud - "Let's Get it On": OK, song choice...I wouldn't have picked it. But I think that's because I would have a really hard time singing this song with a straight face. Maybe I'm just repressed, but I can't see myself going on stage in front of 30 million people (well, 25...forgot the ratings are in the tank this year) and singing "let's have sex" over and over again, and shaking hands with a bunch of teenagers in the front row while I was doing it. Only Marvin Gaye can get away with this in a non-ironic way...if you're not Marvin Gaye, you almost have to go the Jack Black place with it (for those who haven't seen High Fidelity...watch that movie. A vastly under-rated classic, in my opinion).
So, outside of my own insecurities...this was a very nice performance. The song fit his voice very well, even if I still think he gets a bit riff-happy at times.
Simon said it was "corny" at times, and I say again...it's almost impossible to pull this song off WITHOUT being corny at some point, isn't it?
2) Kris Allen - "How Sweet it Is": Kris shows up ready to FIGHT! in his vintage army shirt and Daniel Faraday tie.
One thing that confuses me about Kris is his choices as to when to use his guitar. I would not have used the guitar on "Remember the Time," but he did. I thought last week (To Make You Feel My Love) was a great opportunity to use the guitar, but he didn't. This week, he used the guitar again, and once again it is completely overpowered by the rest of the band, so why bother?
As for his performance, it was another very good outing in a very consistent string for him. With this song, it is very easy to fall into an imitation of either Marvin Gaye or (more likely) James Taylor, but Kara was right (finally)...this rendition was very much Kris, and that is a good thing.
Plus, his wife is still hot. At the rate that the females are dropping off this show (more to come on that later), somebody needs to stick around to provide the eye candy.
3) Scott MacIntyre - "You Can't Hurry Love": Copy and paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
That's the one good thing about Scott sticking around...it's one fewer contestant that I have to come up with something to say about.
4) Megan Joy - "For Once in My Life": Ugh. This one hurt. I have to now officially remove myself from the Megan Joy for American Idol 2009 Campaign. I can not in good conscience support her after THAT. Good grief...bad song choice, bad outfit, and "pitchy" does not even do it justice. Randybot got one right...that was a trainwreck. That was so bad the crowd doesn't even bother to boo Randybot or Simon when they were ripping her to shreds.
Sigh.
5) Anoop Desai - "Ooh Baby Baby": LOVE this song...one of the prettiest melodies ever. Other than his falsetto being a little weak at times, Anoop does a very nice job vocally with this one, building on his performance from last week. I made the note while he was singing that he needs to watch the "dead eyes," and then Simon pointed out that he looked like he was half asleep at times...that's the only real problem I had with the performance. Now that he's proven over the last two weeks that he definitely has the pipes to warrant him being here, I hope to see him branch out next week into the more "fun" Anoop that we saw earlier in the season.
I love Ryan Seacrest, but that was a really stupid question...does he think he can win? How is he supposed to answer that? Anoop gave the best answer you can give...if I didn't think I could win, why would I be here?
6) Michael Sarver - "Ain't Too Proud to Beg": Ohhhhh....never mind my answer to Ryan's question. Apparently, THIS is what it looks like when you are still hanging around, even though you know that you really don't have a shot at winning. Nice of Simon to point that out....and then call it "constructive" criticism. Hey Simon...I do not think that word means what you think it means. What exactly is constructive about "you are merely cannon fodder and have NO shot at winning this"?
Anyway, the performance was typical Michael Sarver...a very good karaoke version of a very good karaoke song. The ending, however, was PAINFULLY bad...tried to reach for something there that is out of his range.
Kara again nailed it (she redeemed herself nicely after the opening segment): Michael is a good singer, but they are looking for an artist, and that's not what he is. And he still doesn't get it...his response to the criticism seems to be that he needs to sing better. Michael...your voice is not the problem. YOU are the problem. You seem to be a genuinely nice guy, and I hope for nothing but the best in your future endeavors...but you are not a Pop Music Superstar.
Part of his problem (and I know I'm spending way too much time on him, but I think this may be the last opportunity to talk about him) is that he thinks he's a "Soul" singer. He's really, really not. It's uncomfortable to watch him try to sing soul, because he's as white as white can be. He is a country singer, if anything, and admitting that to himself may be something that will help him if he wants to continue in the industry.
7) Lil Rounds - "Heat Wave": I admit to getting a little misty in the pre-song video for this one...it really hasn't been that long ago that Smokey was "living that," you know?
Anyway...I think this was a make or break week for Lil. I've been saying for weeks now that she is a GOOD singer, not a great one, and this was another example of that. She REALLY oversang this in several parts which caused her to go way, way sharp to the point of being actually off the pitch entirely. For her style of singing, this should have been a week for her to knock it out of the park, and instead I think she lined a sharp single to left. Good enough to stick around, but not good enough to propel her to the top, which I think she might have done if she could have pulled off a "blow you away" type performance. It's becoming more and more clear every week that she just doesn't have one of those performances in her.
8) Adam Lambert - "Tracks of My Tears": Dude...Smokey Robinson can WRITE some SONGS, can't he? This is another great song, and a great song CHOICE. Adam needed to come back to Earth a little after the little trip to Venus he took last week (there was a much cheaper joke there that I managed to avoid), and this whole performance was just a series of perfect choices. My first thought was that he looked like Elvis (fitting, since my mom said 4 weeks ago that he IS Elvis, in her opinion), but upon further review I think it's more like Kurt Russell PLAYING Elvis that he looks like. Great suit. Very scaled back, tender performance, virtually perfect vocally (except for one MINOR little pitch wobble during the ending).
I've talked before (as Simon often does as well) about contestants having The Moment when you're no longer watching a karaoke performance, you are watching a star. David Cook (Hello), Bo Bice (Whipping Post), Carrie Underwood (Alone), Chris Daughtry (Walk the Line)...the list goes on and on. I think Adam has already had a moment or two like that, but if he goes on to win I think this will be the night we point back to and say that this is when it became a foregone conclusion.
9) Danny Gokey - "Get Ready": The other thing Adam did was make Danny look amateurish by comparison. This was good, and if he went on at any other time in the show I would probably be a lot kinder...but coming after Adam, this seemed very Taylor Hicks to me. Seriously, watch it back...is there really THAT much difference between this performance and something Taylor would do? Danny is a good vocalist, people obviously like him...he's going to be around until the end, I believe, and he probably deserves that. But he's no Adam Lambert.
10) Alison Iraheta - "Papa Was a Rolling Stone": Hey, did you guys know she's only sixteen? Sixteen years old. Yep. Won't be seventeen until next year. Last year, she was only fifteen. Amazing, huh, how that works? That it's been only sixteen years since she was born, and now she's just SIXTEEN? SIXTEEN!!!
Sorry...every season when there is a sixteen year old (and there always seems to be one), the judges feel the need to point it out about SIXTEEN times during their commentary. We get it.
And she is AWESOME. Fantastic voice, great stage presence, and she continues to pick great songs. Love the arrangement, too...this was just superb, and the second best of the night by a lot. She and Adam were leagues above everyone else tonight, in my opinion.
I saw where she was going to end up when she started that last line, and I didn't think she was going to make it to that last note, but she NAILED it.
Final thoughts:
There is really beginning to be some separation here, in my opinion. Adam, Alison, and Danny are clearly the frontrunners. Next you have a group of Lil, Matt, Anoop, and Kris that are good enough to provide some entertainment for the next several weeks but have no real shot at winning. Then you have Michael, Scott, and Megan (::sob::) who should be cleaned out in rapid-fire succession over the next three weeks.
I think that I may start a weekly ranking system of just MY favorites, not necessarily a prediction of how it will turn out. I will post on the day after the elimination shows.
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Michael, Megan, Scott
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: I think America gets it right tonight: Michael, Megan, Scott
Who SHOULD go home: Megan...I'm hoping it's her, because my heart can't take another week of watching her self-destruct.
Who WILL go home: Michael
Kara IMMEDIATELY ticks me off by saying Alexis fell victim to bad song choices for "the last few times." First of all, there have only been two performances by her since she wowed everybody with "Never Loved a Man," and two weeks ago was when she did Dirty Diana, which seems to be right up Kara's "dirty it up, Alexis" alley. So, I start the show in a bad mood already. I really just need to start fast forwarding through this part every week.
On with the show!
1) Matt Giraud - "Let's Get it On": OK, song choice...I wouldn't have picked it. But I think that's because I would have a really hard time singing this song with a straight face. Maybe I'm just repressed, but I can't see myself going on stage in front of 30 million people (well, 25...forgot the ratings are in the tank this year) and singing "let's have sex" over and over again, and shaking hands with a bunch of teenagers in the front row while I was doing it. Only Marvin Gaye can get away with this in a non-ironic way...if you're not Marvin Gaye, you almost have to go the Jack Black place with it (for those who haven't seen High Fidelity...watch that movie. A vastly under-rated classic, in my opinion).
So, outside of my own insecurities...this was a very nice performance. The song fit his voice very well, even if I still think he gets a bit riff-happy at times.
Simon said it was "corny" at times, and I say again...it's almost impossible to pull this song off WITHOUT being corny at some point, isn't it?
2) Kris Allen - "How Sweet it Is": Kris shows up ready to FIGHT! in his vintage army shirt and Daniel Faraday tie.
