- Todrick Hall: My words to my roommate (who was catching a little bit of the show while eating at the table, reluctantly, of course) after the performance said it all..."That was...interesting..." Todrick is to be commended for his wildly creative song-rearrangement skills, and his vocals were pretty well on-key, but besides that...wow. (And not a good wow either.) I'm probably the world's biggest proponent of radical, crazy reworkings of songs (see Andrew Garcia below, for example), but even I thought Todrick twisted the melody and structure of "Since U Been Gone" a wee bit too much. The spoken-word intro at the beginning was pretty dang awkward, and the whole performance just didn't fit so well together. That said...Todrick showed he was brave, and that his deliciously unique take on "I'm Yours" during Hollywood Week was no fluke. Still...he needs a heck of a lot more consistency if he's going to keep changing up numbers like this. Otherwise the judges (who were asking the girls THE SHOW BEFORE to give more creative takes on songs) may not be very happy, again.
- Aaron Kelly: I'm still not a fan of the young gun (16, people, 16...) that I think the judges let through way too early, but I have to admit his performance of "Here Comes Goodbye" was a pretty good choice. The bombastic country-pop stylings of Rascal Flatts (a group who I have eternally mixed feelings about) were a perfect fit for Aaron's somewhat soaring pipes. Did the performance wow me? Not really. I found it dull and he pushed a little too much at many parts, and his tone wasn't the greatest. But was it a performance that showed he deserves to be in the semifinals? Yeah, pretty much.
- Jermaine Sellers: Now, I love "Get Here" (I was introduced to it junior year when we almost sang it in our chamber/jazz group), and think it's a beautiful song (it's NOT karaoke, people!). That said...may it rest in peace, because Jermaine sure as heck murdered it repeatedly on Wednesday night. The performance started off pleasantly enough, and Jermaine treated it with (his own slightly overblown version of) respect. Then he got into the chorus, and there went the melody, the song, and any artistic credibility Jermaine might have had left. It was truly just painful. The segment after the judges critiqued him...where he momentarily had no idea who "Idol" music director Michael Orland was, was embarrassing and should have sealed Jermaine's fate, but unfortunately, America is not as merciful as they should be.
- Tim Urban: Another clunker, another missed opportunity for America to send home the right person. While his ridiculous hairstyle (did a Dust Bunny from "The Big Comfy Couch," wearing black because no one watches that show anymore, take nest on his head? yes, I did just combine an obscure 90s PBS reference and a withering yet lame insult in the same sentence :) ) would be worthy grounds for elimination on its own, his uneven, lackluster take on "Apologize" was even worse. His falsetto was weak and the shifts to it were awkward, and his tone was shallow and nervous-sounding. Simon's harsh words afterwards that they made the right decision in the first place by leaving him out of the Top 24 was sharp, but somewhat true. Please, America, put both us and Tim out of our misery. We need no more of this. (Side note: What kind of lemon keeps the fact he made it into the semifinals from his FAMILY? Kind of fun, but mostly just stupid.)
- Joe Munoz (in italics because America...italicized him? :D): Poor Joe. Only 10 seconds of Hollywood Week screentime to his name before he was forced to take the stage for an all-or-nothing performance on Wednesday night, and then what do "Idol" voters do? Give him the ax. His performance of "You and I Both" was pretty good, I thought (so good, I didn't recognize it as a child of the annoying Jason Mraz...I mean, Mrubbish...until the admittedly kind of flat chorus), and Joe displayed a smile that could light up a city, along with an ease for performing that quite a few "Idol" hopefuls this season could take note of. It wasn't completely memorable, as Simon duly pointed out, but it was very solid, and definitely not deserving of the early exit Joe got on Thursday.
- Tyler Grady: His performance of "American Woman" was a bit unwieldy, for sure...the vocals weren't completely on point, and the whole thing was a bit off...but the judges' critiques afterwards just didn't compute. You spend all of Hollywood Week (and most of his audition) raving about Tyler's 70s vibe, not to mention the intro package being all psychedelic, and then you tear him down for that very atmosphere that you praised? I would call that 1-800-Messed Up, especially Kara's bordering-on-vicious comment that he's obsessed with the 70s and must have Jim Morrison posters plastered over his walls. Um, what the crap? Unfortunately, I wasn't wowed with his performance and didn't vote for Tyler (expecting him to sail through into next week anyway). Now the contestant who I gushed about in my Top 24 recap, the one I said "just may be the first 'Idol' male contestant that has my vote from my start," is gone. Ugh.
