"Idol" Finale and Other Stuff: You Oughta Know

Well, that's it. America has crowned a new American Idol. My thoughts about the finale (which happened two weeks ago today...yep, I've been rather perfunctory in blogging about it)...well, I have quite a few, but I probably wouldn't know where to start. (Or for that matter, end...) First off, though, I'm not terribly happy with the result. Lee's definitely a nice guy (and he was hilarious and incredibly humanizing appearing with Crystal on "Ellen" a few days before the finale), but really...beyond that he doesn't have much. Vocally, he was underwhelming. Even if you and I disagree on his trajectory and performance quality throughout the season compared to Crystal's, I'd find it hard to believe even the staunchest Lee fan could find much in how he performed on Top 2 night that was dramatically better than Crystal. She gave three fiery, all-or-nothing performances...and he just sang. Fairly on-key (a dramatic improvement from his dark, ghastly semifinal days where any note held longer than a second and louder than speaking tone went more flat than a day-old pancake), but not very appealingly. Crystal blew him out of the water, and the fact that he bested her in the finale...it just left kind of a bad taste in my mouth. But oh well. Crystal got signed literally the day after (if my memory serves correctly, that's even quicker than Season 8's winner, Kris Allen, got picked up last year) by Idol's recording label, and both she and Lee look forward to debut albums late this fall. And, lest any of us forget...it's a reality show. So I can't complain...it's just kind of a lame end to an often frustrating season.

Recapping the finale (thank goodness I tweeted about it so I can remember the specifics):