One thing that confuses me about Kris is his choices as to when to use his guitar. I would not have used the guitar on "Remember the Time," but he did. I thought last week (To Make You Feel My Love) was a great opportunity to use the guitar, but he didn't. This week, he used the guitar again, and once again it is completely overpowered by the rest of the band, so why bother?
As for his performance, it was another very good outing in a very consistent string for him. With this song, it is very easy to fall into an imitation of either Marvin Gaye or (more likely) James Taylor, but Kara was right (finally)...this rendition was very much Kris, and that is a good thing.
Plus, his wife is still hot. At the rate that the females are dropping off this show (more to come on that later), somebody needs to stick around to provide the eye candy.
3) Scott MacIntyre - "You Can't Hurry Love": Copy and paste:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
That's the one good thing about Scott sticking around...it's one fewer contestant that I have to come up with something to say about.
4) Megan Joy - "For Once in My Life": Ugh. This one hurt. I have to now officially remove myself from the Megan Joy for American Idol 2009 Campaign. I can not in good conscience support her after THAT. Good grief...bad song choice, bad outfit, and "pitchy" does not even do it justice. Randybot got one right...that was a trainwreck. That was so bad the crowd doesn't even bother to boo Randybot or Simon when they were ripping her to shreds.
Sigh.
5) Anoop Desai - "Ooh Baby Baby": LOVE this song...one of the prettiest melodies ever. Other than his falsetto being a little weak at times, Anoop does a very nice job vocally with this one, building on his performance from last week. I made the note while he was singing that he needs to watch the "dead eyes," and then Simon pointed out that he looked like he was half asleep at times...that's the only real problem I had with the performance. Now that he's proven over the last two weeks that he definitely has the pipes to warrant him being here, I hope to see him branch out next week into the more "fun" Anoop that we saw earlier in the season.
I love Ryan Seacrest, but that was a really stupid question...does he think he can win? How is he supposed to answer that? Anoop gave the best answer you can give...if I didn't think I could win, why would I be here?
6) Michael Sarver - "Ain't Too Proud to Beg": Ohhhhh....never mind my answer to Ryan's question. Apparently, THIS is what it looks like when you are still hanging around, even though you know that you really don't have a shot at winning. Nice of Simon to point that out....and then call it "constructive" criticism. Hey Simon...I do not think that word means what you think it means. What exactly is constructive about "you are merely cannon fodder and have NO shot at winning this"?
Anyway, the performance was typical Michael Sarver...a very good karaoke version of a very good karaoke song. The ending, however, was PAINFULLY bad...tried to reach for something there that is out of his range.
Kara again nailed it (she redeemed herself nicely after the opening segment): Michael is a good singer, but they are looking for an artist, and that's not what he is. And he still doesn't get it...his response to the criticism seems to be that he needs to sing better. Michael...your voice is not the problem. YOU are the problem. You seem to be a genuinely nice guy, and I hope for nothing but the best in your future endeavors...but you are not a Pop Music Superstar.
Part of his problem (and I know I'm spending way too much time on him, but I think this may be the last opportunity to talk about him) is that he thinks he's a "Soul" singer. He's really, really not. It's uncomfortable to watch him try to sing soul, because he's as white as white can be. He is a country singer, if anything, and admitting that to himself may be something that will help him if he wants to continue in the industry.
7) Lil Rounds - "Heat Wave": I admit to getting a little misty in the pre-song video for this one...it really hasn't been that long ago that Smokey was "living that," you know?
Anyway...I think this was a make or break week for Lil. I've been saying for weeks now that she is a GOOD singer, not a great one, and this was another example of that. She REALLY oversang this in several parts which caused her to go way, way sharp to the point of being actually off the pitch entirely. For her style of singing, this should have been a week for her to knock it out of the park, and instead I think she lined a sharp single to left. Good enough to stick around, but not good enough to propel her to the top, which I think she might have done if she could have pulled off a "blow you away" type performance. It's becoming more and more clear every week that she just doesn't have one of those performances in her.
8) Adam Lambert - "Tracks of My Tears": Dude...Smokey Robinson can WRITE some SONGS, can't he? This is another great song, and a great song CHOICE. Adam needed to come back to Earth a little after the little trip to Venus he took last week (there was a much cheaper joke there that I managed to avoid), and this whole performance was just a series of perfect choices. My first thought was that he looked like Elvis (fitting, since my mom said 4 weeks ago that he IS Elvis, in her opinion), but upon further review I think it's more like Kurt Russell PLAYING Elvis that he looks like. Great suit. Very scaled back, tender performance, virtually perfect vocally (except for one MINOR little pitch wobble during the ending).
I've talked before (as Simon often does as well) about contestants having The Moment when you're no longer watching a karaoke performance, you are watching a star. David Cook (Hello), Bo Bice (Whipping Post), Carrie Underwood (Alone), Chris Daughtry (Walk the Line)...the list goes on and on. I think Adam has already had a moment or two like that, but if he goes on to win I think this will be the night we point back to and say that this is when it became a foregone conclusion.
9) Danny Gokey - "Get Ready": The other thing Adam did was make Danny look amateurish by comparison. This was good, and if he went on at any other time in the show I would probably be a lot kinder...but coming after Adam, this seemed very Taylor Hicks to me. Seriously, watch it back...is there really THAT much difference between this performance and something Taylor would do? Danny is a good vocalist, people obviously like him...he's going to be around until the end, I believe, and he probably deserves that. But he's no Adam Lambert.
10) Alison Iraheta - "Papa Was a Rolling Stone": Hey, did you guys know she's only sixteen? Sixteen years old. Yep. Won't be seventeen until next year. Last year, she was only fifteen. Amazing, huh, how that works? That it's been only sixteen years since she was born, and now she's just SIXTEEN? SIXTEEN!!!
Sorry...every season when there is a sixteen year old (and there always seems to be one), the judges feel the need to point it out about SIXTEEN times during their commentary. We get it.
And she is AWESOME. Fantastic voice, great stage presence, and she continues to pick great songs. Love the arrangement, too...this was just superb, and the second best of the night by a lot. She and Adam were leagues above everyone else tonight, in my opinion.
I saw where she was going to end up when she started that last line, and I didn't think she was going to make it to that last note, but she NAILED it.
Final thoughts:
There is really beginning to be some separation here, in my opinion. Adam, Alison, and Danny are clearly the frontrunners. Next you have a group of Lil, Matt, Anoop, and Kris that are good enough to provide some entertainment for the next several weeks but have no real shot at winning. Then you have Michael, Scott, and Megan (::sob::) who should be cleaned out in rapid-fire succession over the next three weeks.
I think that I may start a weekly ranking system of just MY favorites, not necessarily a prediction of how it will turn out. I will post on the day after the elimination shows.
Predictions:
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Michael, Megan, Scott
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: I think America gets it right tonight: Michael, Megan, Scott
Who SHOULD go home: Megan...I'm hoping it's her, because my heart can't take another week of watching her self-destruct.
Who WILL go home: Michael
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 11
Hey, it's time for Simon's very FAVORITE week of the season...guess that's why we're getting it out of the way early.
The mentor tonight will be Randy Travis's skeleton. Back when he was alive, he was one of my favorite country singers. Seeing the way he looks now, "Diggin' Up Bones" has a completely different connotation then it did in 1986.
On with the show!!
1) Michael Sarver - "Ain't Goin' Down Till the Sun Comes Up": Bold choice...that is a LOT of words. And he nails every one of them, which is impressive. Not so impressive is the fact that, just like in his initial top 36 performance, he's out of breath by the end. Just like last week, this is not bad, but I feel like with his style (he's a country singer, no matter how many times he tells us he's not) this should have been better. It's a fun performance, and he sounds pretty good, I just expected more from him this week. In retrospect, he was also hurt by going first...there were a LOT of performances after this one that were much more polished and simply better than this one.
I don't usually talk too much about the judges commentary afterwards, but there were two disturbing trends tonight that started with Michael:
1) Kara giving dumb advice: "we're looking for those BIG NOTES." Sorry, I disagree, and I think Kris and Anoop prove me right later. You don't have to include vocal dramatics in order for it to be a good performance. Also, you don't have to do the SAME TYPE song every week, which is another piece of advice she gave a few of the contestants (most notably Lil and Alexis). She's quickly becoming the female version of Randy.
2) Contestants talking back to the judges. I thought this happened way more often than normal last night...maybe because I was watching it live due to some DVR malfunctions, and I wasn't able to FF through Randy and Paula like I normally do. Michael had me at "Country is supposed to be fun," but he lost me at "If we were perfect, we wouldn't be here." Ummm...what does that even mean? There were 100,000-plus applicants for the job of 2009 American Idol...I think they are looking for excellence at this point. "Trying your best" is not excellence. I would go off on a "public school is ruining our country" rant here, but these things are too long as it is.
Anyway, there was a LOT of talking back to the judges this week, and as a rule that is almost always stupid.
2) Alison Iraheta: "Blame it on Your Heart" - It's funny...Alison is probably one of my top 2-3 contestants this season, but I always have the least to say about her. It happens every time: she finishes singing and I realize I haven't made any notes because I've been too busy listening. I guess that's a good thing. This was another amazingly polished and mature performance from the youngest contestant left in the field. I love the style of her voice, but I again have fears that it may not hold out for 11 more weeks.