- Lee DeWyze: It seems that "Idol" always has to have at least one contestant that everybody loves, but I just don't get. Last year it was Adam Lambert and the Screamer Who Must Not Be Named (if you need a reminder as to who that is, let me evoke these painful lines: "Dreeaaam on! Dreeeeam on! [Painful shrieking, sound of cats dying] :) ), and this year, methinks it's Lee DeWyze. His tone is reminiscent of David Cook's and Daughtry's, for sure...after it's been run through a sausage grinder. It's just plain grating. ("Get ret-ty!" OK, I'll stop the horrid Screamer references...) He is to be commended, certainly, for starting off his take on "Chasing Cars" in a very raw fashion...just him playing guitar and singing, and virtually nothing else...but he was pushing way too hard at so many points, and did very little with the song. Sadly, he's one of the judges' ordained front-runners now, but in my minority opinion, I don't mind if he gets an early ouster. (The earlier, the better.) (Side note: Randy, since when does Kings of Leon qualify as a harder-rocking group? Harder than Snow Patrol, sure, but you played with Journey. You should know your rock music a wee bit better than this.)
- John Park: John gets major points for being both a smooth baritone (baritones unite! :) ) and picking a jazz standard ("God Bless The Child," baby!), but unfortunately, both of these excellent elements failed to combine into a good performance. His vibrato was rather all over the place, his tone wasn't completely steady, and he did little to interpret the song. Sure, he didn't have to be a Billie Holiday, but he could have put some semblance of emotion into it (after all, he explained afterwards that the song had special meaning to him). Like Shania said, John has a nice bottom end (his VOICE, people, his VOICE!), and if he gets a heck of a lot more consistent, he can work wonders with that low tone, a low tone that many of the other male contestants certainly do not possess. Otherwise, pretty much the only calls he's going to get after "Idol" will be from Carnival, the Disney Cruise Line, and Mikalah Gordon's cousin's uncle's wedding.
- Michael Lynche: Time for another one of my concise moments. And...go! OK, I like Michael. But his take on "This Love" was unimaginative, flat, and just not consistent enough. And I severely doubt he was playing that guitar that much. It had energy, but it didn't quite cut it. (Kara saying it wasn't "outrageously great" was shockingly right on the nose. Kara getting a critique right? We should treasure this moment.) Michael shall stay in for quite a while, but I hope he steps it up in the process. (If he had done the whole song a la the last line...simmered down dramatically...I had a feeling he would have knocked it out of the park. Tis a shame.)
- Alex Lambert: Well, that last one wasn't very concise, was it? Let's try this again. Alex's nerves certainly got to him here (I doubt a lost puppy in a Disney movie could have had a more scared face than he did during his song), and his performance was little more than a very pale imitation of James Morrison, the very artist Alex was covering. It was boring, plodding, and uncreative. And he stayed instead of Tyler how, exactly?
- Casey James: As much as this still-continuing "ooh! Kara LIKES Casey!" thing is starting to get old, and this is a SINGING competition, I have to admit it made for some pretty unexpectedly funny lines behind the judges' table ("We were both cursed with good looks," Simon drolly quipped). Still, it was distracting, and it kind of bugged a bit. Since they largely failed to talk about Casey's performance (except for a few small breaks from the jokery), I shall...his take on "Heaven" (by Bryan Adams, ehhh) was good and solid, and I didn't hate Casey's tone half as much as I thought I would, but it wasn't completely there. I recommend Casey goes the David Cook route and changes things up a bit. Because aside from "Idol" to stop playing up the Kara-Casey thing, that just may be exactly what he needs.
- Andrew Garcia: Where was the freaking love???? While the judges (and most of America and my fellow recappers) found Andrew's inventive midtempo cover of "Sugar, We're Going Down" to be disappointing, I personally loved it. Now, that might be because I hate the original (thank the Lord that Fall Out Boy is no more!), and also because I'm a sucker for interesting harmonies and I audibly squealed (no joke) when I heard the chord progression in the chorus, but I thought this was really good. His vocals were smooth and soaring, and it just sounded like a vastly better song. Really, Simon, it was a disappointment? Really, Kara, the risk he took didn't work? Really, with Seth and Amy? (SNL reference...score!) Anyhoo, I hope this country wakes up and notices how amazing this cover was, and until then, I'll keep listening to it frequently on my iPod. Take that, suckers!
And that's a wrap. My schedule this week should be more conducive to "Idol" watching, and for the love of all things Allison (I STILL want to find a video of her results show performance, dang it!), please let the Top 20 performances be much better than the crap we got this week. It was BAD, folks...really bad. And with that, I bid adieu.
No comments:
Post a Comment