• Alice Cooper with the Top 12: In the words of my Twitter post at the time..."This is the weirdest finale opening ever." Strange sound issues, inexplicable chorus of school uniform-clad zombies, and the Top 12 not sounding very live vocal-wise...yep, I stand by my tweet.
• Kris Allen, "The Truth": The truth is...this is one dang good song. Kris sang the heck out of it (though what was with that weird first 15 seconds where Ryan Seacrest's mike was still on? Way to be, sound technicians...), and you can probably tell from the fact that I downloaded the tune almost right after the finale ended, that I really loved it. Hopefully you did too. (Irony I noted on Twitter: Just a year before this performance, Kris was singing "No Boundaries" as the new American Idol champion. This time around, the song was again a midtempo rock ballad...but it was MUCH better than that nonsense.)
• The elevendy billion Simon tribute segments they liberally peppered throughout the night: At first they were kind of fun, then they got old, then they pulled out the really sentimental one at the end that totally nailed Simon's legacy (and reminded us why the heck we've put up with him for 9 seasons).
• Dane Cook with that random Simon-roast song: Let's again go to my thoughts that night..."I have to admit Dane Cook and his Simon insult song was pretty fun...but then the cadre of failed auditioners came on, & it all died." There are times I regret not watching the first 7 seasons of "Idol" with the rest of America. I had no idea who any of these fools were but psycho Tatiana from last season...thus, this is NOT one of those times.
• Siobhan (!!!) and Aaron (ehhh...) with the Bee Gees (?!?!?) singing "How Deep Is Your Love": Weird. But oddly satisfying. Though c'mon, producers...why didn't you give Siobhan something to wail on, dang it???
• The Two Mikes (OK, Michael Lynche & Michael McDonald): Somewhat inexplicable that these two would sing together just because they share a name (same applies to Lee & Chicago, below)...but I do enjoy "Takin' It To The Streets," and Big Mike was in fine form, along with the song's original singer and composer, Michael McDonald. Nice. Not amazing. But nice.
• Top 12 Girls & Christina Aguilera: Didi & Lacey sounded a bit shaky on "Beautiful" (sad!), Crystal rocked it, Siobhan and Paige (who finally seems to have recovered from her vocal health issues during the semifinals and on, and actually can sang) freaking OWNED "Fighter." (Katie Stevens aggressively rented it. :) ) And Christina, although she still is in mad, awkward love with the melisma (she used about twenty per minute), continues to maintain an impressive set of pipes, and knows how to work a ballad like no one's business.
• Top 12 Guys & Hall and Oates: As I tweeted that night...the girls got the still fairly current Aguilera...and the guys got an aging 80s soft-rock duo? OK, I do likes myself some Daryl & John, and they still sound pretty impressive. But really...this is 2010. It just kind of didn't make sense (and there were no Paige-esque revelatory turns among the guys...they all sounded pretty dang lame).
• Crystal Bowersox & Alanis Morissette: Isn't it ironic...wait, there wasn't much ironic about this. (Well, except for the song they sang, "Ironic," but I was trying to build a joke off of that... :) ) Kind of shaky at points, but approaching epic at others. Alanis still knows how to wail, Crystal was probably born knowing how to wail, and "You Oughta Know" is one rockin' number. (I'm not familiar with the song, so I didn't notice the somewhat-hilarious lyric change from "Would she go down on you in a theater?" to "Would she go down with you to the theater?" that Crystal had to take care of. Yeah, bit of a difference there...)
• Bret Michaels & Casey James, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn": Although I saw it coming a mile away when Casey started the iconic Poison number, the fact that Bret Michaels sang and played his heart out on the finale stage just a short while after recovering from multiple strokes was, I admit, pretty inspiring/impressive. A very solid performance, by both parties. Let's hope Casey takes a few lessons from Bret on being a classy duet partner (he gave lots of props to Casey), persevering through trial, and making someone who has quite a lot of contempt towards 80s rock actually sort of like a song from that era. (That would be me, folks. :) )
• Lee & Chicago: He's from Chicago, so pick Chicago to sing/play with him? I love the classic band...but really? That's kind of ridiculous. During the medley of Chicago hits like "If You Leave Me Now" and "25 or 6 to 4" (love that song...though haha, pretty sure it took about 20 times repeating the title for everyone in my family for them all to actually hear it correctly), I was digging it deeply, but looking back, I do realize the two lead vocalists gave pretty short shrift to Lee (though I didn't mind much, the less Lee the better in some cases), and the band as a whole wasn't in as fine form as they usually have been.
• I shall not speak of that "Pants on the Ground" fiasco. I've tried to forget it, actually. Moving on...
• Ditto with Paula giving a "comedy" "roast." Another tweet getting pulled in from that night: "Dear Producers, Never give Paula longer than thirty seconds. Or anything alone. Ever..."
• A large, awesome bunch of "Idol" alums singing "Together We Are One" on stage to Simon: Wow. Though it's sad that only the 7 present "Idol" winners (David Cook apparently had a charity gig already scheduled and couldn't attend) got to have solos (I saw Allison! I saw Allison!!!!), the sight of that much raw talent on the stage at the same time warmed my heart. As bad as this season might have felt, looking at all those terrific products of the "Idol" system gave me hope, dang it. Viva la Idol!
• Janet Jackson and the Top 12: Wow, I actually kind of forgot about this...awkward. Janet sounded great but not terribly live...and she didn't give much time to the Idols. Kind of cold, I'd say.
• Crystal, Lee, and Joe Cocker: Call me crazy/disrespectful/totally out of it, but I have never, do not, and probably never will get the appeal of Joe Cocker's voice. He sounded like he was aurally vomiting and probably emitted about 2 or 3 actual notes total. (Sorry. But me and my family actually laughed at his 'singing' at one point. I kid you not.) Still, the fact that he's a legend, and that Crystal (and Lee, but thankfully...I mean, unfortunately, cough cough...his mic kept cutting out) got to rock out with him was excellent.

So what am I going to do now that the seasons of both my favorite reality shows (and the subjects of this blog) are over and out? Ironically ("like raaaain...on your wedding day" :) )....keep blogging. Remember that Top 12 profile project I mentioned earlier? I'm going to jump in and get to work on that. I'll give posts to each of this season's top 12 contenders, picking my favorite performance of theirs, what I thought about their elimination, and all that good stuff. (Yes, I'll probably finish that project quite a while after the finale. But many of those talented guys and gals still need to be remembered long after "Idol," so I might as well help them in that regard.) I'll also hopefully be making posts about what I think needs to change on "Idol," how the judges did this season, and things like that. And any of you "DWTS" fans out there, never fear...I'll be taking care of all the dancing-a-licious recaps I missed, somehow. (A little "DWTS" commentary for now: I'm actually kind of glad Nicole won. Really...) For now...I'll end this incredibly long catching-up post. Get ready for lots more blogging to come!