As a side note, this song had a prominent part in the "Country Musical" I was writing back when I was around 13. Just thought you'd like to know.
3) Kris Allen - "To Make You Feel My Love": My first thought was that it made no sense to me that he used the guitar LAST week, and then chose not to use it on this one...but I ended up loving the arrangement, so what do I know?
This was really a lovely vocal performance. The only problem I had with it had nothing to do with Kris...why do the sound people insist on putting the annoying re-verb on all of the ballads? The echo effect was distracting, and it sounds bush-league. But that's not his fault, and he did a great job. This was a perfect song choice for him, and he sang it well.
4) Lil Rounds - "Independence Day": Wow, I didn't even recognize her at first, but she looks really nice. And, actually, if you showed me a tape of this performance and a tape of her Top 36 performance, I REALLY wouldn't have recognized her. Remember last week when I said it was a "typical" fun performance by Lil? Well, this was the opposite. I totally agree with Simon...she sang like somebody was forcing her to. She looked uncomfortable, and her insistence that she was holding something back in order to "honor" country music was stupid and made no sense. Her voice sounded fine, but it was boring and forced.
5) Adam Lambert - "Ring of Fire": Dude...Undead Randy Travis is TERRIFIED of Adam and everything he stands for. That was hilarious. "Ain't seen too many fellows with nail polish on." HA!
As for the song, well...that was...unusual? Disturbing? I'm not going to go to the "How dare you do that to a Johnny Cash song!" place, because let's face it: Johnny would have loved that (remember, he had a big comeback not long before his death with a Nine Inch Nails cover). Technically, the vocal was excellent (of course), it was just....weird. This was maybe the one time I agreed with Kara tonight: I was confused, and yet somehow happy.
I admire his determination to just be himself, no matter the genre, similar to what Daughtry and D. Cook managed to pull off. I mean, it's not like he's going to make a country album, so why try to be country? But that was...weird.
I was thinking he could have done something like the Garth Brooks cover of "Fever," which is actually an Aerosmith song...I think he could have out-Steven-Tylered Steven Tyler.
6) Scott Macintyre - "Wild Angels": Copy and paste from last week...
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
With one addition...he also seems like a genuinely FUNNY guy:
Paula: I feel like the piano is keeping you from connecting with the audience.
Scott: We could always move the piano CLOSER!
HA!
7) Alexis Grace - "Jolene": I really enjoyed this performance...first of all, this is my very favorite Dolly Parton song by far. Then I thought Alexis did a really good job with it, giving it a little of a bluesy feel, and built the song nicely by saving the "big notes" for the last chorus. I have no idea what the judges were listening to, and I'm totally confused by their advice to her to get more "dirty." Kara said she should have picked a song like "Before He Cheats," which is a) cliched and b) stupid, since she doesn't have Carrie's pipes. Kara really got on my nerves tonight...
One interesting note...DialIdol.com has a fairly decent tracking record for predicting who goes home and they show Alexis in last place by TONS. What is up with that? And...if that holds true, will we see the Judges Save come into play this early in the process?
8) Danny Gokey - "Jesus Take the Wheel": If I hadn't made the decision last week that I was going to start being nicer to Danny, I would be making jokes about him choosing "The Dance" or "If Tomorrow Never Comes." But since I'm being nice to him, I'm not going to make those jokes.
But then, he one-ups me and chooses "Jesus, Take the Wheel." Don't get me wrong...I don't necessarily have anything AGAINST this song, I just think he has done too many of these Archuletta songs already.
The verses don't sound good, and he looks uncomfortable doing them, and they go on too long...but then he really blows away the chorus, and sounds fantastic. I'm going to keep being nice for one more week.
Oh, and one more Kara thing...her fascination with "Big Notes," if it continues, is going to put her in the Automatic Fast-Forward group along with Randybot and Paula.
9) Anoop Desai - "You Were Always on My Mind": To get this out of the way first...they pulled out the echo effect on this one, as well, just like they did to Kris. KNOCK IT OFF!!
OK...this was a tremendous improvement over last week, and was probably my favorite Anoop performance since he blew me away with his initial audition. Just took a great song, didn't try to do too much with it...just changed the melody up a bit to show off a little of his style. Great song choice, great performance, and I loved how happy he was with Simon's comments. And Simon was right...THAT is how you handle criticism from the judges. Don't argue and whine about it...just prove them wrong. Anoop just jumped right back into the thick of this thing, in my opinion.
10) Megan Joy - "Walkin' After Midnight": OK, she looks GORGEOUS, first of all, although she could have used a little more....support. Vocally, she sounds not good at all, and I was ready to blast her until the judges revealed that she was apparently at death's door some time earlier in the day. Going back and listening to it again, I can see how she probably COULD have done a really good job with it if she had a healthy voice, so I'm going to give her a pass.
Shut up. I love her, what do you expect?
11) Matt Giraud - "So Small": Wow, he just looks SO much more comfortable now than he did back when he was trying to do Coldplay in his Top 36 performance. Just a natural performer, and you can see his experience as a piano-bar man. Great quality to his voice. He does lose the pitch a little at the end, but overall a very good job, and a performance I can actually see myself paying for.
Overall, this was really another good showing...no train wreck performances, in my opinion, depending on how much Adam weirdness you can stand.
Who I voted for: Nobody. Watching this live really threw me off. I probably would have voted for Alexis, Anoop, Alison, and Megan. (What?!? Hey, she's sick...it would have been a sympathy vote, just me comforting her from afar)
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Lil, Michael, Scott
Who SHOULD go home: Michael
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Megan, Michael, and Alexis (Alexis just based on Dial Idol...I don't get it)
Who WILL go home: Michael (or maybe nobody, if Alexis is last...I REALLY don't get it)
The mentor tonight will be Randy Travis's skeleton. Back when he was alive, he was one of my favorite country singers. Seeing the way he looks now, "Diggin' Up Bones" has a completely different connotation then it did in 1986.
On with the show!!
1) Michael Sarver - "Ain't Goin' Down Till the Sun Comes Up": Bold choice...that is a LOT of words. And he nails every one of them, which is impressive. Not so impressive is the fact that, just like in his initial top 36 performance, he's out of breath by the end. Just like last week, this is not bad, but I feel like with his style (he's a country singer, no matter how many times he tells us he's not) this should have been better. It's a fun performance, and he sounds pretty good, I just expected more from him this week. In retrospect, he was also hurt by going first...there were a LOT of performances after this one that were much more polished and simply better than this one.
I don't usually talk too much about the judges commentary afterwards, but there were two disturbing trends tonight that started with Michael:
1) Kara giving dumb advice: "we're looking for those BIG NOTES." Sorry, I disagree, and I think Kris and Anoop prove me right later. You don't have to include vocal dramatics in order for it to be a good performance. Also, you don't have to do the SAME TYPE song every week, which is another piece of advice she gave a few of the contestants (most notably Lil and Alexis). She's quickly becoming the female version of Randy.
2) Contestants talking back to the judges. I thought this happened way more often than normal last night...maybe because I was watching it live due to some DVR malfunctions, and I wasn't able to FF through Randy and Paula like I normally do. Michael had me at "Country is supposed to be fun," but he lost me at "If we were perfect, we wouldn't be here." Ummm...what does that even mean? There were 100,000-plus applicants for the job of 2009 American Idol...I think they are looking for excellence at this point. "Trying your best" is not excellence. I would go off on a "public school is ruining our country" rant here, but these things are too long as it is.
Anyway, there was a LOT of talking back to the judges this week, and as a rule that is almost always stupid.
2) Alison Iraheta: "Blame it on Your Heart" - It's funny...Alison is probably one of my top 2-3 contestants this season, but I always have the least to say about her. It happens every time: she finishes singing and I realize I haven't made any notes because I've been too busy listening. I guess that's a good thing. This was another amazingly polished and mature performance from the youngest contestant left in the field. I love the style of her voice, but I again have fears that it may not hold out for 11 more weeks.
As a side note, this song had a prominent part in the "Country Musical" I was writing back when I was around 13. Just thought you'd like to know.
3) Kris Allen - "To Make You Feel My Love": My first thought was that it made no sense to me that he used the guitar LAST week, and then chose not to use it on this one...but I ended up loving the arrangement, so what do I know?
This was really a lovely vocal performance. The only problem I had with it had nothing to do with Kris...why do the sound people insist on putting the annoying re-verb on all of the ballads? The echo effect was distracting, and it sounds bush-league. But that's not his fault, and he did a great job. This was a perfect song choice for him, and he sang it well.
4) Lil Rounds - "Independence Day": Wow, I didn't even recognize her at first, but she looks really nice. And, actually, if you showed me a tape of this performance and a tape of her Top 36 performance, I REALLY wouldn't have recognized her. Remember last week when I said it was a "typical" fun performance by Lil? Well, this was the opposite. I totally agree with Simon...she sang like somebody was forcing her to. She looked uncomfortable, and her insistence that she was holding something back in order to "honor" country music was stupid and made no sense. Her voice sounded fine, but it was boring and forced.
5) Adam Lambert - "Ring of Fire": Dude...Undead Randy Travis is TERRIFIED of Adam and everything he stands for. That was hilarious. "Ain't seen too many fellows with nail polish on." HA!
As for the song, well...that was...unusual? Disturbing? I'm not going to go to the "How dare you do that to a Johnny Cash song!" place, because let's face it: Johnny would have loved that (remember, he had a big comeback not long before his death with a Nine Inch Nails cover). Technically, the vocal was excellent (of course), it was just....weird. This was maybe the one time I agreed with Kara tonight: I was confused, and yet somehow happy.
I admire his determination to just be himself, no matter the genre, similar to what Daughtry and D. Cook managed to pull off. I mean, it's not like he's going to make a country album, so why try to be country? But that was...weird.
I was thinking he could have done something like the Garth Brooks cover of "Fever," which is actually an Aerosmith song...I think he could have out-Steven-Tylered Steven Tyler.
6) Scott Macintyre - "Wild Angels": Copy and paste from last week...
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
With one addition...he also seems like a genuinely FUNNY guy:
Paula: I feel like the piano is keeping you from connecting with the audience.
Scott: We could always move the piano CLOSER!
HA!
7) Alexis Grace - "Jolene": I really enjoyed this performance...first of all, this is my very favorite Dolly Parton song by far. Then I thought Alexis did a really good job with it, giving it a little of a bluesy feel, and built the song nicely by saving the "big notes" for the last chorus. I have no idea what the judges were listening to, and I'm totally confused by their advice to her to get more "dirty." Kara said she should have picked a song like "Before He Cheats," which is a) cliched and b) stupid, since she doesn't have Carrie's pipes. Kara really got on my nerves tonight...
One interesting note...DialIdol.com has a fairly decent tracking record for predicting who goes home and they show Alexis in last place by TONS. What is up with that? And...if that holds true, will we see the Judges Save come into play this early in the process?
8) Danny Gokey - "Jesus Take the Wheel": If I hadn't made the decision last week that I was going to start being nicer to Danny, I would be making jokes about him choosing "The Dance" or "If Tomorrow Never Comes." But since I'm being nice to him, I'm not going to make those jokes.
But then, he one-ups me and chooses "Jesus, Take the Wheel." Don't get me wrong...I don't necessarily have anything AGAINST this song, I just think he has done too many of these Archuletta songs already.
The verses don't sound good, and he looks uncomfortable doing them, and they go on too long...but then he really blows away the chorus, and sounds fantastic. I'm going to keep being nice for one more week.
Oh, and one more Kara thing...her fascination with "Big Notes," if it continues, is going to put her in the Automatic Fast-Forward group along with Randybot and Paula.
9) Anoop Desai - "You Were Always on My Mind": To get this out of the way first...they pulled out the echo effect on this one, as well, just like they did to Kris. KNOCK IT OFF!!
OK...this was a tremendous improvement over last week, and was probably my favorite Anoop performance since he blew me away with his initial audition. Just took a great song, didn't try to do too much with it...just changed the melody up a bit to show off a little of his style. Great song choice, great performance, and I loved how happy he was with Simon's comments. And Simon was right...THAT is how you handle criticism from the judges. Don't argue and whine about it...just prove them wrong. Anoop just jumped right back into the thick of this thing, in my opinion.
10) Megan Joy - "Walkin' After Midnight": OK, she looks GORGEOUS, first of all, although she could have used a little more....support. Vocally, she sounds not good at all, and I was ready to blast her until the judges revealed that she was apparently at death's door some time earlier in the day. Going back and listening to it again, I can see how she probably COULD have done a really good job with it if she had a healthy voice, so I'm going to give her a pass.
Shut up. I love her, what do you expect?
11) Matt Giraud - "So Small": Wow, he just looks SO much more comfortable now than he did back when he was trying to do Coldplay in his Top 36 performance. Just a natural performer, and you can see his experience as a piano-bar man. Great quality to his voice. He does lose the pitch a little at the end, but overall a very good job, and a performance I can actually see myself paying for.
Overall, this was really another good showing...no train wreck performances, in my opinion, depending on how much Adam weirdness you can stand.
Who I voted for: Nobody. Watching this live really threw me off. I probably would have voted for Alexis, Anoop, Alison, and Megan. (What?!? Hey, she's sick...it would have been a sympathy vote, just me comforting her from afar)
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Lil, Michael, Scott
Who SHOULD go home: Michael
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Megan, Michael, and Alexis (Alexis just based on Dial Idol...I don't get it)
Who WILL go home: Michael (or maybe nobody, if Alexis is last...I REALLY don't get it)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Idol thoughts - top 13
We begin with a new judge intro that is so over the top that all of the judges are pretty much cracking up over it...Ryan and Simon, especially. Ryan shows off all of the shiny new stage toys, informs us that it's Michael Jackson week (it was probably for the best that they waited to do this until AFTER David Archuletta was gone), and we're off!!
1) Lil Rounds - "The Way You Make Me Feel": I do NOT like her outfit, first of all...is she wearing white jeans? With a loofah on her shoulder? Anyway...she seems nervous early on, but gets into it as the song goes on, and it turns out to be a typical fun Lil performance. Vocally, she's really good-not-great, but she sells it well and the audience (both live and at home) always have a good time when she's performing.
Randy says it's a "great way to kick off Season 8." Is he aware that we are now exactly halfway through this season?
OK, time for this week's random thought: I have a theory about Randy...I think what we are seeing is not actually Randy Jackson, but a robot version of him. A RandyBot. They break out a new one every week, which is why he always thinks we are "kicking off" a new season. He has been programmed with the following words and phrases:
- Dawg
- Dawg Pound
- A'ight
- Da BOMB
- pitchy
- Baby
- Goin' ON
- HOT ONE!!!
- not good
- only SIXTEEN!!
- Mariah Carey
After each performance, the director presses a button, the words mix together with various articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. into a little word salad and you end up with kind of a Randy Jackson Mad Lib.
The REAL Randy Jackson is actually on a desert island with Tupac...SOMEBODY needs to produce the new albums Tupac keeps putting out every year.
Back to the show....
Paula says that when Lil goes into her falsetto, it sounds like angels singing. Which is actually the exact OPPOSITE of true (she sounds MUCH better in her natural voice, falsetto was pretty weak)....I only throw that in here to let you know that Paula was completely OFF HER ROCKER tonight, so this may be the last of her comments I refer to.
2) Scott MacIntyre: "Keep the Faith" - I'm not going to get into this every week. I'm just going to copy and paste the following for as long as he's around:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
Next.
3) Danny Gokey: "P.Y.T." - I've been very tough on this guy, as well...but I actually gained a lot of respect for him reading some of the interviews he did over the last couple of weeks. He pretty much said that he was a little embarrassed by the attention given to the death of his wife, and that he certainly is not trying to get the producers to focus on it. Basically, his attitude was this: I'm only talking about her because you people keep asking about her. Yes, she was my wife, I loved her, she died way too early, and I think about her every day, all the time. So can we just accept that as a given and move on?
Which...yes. That's awesome and heartbreaking at the same time, and I feel kind of like a jerk.
So, the only other real complaint I've had about him is that he always goes to the Archuletta place when picking his songs...the inspirational, warm-and-fuzzy, "we can all make our dreams come true" place. Not this week...this week, Danny is singing about Tenderoni and basically just having fun with a great little funky MJ song that I have always loved.
And he did a GREAT job with it. That does it. I'm officially on the Danny Gokey Train. Is there still room?
4) Michael Sarver: "You Are Not Alone" - This is EXACTLY what I said he should be doing during his first Top 36 performance. So why am I not as impressed as I feel like I should be? Great voice, nice guy, nice song. It just came off as a little...cheesy, I guess?. Maybe it was facial expressions? I don't know...this was good, I just feel like I'm going to have a hard time remembering it.
5) Jasmine Murray: "I'll Be There" - I've been trying to figure out how to describe my thoughts on Jasmine's performances, and then she helps me out in her intro. She's been in a lot of pageants. Of course she has.
So, this was a very pageant-y performance: She looks gorgeous (loved her dress), stands in the middle of the stage and gives a pretty good performance of a lovely little ballad. Nice voice: not great, but probably good enough to win the Talent portion of Miss Teen Lower Central Mississippi, or whatever. The judges are actually right on this one...she needs to do something younger, more fun...enough with the pageanty ballads.
6) Kris Allen: "Remember the Time" - Let me say this first...those two are going to produce some gorgeous children.
I'm not sure why he played his guitar on this one...we couldn't even hear it, and I don't think a guitar really fits on this song. It's like he really wanted to do this song, and he REALLY wanted to play his guitar, so he just stuck them together.
Couple of pitch problems on the bridge part, but overall a nice performance... one of those where he's probably not going to lose any of the people who voted for him before, but he probably didn't really make any new fans, either. I think he's going to stick around for a couple of weeks, but he has a definite "ceiling"...probably around top 10 or so.
Oh, and I think the RandyBot malfunctioned, based on his critique to Kris: "Very well job done, Baby." May need some re-wiring...I think a couple of the words got crossed up.
7) Alison Iraheta: "Give In to Me" - This was just a great, great performance. LOVE this girl's voice...I just hope it holds up for her. She really had a great command of the stage, just rocked it out. LOVED it.
8) Anoop Desai: "Beat It" - Oh, Anoop...Anoop, Anoop, Anoop. This was the definition of "poor song choice." The ONLY way you can get away with singing this song is if you re-arrange it, or do an already re-arranged version (like David did with Billie Jean last season). If you just do it straight, it's never going to sound like ANYTHING except a karaoke version of the song, which is what this was. This probably went over really well for him at a Frat party or something, so he thought it would be a big hit for him here, but...no. Vocally, it was about a C+, and the performance was probably a C-.
Hopefully, his fan base is big enough that he gets another chance to prove himself...I think he will.
9) Jorge Nunez: "Never Can Say Goodbye" - This was a tough one...his voice is fantastic, as usual. But for some reason, this just really didn't work for me. The vintage 1987 Don Johnson jacket with the sleeves pushed up, the cheesy sounding back up singers, the even cheesier looks into the camera...I felt like I was watching a variety show or something. It was, to use one of Simon's favorite expressions, "very old fashioned." Which, I know...the song came out in 1971, so what did I expect? Ummm....better than that, I guess?
10) Megan Joy Corkrey: "Rockin' Robin" - Long story short...if you love Megan (as I do), then you loved this, because this was Megan from start to finish. Quirky, playful, ironic, fun. If you DON'T love Megan, you probably thought it was weird, screechy, and a little bit stupid.
Whatever. I love her, so I loved it, and she looked BEAUTIFUL.
11) Adam Lambert: "Black or White" - Dude. That was INTENSE. I'm always completely exhausted after an Adam Lambert performance. It's just moving at like 290 MPH, with no seatbelt. His dial is ALWAYS turned to 11.
After the performance, you can tell that the energy level in the auditorium is just CRACKLING. Like, EVERYBODY is on the verge of tears, trembling, eyes all wide and sparkly, like he just dumped a vat of crystal meth on everybody. It's really amazing to watch.
I don't even know how to analyze this...dude is a Bloody Rock God. Period.
12) Matt Giraud: "Human Nature" - AND we switch gears so fast I'm surprised the transmission didn't fall out. Not that this was bad...I really enjoyed it, actually. It's just that this is a really tough spot for Matt to come out and do a slow, easy song like this...between Adam before him and Alexis after him, is anybody going to remember that Matt was even on the show?
This was a very good performance...I really like his voice, even if he throws in a few too many vocal riffs for my tastes, and he's a very talented piano player. I really hope he sticks around.
13) Alexis Grace: "Dirty Diana" - My second favorite MJ song, behind Smooth Criminal (hey...why didn't Anoop do THAT one?). This was probably about a half-step out of her range, (she probably couldn't risk lowering it because of how low the verses are), but it was still a very good vocal, with a fun and energetic performance, with the lighting folks just going CRAZY for her with the effects. Plus, we got to see her crying about her kid in the intro, so that will help. (maybe that will help Megan too, now that I think about it)
Overall, I thought this was a VERY impressive show. Really, no BAD performances...some really great ones, some very good ones, and then others that were just O.K.
My top 3: Adam, Alison, Danny. And...Alexis. So, top 4.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Jasmine, and Jorge
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Jasmine, Kris, and.....Megan. Dang it.
Who SHOULD go home: Jasmine and Scott
Who WILL go home: Jasmine and Kris (really Megan, but I just couldn't bring myself to type it)
One more thing...I have no idea what the "big change" is that they talked about at the end of last night, but I sincerely hope it's not giving the judges more say-so in who stays and who goes at this point. I know that So You Think You Can Dance (produced by the same folks) has it set up where the audience picks the bottom 2, and then the judges decide who goes home. I think that works for that show, because most of America has no clue when it comes to the technical aspects of dance. For this show, however, I think the power should stay with the people.
I'm withholding judgement until we get details...with fingers crossed that they don't screw this thing up.
1) Lil Rounds - "The Way You Make Me Feel": I do NOT like her outfit, first of all...is she wearing white jeans? With a loofah on her shoulder? Anyway...she seems nervous early on, but gets into it as the song goes on, and it turns out to be a typical fun Lil performance. Vocally, she's really good-not-great, but she sells it well and the audience (both live and at home) always have a good time when she's performing.
Randy says it's a "great way to kick off Season 8." Is he aware that we are now exactly halfway through this season?
OK, time for this week's random thought: I have a theory about Randy...I think what we are seeing is not actually Randy Jackson, but a robot version of him. A RandyBot. They break out a new one every week, which is why he always thinks we are "kicking off" a new season. He has been programmed with the following words and phrases:
- Dawg
- Dawg Pound
- A'ight
- Da BOMB
- pitchy
- Baby
- Goin' ON
- HOT ONE!!!
- not good
- only SIXTEEN!!
- Mariah Carey
After each performance, the director presses a button, the words mix together with various articles, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. into a little word salad and you end up with kind of a Randy Jackson Mad Lib.
The REAL Randy Jackson is actually on a desert island with Tupac...SOMEBODY needs to produce the new albums Tupac keeps putting out every year.
Back to the show....
Paula says that when Lil goes into her falsetto, it sounds like angels singing. Which is actually the exact OPPOSITE of true (she sounds MUCH better in her natural voice, falsetto was pretty weak)....I only throw that in here to let you know that Paula was completely OFF HER ROCKER tonight, so this may be the last of her comments I refer to.
2) Scott MacIntyre: "Keep the Faith" - I'm not going to get into this every week. I'm just going to copy and paste the following for as long as he's around:
As a singer, he's not that talented...average at best. Great pianist. Picks the most corny, boring, white-bread song available on a weekly basis. Seems like a great guy.
Next.
3) Danny Gokey: "P.Y.T." - I've been very tough on this guy, as well...but I actually gained a lot of respect for him reading some of the interviews he did over the last couple of weeks. He pretty much said that he was a little embarrassed by the attention given to the death of his wife, and that he certainly is not trying to get the producers to focus on it. Basically, his attitude was this: I'm only talking about her because you people keep asking about her. Yes, she was my wife, I loved her, she died way too early, and I think about her every day, all the time. So can we just accept that as a given and move on?
Which...yes. That's awesome and heartbreaking at the same time, and I feel kind of like a jerk.
So, the only other real complaint I've had about him is that he always goes to the Archuletta place when picking his songs...the inspirational, warm-and-fuzzy, "we can all make our dreams come true" place. Not this week...this week, Danny is singing about Tenderoni and basically just having fun with a great little funky MJ song that I have always loved.
And he did a GREAT job with it. That does it. I'm officially on the Danny Gokey Train. Is there still room?
4) Michael Sarver: "You Are Not Alone" - This is EXACTLY what I said he should be doing during his first Top 36 performance. So why am I not as impressed as I feel like I should be? Great voice, nice guy, nice song. It just came off as a little...cheesy, I guess?. Maybe it was facial expressions? I don't know...this was good, I just feel like I'm going to have a hard time remembering it.
5) Jasmine Murray: "I'll Be There" - I've been trying to figure out how to describe my thoughts on Jasmine's performances, and then she helps me out in her intro. She's been in a lot of pageants. Of course she has.
So, this was a very pageant-y performance: She looks gorgeous (loved her dress), stands in the middle of the stage and gives a pretty good performance of a lovely little ballad. Nice voice: not great, but probably good enough to win the Talent portion of Miss Teen Lower Central Mississippi, or whatever. The judges are actually right on this one...she needs to do something younger, more fun...enough with the pageanty ballads.
6) Kris Allen: "Remember the Time" - Let me say this first...those two are going to produce some gorgeous children.
I'm not sure why he played his guitar on this one...we couldn't even hear it, and I don't think a guitar really fits on this song. It's like he really wanted to do this song, and he REALLY wanted to play his guitar, so he just stuck them together.
Couple of pitch problems on the bridge part, but overall a nice performance... one of those where he's probably not going to lose any of the people who voted for him before, but he probably didn't really make any new fans, either. I think he's going to stick around for a couple of weeks, but he has a definite "ceiling"...probably around top 10 or so.
Oh, and I think the RandyBot malfunctioned, based on his critique to Kris: "Very well job done, Baby." May need some re-wiring...I think a couple of the words got crossed up.
7) Alison Iraheta: "Give In to Me" - This was just a great, great performance. LOVE this girl's voice...I just hope it holds up for her. She really had a great command of the stage, just rocked it out. LOVED it.
8) Anoop Desai: "Beat It" - Oh, Anoop...Anoop, Anoop, Anoop. This was the definition of "poor song choice." The ONLY way you can get away with singing this song is if you re-arrange it, or do an already re-arranged version (like David did with Billie Jean last season). If you just do it straight, it's never going to sound like ANYTHING except a karaoke version of the song, which is what this was. This probably went over really well for him at a Frat party or something, so he thought it would be a big hit for him here, but...no. Vocally, it was about a C+, and the performance was probably a C-.
Hopefully, his fan base is big enough that he gets another chance to prove himself...I think he will.
9) Jorge Nunez: "Never Can Say Goodbye" - This was a tough one...his voice is fantastic, as usual. But for some reason, this just really didn't work for me. The vintage 1987 Don Johnson jacket with the sleeves pushed up, the cheesy sounding back up singers, the even cheesier looks into the camera...I felt like I was watching a variety show or something. It was, to use one of Simon's favorite expressions, "very old fashioned." Which, I know...the song came out in 1971, so what did I expect? Ummm....better than that, I guess?
10) Megan Joy Corkrey: "Rockin' Robin" - Long story short...if you love Megan (as I do), then you loved this, because this was Megan from start to finish. Quirky, playful, ironic, fun. If you DON'T love Megan, you probably thought it was weird, screechy, and a little bit stupid.
Whatever. I love her, so I loved it, and she looked BEAUTIFUL.
11) Adam Lambert: "Black or White" - Dude. That was INTENSE. I'm always completely exhausted after an Adam Lambert performance. It's just moving at like 290 MPH, with no seatbelt. His dial is ALWAYS turned to 11.
After the performance, you can tell that the energy level in the auditorium is just CRACKLING. Like, EVERYBODY is on the verge of tears, trembling, eyes all wide and sparkly, like he just dumped a vat of crystal meth on everybody. It's really amazing to watch.
I don't even know how to analyze this...dude is a Bloody Rock God. Period.
12) Matt Giraud: "Human Nature" - AND we switch gears so fast I'm surprised the transmission didn't fall out. Not that this was bad...I really enjoyed it, actually. It's just that this is a really tough spot for Matt to come out and do a slow, easy song like this...between Adam before him and Alexis after him, is anybody going to remember that Matt was even on the show?
This was a very good performance...I really like his voice, even if he throws in a few too many vocal riffs for my tastes, and he's a very talented piano player. I really hope he sticks around.
13) Alexis Grace: "Dirty Diana" - My second favorite MJ song, behind Smooth Criminal (hey...why didn't Anoop do THAT one?). This was probably about a half-step out of her range, (she probably couldn't risk lowering it because of how low the verses are), but it was still a very good vocal, with a fun and energetic performance, with the lighting folks just going CRAZY for her with the effects. Plus, we got to see her crying about her kid in the intro, so that will help. (maybe that will help Megan too, now that I think about it)
Overall, I thought this was a VERY impressive show. Really, no BAD performances...some really great ones, some very good ones, and then others that were just O.K.
My top 3: Adam, Alison, Danny. And...Alexis. So, top 4.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom 3: Scott, Jasmine, and Jorge
Who WILL be in the bottom 3: Jasmine, Kris, and.....Megan. Dang it.
Who SHOULD go home: Jasmine and Scott
Who WILL go home: Jasmine and Kris (really Megan, but I just couldn't bring myself to type it)
One more thing...I have no idea what the "big change" is that they talked about at the end of last night, but I sincerely hope it's not giving the judges more say-so in who stays and who goes at this point. I know that So You Think You Can Dance (produced by the same folks) has it set up where the audience picks the bottom 2, and then the judges decide who goes home. I think that works for that show, because most of America has no clue when it comes to the technical aspects of dance. For this show, however, I think the power should stay with the people.
I'm withholding judgement until we get details...with fingers crossed that they don't screw this thing up.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Idol thoughts - wild card edition
Sorry, I don't have it in me to do 2 full Idol posts plus a LOST post in one week, so quick thoughts on the Wild Card round...
Very glad Matt got to come back and show what he can REALLY do...that was about 2 trillion times better than he did last week, and I can't wait for him to get behind the piano. Sorry, but I think he's going to blow Scott MacIntyre out of the water.
Really great song choices all around tonight, with the exception of Von and Jasmine. I think Simon scared the Von out of Von during Hollywood week and he went too far in the other direction.
As for Jasmine, I did NOT see what the judges saw tonight. I thought the song was too big for her voice, and I honestly think they put her through to satisfy a certain...demographic.
Overall, I'm VERY pleased with the ones they picked, since I understand what they are doing with Jasmine. Of course I'm happy that Megan is in, ECSTATIC and pleasantly surprised that Tatiana is out of my life forever, and really glad they put both Anoop and Matt in.
A very solid top 12...looking forward to next week!
Very glad Matt got to come back and show what he can REALLY do...that was about 2 trillion times better than he did last week, and I can't wait for him to get behind the piano. Sorry, but I think he's going to blow Scott MacIntyre out of the water.
Really great song choices all around tonight, with the exception of Von and Jasmine. I think Simon scared the Von out of Von during Hollywood week and he went too far in the other direction.
As for Jasmine, I did NOT see what the judges saw tonight. I thought the song was too big for her voice, and I honestly think they put her through to satisfy a certain...demographic.
Overall, I'm VERY pleased with the ones they picked, since I understand what they are doing with Jasmine. Of course I'm happy that Megan is in, ECSTATIC and pleasantly surprised that Tatiana is out of my life forever, and really glad they put both Anoop and Matt in.
A very solid top 12...looking forward to next week!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Idol thoughts
I was pleasantly surprised by this week's performances. This group probably had the fewest people I was really looking forward to, and I think it ended up being the strongest week so far performance-wise. I think this group had an advantage, because they got to see the mistakes the first two groups made...this was by FAR the best group from a song choice perspective.
Oh, and Simon Cowell Week during the Top 12? Best. Idea. EVAH.
On with the show...
1) Von Smith - "You're All I Need to Get By": During all of the prelims, I really didn't know what to make of this guy...he just seemed like kind of a weird dude, and then he had this over-the-top shouty singing voice and performing style. He kind of reminded me of a 1930's vaudeville type, I guess? Don't know if I'm explaining that right...I guess I'll go back to "seemed like kind of a weird dude."
So I was very happy to see that he did take the judge's advice and dialed back the vocal theatrics. In fact, it was almost like he was whispering when the song first started, and I was afraid he may have gone too far in the OTHER direction. But once he got going, this turned into a very enjoyable performance. Nice control, especially in the higher register, and I think he did what so many in the earlier weeks struggled with...picked a good song and sung it well. He's not going to be helped by going first, though.
Oh, and then Simon compares him to Clay Aiken, and I can totally see that, but you can imagine how it would throw you if you were in Von's shoes. 'Cause I was a fan of Clay when he was on the show, but looking at what he has become now...I'm not sure if I could still be friends with somebody if they started comparing me to Clay Aiken, right?
2) Taylor Vaifanua - "If I Ain't Got You": First of all, Ryan and I are kindred spirits in at least one way...the whole "family" thing reduces him to a big ole crybaby, just like it does me, as we see him fighting back tears as Taylor's sister tries to say how proud she is of Taylor at her audition. Ryan is awesome, I don't care what anybody says.
Second of all, what is she wearing on her legs? They are very....metallic-looking. Is she a super-hero? Because that would be pretty awesome, if we could somehow mix Heroes with American Idol. I know there have been PLENTY of times on this show when it would have been nice to have Sylar around to saw off a few heads, ya know? Not mentioning any names but....you feel me, DAWG?!??
ANYWAY. This, unfortunately, is going to be one of those nice little performances that nobody remembers (of course, I thought that about Kris last week, and look how that turned out). She has some breath control issues a couple of times that I think can be attributed to nerves, but other than that this is a pretty good performance.
And then, in the judges commentary, Paula starts what will be an unnerving trend in this show...she actually remembers what Taylor sang during Hollywood week. Since when does Paula remember stuff?
3) Alex Wagner Trugman - "Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues": Now, THIS guy is funny...much funnier than Normund, who is a self-proclaimed "comedian." I've really liked this guy ever since his initial audition. Apparently, Paula has as well, since it looks like she tried to eat him during Hollywood week. That was...unsettling.
The song starts out really well, as he shows off the very pure tone to his voice, which is totally unexpected from the looks of him, and then....WOAH. Why is he growling at us? I'm having enough problems with this little dorky looking math tutor singing about "rolling like thunder under the covers" without him throwing THAT into the mix. Is that supposed to be funny? Sexy? That's not sexy, that's ANIMAL.
He seems genuinely confused by the judges critique of his vocal "stylings," so I still don't know whether that was supposed to be serious or not. Of course, Genuine Confusion seems to be his default expression, so I'm at a loss....
4) Arianna Afsar - "The Winner Takes it All": OK, Arianna...get over it. You ARE cute. And when you get a little older, you're going to realize that pointing that out is not an insult. Believe me, there is no greater compliment that you can receive from Simon or Kara than "You are Marketable," which is basically what they were saying. You have an advantage to making it in the music business because of the way you look, and you are stupid if you don't take advantage of it. Not that she's gorgeous or anything, but she does have the "look" of a teen pop star.
She picked a GREAT song (yeah, I like ABBA...what of it?), but then totally screwed it up with some weird arrangement. She was flat at the beginning, with some of that Britney-inspired word pronunciation, it sounded like she was ahead of the band during the verse, and she kept doing the same little Mariah-runs over and over again. She lost her breath at the end, causing cracks on the glory notes. Simon was right, as usual...that song was too big for her.
Great song choice, bad execution.
5) Ju'Not Joyner - "Hey There, Delilah": Cool arrangement on the song, very pure, soulful voice. There is literally nothing for me to be snarky about here, other than that his hat is crooked. Kara was right, "smooth" is the best way to describe this performance. I loved it.
6) Kristen McNamara - "Give Me One Reason": Wow, she's only 24? She must be living HARD.
She does have a great voice, and this is yet another great song chosen tonight. Shows off her pipes, at least until a little trouble at the end.
Boy, she really does have an identity crisis, doesn't she? Isn't 24 a little old to be letting other people tell you who you're supposed to be? If you're the crazy girl who colors her hair and wears weird clothes, then OWN THAT. If you start trying to change who you are every time somebody, no matter who they are, tells you that you should, then you are going to end up very confused...much like Kristen seems to be.
Speaking of confused....
7) Nathaniel Marshall - "I Would Do Anything for Love": See, now here is the danger to following the advice I just gave Kristen. There is a HUGE difference between "being who you are" and shoving "who you are" into everybody's face over and over again and then not understanding when they pull away from you. And I'm not even just talking about the gay thing, it goes for jocks, geeks, frat boys, sorority girls, whomever...some people just don't get the difference between a "personality" and a "persona," so they never stop performing whatever "label" they've decided to put on themselves long enough to just BE.
Anyway...what was I saying? Right: Nathaniel. So he comes out in this god-awful outfit, with the headband, and the hair teased, and the flouncing around and the flirty faces and the pointing in the camera, and it's just...too much. Honestly. I felt like I was watching an SNL skit.
This guy is obviously ACHING for attention, and this is certainly an appropriate song choice for him, though I'm honestly not sure what the "That" is that he says he WON'T do because, come on...just TRY to come up with something that you think Nathaniel Marshall will NOT do for love. I know, right? I can't think of anything either.
Sad part of it is he actually has a nice voice...too bad it's overshadowed by the production.
8) Felicia Barton - "No One": She really seems to have updated her look since the audition times, and she looks much more marketable (don't worry, Arianna...I didn't say "cute). I confess, this song is one of those that I have to listen to every time I pass it on the radio...very catchy. And it is a SINGER'S song, so it is a good song choice for her. She certainly has pipes...she loses it a little in the middle...I think she lost her breath (probably nerves) and overshot on a note or two, then panicked for a minute, which caused even more shaky notes. But, she pulled it together in the end, and I thought it was a very good performance overall. She can definitely sing...she just kind of oversang it in the middle.
9) Scott MacIntyre - "Mandolin Rain": OK, here is where I'm going to be labeled the big ole meanie...if this guy could see, do you think he would still be in the competition? His voice is better than average, but nothing great. He sings all John Tesh soft rock songs, with a delivery that is very "rehearsed"....in other words, every word is very ar-tic-u-lat-ed, very managed. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, just seems out of place in a pop star karaoke competition.
Also....jeez, I'm a terrible human being, I know...but his eyes freak me out a little. Would it kill him to wear some sunglasses? Hey, if it's good enough for Ronnie Milsap, it's good enough for me, that's what I always say. Always, I say that.
OK, enough, enough...he seems like an awfully nice fella, and when he asked Ryan for a high five, I just about fell out. I won't be terribly upset if he makes it to the top 12, but I also think that if he wasn't blind he would be out already...and that's not prejudiced, that's the exact OPPOSITE of prejudiced.
10) Kendall Beard - "This One's For the Girls": Well, she's cute as a button, I'll give her that (sorry, Arianna). But she's really going out on a limb by taking on Martina McBride...if you're going to do that, you better have the pipes to back it up. Unfortunately, she does NOT. This song was entirely too big for her, and she never had a shot.
Quick aside...looks like just about everybody this week noticed the judges ragging on song choice, because almost all of them are picking big Singer's Songs, where you can really blast it out and show off your skillzz. Gotta be careful with that, though, because if you outreach your ability then a song like that can really demonstrate your shortcomings. Case in point...Kendall. She could have sang any number of country songs to show her "country girl" personality without trying to take on one of the biggest voices country music has ever seen.
One more quick aside...this was a really weird song. Maybe it's a chick thing and I didn't get it? "We're all the same on the inside?" What does that mean? I mean, it's basically true, from an anatomical perspective, but I don't think that is what it is talking about....is it? Does it mean all girls are the same? If so, that's a pretty sexist song, isn't it?
11) Jorge Nunez - "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me": Is he really only 21? He looks much older than that. Super, fantastic, gorgeous voice...and the producers gave him a nice little split-screen effect for dramatic purposes. Hey, try and at least hide the bias a LITTLE bit, OK guys? Of course, the backup singers certainly were not biased, at least not favorably...they sounded like butt. But seriously, this was really pretty...definitely a "big voice ballad" singer in the mold of Jon Secada.
And then they go to the judges, and things get crazy. Simon started off OK by saying that they should not have told him to lose his accent, which I agree with. But then he went on to call him Spanish about 3-4 times, which...he's not Spanish. It's like calling everybody from Central or South America "Mexican", or all Oriental people "Chinese."
And then Paula, of course, makes it worse by asking him to dance and talk in his accent like he did in Hollywood, and it's like...dude. He's not your wind-up toy. And THEN, she follows that up with, "What? It's FUNNY!" when Simon calls her out (rightfully so, but...you kind of gave up the moral high ground, like, 5 seconds ago) about being patronizing. Good grief, what a mess. Those who know me know that I'm not a big "politically correct" type guy, but come on. "Dance for me, Jorge! And talk in that cute funny little accent! Man, all you Spanish folks are just alike!"
Meanwhile, Jorge is just soaking it all in...he's just happy to be there, and I'm happy for him, but it actually makes me a little sad that he is intentionally trying to lose his accent, just because Paula Abdul told him to. He needs to just be himself...there is a HUGE audience out there for Latin singers (or, SPANISH singers, as Simon would say).
12) Lil Rounds - "Bein' Without You": Wow. That was awesome. You can always tell the ones who are going to be the ones who stick around for a while...they are the ones who make you momentarily forget you are watching a karaoke show and instead make you think you are watching a concert. Bo Bice singing Whipping Post, Carrie Underwood singing Alone, David Cook singing Hello...and this definitely had that kind of a feel for me. Maybe not to that level yet, but this girl is good.
Good batch of performances this week. Outside of that cute girl who murdered ABBA, there were no actively BAD performances, I didn't think.
Who I voted for: Von, Ju'Not, Jorge, Lil, Kristen, Felicia (this was by FAR the strongest week).
Who will make it: Scott, Lil, Jorge.
- Finally got some clarification on the Wild Card rules...apparently, the judges will bring back 8-9 people Thursday night (either 8 or 9, probably depending on who goes through tonight), they will all "sing for their life," and then the judges will pick 3 and the other 5 or 6 will be eaten by Randy Jackson. Or something, I don't know...THEY are the ones who brought up the "Sing for Your LIFE!!!!!" thing, not me.
That is a LOT to be happening in a one hour show...poor little Ryan's head is going to explode.
I'll try to be back tomorrow with predictions on who they will bring back and who will make it, but having heard all of the performers at this point, here is who would be in my personal top 12 (including the ones already voted in):
Adam Lambert
Danny Gokey
Anoop Desai
Ju'Not Joyner
Michael Sarver
Kris Allen
Alexis Grace
Lil Rounds
Alison Iraheta
Megan Corkey (Shut up...I still love her)
Mishavonna Henson
Jessie Langseth
The last female slot was the hardest decision for me...I would be OK with Felicia Barton here, as well, and maybe Ann Marie Boskovich or Kristen McNamara. Feel free to leave your predictions, as well...
***UPDATE***
My above list assumes that the judges will try and even out guys and girls...if they just take 12, regardless, then add Jorge Nunez and Matt Giraud and remove Mishavonna and Jessie. I know Matt was awful last time we saw him, but I want to see him with his piano in the top 12.
Oh, and Simon Cowell Week during the Top 12? Best. Idea. EVAH.
On with the show...
1) Von Smith - "You're All I Need to Get By": During all of the prelims, I really didn't know what to make of this guy...he just seemed like kind of a weird dude, and then he had this over-the-top shouty singing voice and performing style. He kind of reminded me of a 1930's vaudeville type, I guess? Don't know if I'm explaining that right...I guess I'll go back to "seemed like kind of a weird dude."
So I was very happy to see that he did take the judge's advice and dialed back the vocal theatrics. In fact, it was almost like he was whispering when the song first started, and I was afraid he may have gone too far in the OTHER direction. But once he got going, this turned into a very enjoyable performance. Nice control, especially in the higher register, and I think he did what so many in the earlier weeks struggled with...picked a good song and sung it well. He's not going to be helped by going first, though.
Oh, and then Simon compares him to Clay Aiken, and I can totally see that, but you can imagine how it would throw you if you were in Von's shoes. 'Cause I was a fan of Clay when he was on the show, but looking at what he has become now...I'm not sure if I could still be friends with somebody if they started comparing me to Clay Aiken, right?
2) Taylor Vaifanua - "If I Ain't Got You": First of all, Ryan and I are kindred spirits in at least one way...the whole "family" thing reduces him to a big ole crybaby, just like it does me, as we see him fighting back tears as Taylor's sister tries to say how proud she is of Taylor at her audition. Ryan is awesome, I don't care what anybody says.
Second of all, what is she wearing on her legs? They are very....metallic-looking. Is she a super-hero? Because that would be pretty awesome, if we could somehow mix Heroes with American Idol. I know there have been PLENTY of times on this show when it would have been nice to have Sylar around to saw off a few heads, ya know? Not mentioning any names but....you feel me, DAWG?!??
ANYWAY. This, unfortunately, is going to be one of those nice little performances that nobody remembers (of course, I thought that about Kris last week, and look how that turned out). She has some breath control issues a couple of times that I think can be attributed to nerves, but other than that this is a pretty good performance.
And then, in the judges commentary, Paula starts what will be an unnerving trend in this show...she actually remembers what Taylor sang during Hollywood week. Since when does Paula remember stuff?
3) Alex Wagner Trugman - "Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues": Now, THIS guy is funny...much funnier than Normund, who is a self-proclaimed "comedian." I've really liked this guy ever since his initial audition. Apparently, Paula has as well, since it looks like she tried to eat him during Hollywood week. That was...unsettling.
The song starts out really well, as he shows off the very pure tone to his voice, which is totally unexpected from the looks of him, and then....WOAH. Why is he growling at us? I'm having enough problems with this little dorky looking math tutor singing about "rolling like thunder under the covers" without him throwing THAT into the mix. Is that supposed to be funny? Sexy? That's not sexy, that's ANIMAL.
He seems genuinely confused by the judges critique of his vocal "stylings," so I still don't know whether that was supposed to be serious or not. Of course, Genuine Confusion seems to be his default expression, so I'm at a loss....
4) Arianna Afsar - "The Winner Takes it All": OK, Arianna...get over it. You ARE cute. And when you get a little older, you're going to realize that pointing that out is not an insult. Believe me, there is no greater compliment that you can receive from Simon or Kara than "You are Marketable," which is basically what they were saying. You have an advantage to making it in the music business because of the way you look, and you are stupid if you don't take advantage of it. Not that she's gorgeous or anything, but she does have the "look" of a teen pop star.
She picked a GREAT song (yeah, I like ABBA...what of it?), but then totally screwed it up with some weird arrangement. She was flat at the beginning, with some of that Britney-inspired word pronunciation, it sounded like she was ahead of the band during the verse, and she kept doing the same little Mariah-runs over and over again. She lost her breath at the end, causing cracks on the glory notes. Simon was right, as usual...that song was too big for her.
Great song choice, bad execution.
5) Ju'Not Joyner - "Hey There, Delilah": Cool arrangement on the song, very pure, soulful voice. There is literally nothing for me to be snarky about here, other than that his hat is crooked. Kara was right, "smooth" is the best way to describe this performance. I loved it.
6) Kristen McNamara - "Give Me One Reason": Wow, she's only 24? She must be living HARD.
She does have a great voice, and this is yet another great song chosen tonight. Shows off her pipes, at least until a little trouble at the end.
Boy, she really does have an identity crisis, doesn't she? Isn't 24 a little old to be letting other people tell you who you're supposed to be? If you're the crazy girl who colors her hair and wears weird clothes, then OWN THAT. If you start trying to change who you are every time somebody, no matter who they are, tells you that you should, then you are going to end up very confused...much like Kristen seems to be.
Speaking of confused....
7) Nathaniel Marshall - "I Would Do Anything for Love": See, now here is the danger to following the advice I just gave Kristen. There is a HUGE difference between "being who you are" and shoving "who you are" into everybody's face over and over again and then not understanding when they pull away from you. And I'm not even just talking about the gay thing, it goes for jocks, geeks, frat boys, sorority girls, whomever...some people just don't get the difference between a "personality" and a "persona," so they never stop performing whatever "label" they've decided to put on themselves long enough to just BE.
Anyway...what was I saying? Right: Nathaniel. So he comes out in this god-awful outfit, with the headband, and the hair teased, and the flouncing around and the flirty faces and the pointing in the camera, and it's just...too much. Honestly. I felt like I was watching an SNL skit.
This guy is obviously ACHING for attention, and this is certainly an appropriate song choice for him, though I'm honestly not sure what the "That" is that he says he WON'T do because, come on...just TRY to come up with something that you think Nathaniel Marshall will NOT do for love. I know, right? I can't think of anything either.
Sad part of it is he actually has a nice voice...too bad it's overshadowed by the production.
8) Felicia Barton - "No One": She really seems to have updated her look since the audition times, and she looks much more marketable (don't worry, Arianna...I didn't say "cute). I confess, this song is one of those that I have to listen to every time I pass it on the radio...very catchy. And it is a SINGER'S song, so it is a good song choice for her. She certainly has pipes...she loses it a little in the middle...I think she lost her breath (probably nerves) and overshot on a note or two, then panicked for a minute, which caused even more shaky notes. But, she pulled it together in the end, and I thought it was a very good performance overall. She can definitely sing...she just kind of oversang it in the middle.
9) Scott MacIntyre - "Mandolin Rain": OK, here is where I'm going to be labeled the big ole meanie...if this guy could see, do you think he would still be in the competition? His voice is better than average, but nothing great. He sings all John Tesh soft rock songs, with a delivery that is very "rehearsed"....in other words, every word is very ar-tic-u-lat-ed, very managed. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, just seems out of place in a pop star karaoke competition.
Also....jeez, I'm a terrible human being, I know...but his eyes freak me out a little. Would it kill him to wear some sunglasses? Hey, if it's good enough for Ronnie Milsap, it's good enough for me, that's what I always say. Always, I say that.
OK, enough, enough...he seems like an awfully nice fella, and when he asked Ryan for a high five, I just about fell out. I won't be terribly upset if he makes it to the top 12, but I also think that if he wasn't blind he would be out already...and that's not prejudiced, that's the exact OPPOSITE of prejudiced.
10) Kendall Beard - "This One's For the Girls": Well, she's cute as a button, I'll give her that (sorry, Arianna). But she's really going out on a limb by taking on Martina McBride...if you're going to do that, you better have the pipes to back it up. Unfortunately, she does NOT. This song was entirely too big for her, and she never had a shot.
Quick aside...looks like just about everybody this week noticed the judges ragging on song choice, because almost all of them are picking big Singer's Songs, where you can really blast it out and show off your skillzz. Gotta be careful with that, though, because if you outreach your ability then a song like that can really demonstrate your shortcomings. Case in point...Kendall. She could have sang any number of country songs to show her "country girl" personality without trying to take on one of the biggest voices country music has ever seen.
One more quick aside...this was a really weird song. Maybe it's a chick thing and I didn't get it? "We're all the same on the inside?" What does that mean? I mean, it's basically true, from an anatomical perspective, but I don't think that is what it is talking about....is it? Does it mean all girls are the same? If so, that's a pretty sexist song, isn't it?
11) Jorge Nunez - "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me": Is he really only 21? He looks much older than that. Super, fantastic, gorgeous voice...and the producers gave him a nice little split-screen effect for dramatic purposes. Hey, try and at least hide the bias a LITTLE bit, OK guys? Of course, the backup singers certainly were not biased, at least not favorably...they sounded like butt. But seriously, this was really pretty...definitely a "big voice ballad" singer in the mold of Jon Secada.
And then they go to the judges, and things get crazy. Simon started off OK by saying that they should not have told him to lose his accent, which I agree with. But then he went on to call him Spanish about 3-4 times, which...he's not Spanish. It's like calling everybody from Central or South America "Mexican", or all Oriental people "Chinese."
And then Paula, of course, makes it worse by asking him to dance and talk in his accent like he did in Hollywood, and it's like...dude. He's not your wind-up toy. And THEN, she follows that up with, "What? It's FUNNY!" when Simon calls her out (rightfully so, but...you kind of gave up the moral high ground, like, 5 seconds ago) about being patronizing. Good grief, what a mess. Those who know me know that I'm not a big "politically correct" type guy, but come on. "Dance for me, Jorge! And talk in that cute funny little accent! Man, all you Spanish folks are just alike!"
Meanwhile, Jorge is just soaking it all in...he's just happy to be there, and I'm happy for him, but it actually makes me a little sad that he is intentionally trying to lose his accent, just because Paula Abdul told him to. He needs to just be himself...there is a HUGE audience out there for Latin singers (or, SPANISH singers, as Simon would say).
12) Lil Rounds - "Bein' Without You": Wow. That was awesome. You can always tell the ones who are going to be the ones who stick around for a while...they are the ones who make you momentarily forget you are watching a karaoke show and instead make you think you are watching a concert. Bo Bice singing Whipping Post, Carrie Underwood singing Alone, David Cook singing Hello...and this definitely had that kind of a feel for me. Maybe not to that level yet, but this girl is good.
Good batch of performances this week. Outside of that cute girl who murdered ABBA, there were no actively BAD performances, I didn't think.
Who I voted for: Von, Ju'Not, Jorge, Lil, Kristen, Felicia (this was by FAR the strongest week).
Who will make it: Scott, Lil, Jorge.
- Finally got some clarification on the Wild Card rules...apparently, the judges will bring back 8-9 people Thursday night (either 8 or 9, probably depending on who goes through tonight), they will all "sing for their life," and then the judges will pick 3 and the other 5 or 6 will be eaten by Randy Jackson. Or something, I don't know...THEY are the ones who brought up the "Sing for Your LIFE!!!!!" thing, not me.
That is a LOT to be happening in a one hour show...poor little Ryan's head is going to explode.
I'll try to be back tomorrow with predictions on who they will bring back and who will make it, but having heard all of the performers at this point, here is who would be in my personal top 12 (including the ones already voted in):
Adam Lambert
Danny Gokey
Anoop Desai
Ju'Not Joyner
Michael Sarver
Kris Allen
Alexis Grace
Lil Rounds
Alison Iraheta
Megan Corkey (Shut up...I still love her)
Mishavonna Henson
Jessie Langseth
The last female slot was the hardest decision for me...I would be OK with Felicia Barton here, as well, and maybe Ann Marie Boskovich or Kristen McNamara. Feel free to leave your predictions, as well...
***UPDATE***
My above list assumes that the judges will try and even out guys and girls...if they just take 12, regardless, then add Jorge Nunez and Matt Giraud and remove Mishavonna and Jessie. I know Matt was awful last time we saw him, but I want to see him with his piano in the top 12.
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