Well, it was really nice of the women to come out and suck so badly this week, thus taking some pressure off the men.
Gina Glocksen – Alone You, Gina Glocksen, are no Carrie Underwood.
Alaina Alexander – Not Ready To Make Nice Wow. Just wow. Incredibly bad.
LaKisha Jones – Midnight Train To Georgia One of my very favorite songs, ever since I was a kid. When it was new. Did I mention I was old? Anyway, a favorite song, but an incredibly lackluster performance.
Melinda Doolittle – My Funny Valentine Remember how Constantine was on the verge of running away with Season Four after his version of this and Bohemian Rhapsody? If only he had sung more songs like this, or at least as well as he sung this. It would also be nice if Melinda had sung this as well as Constantine sang it. But she didn’t. It’s probably the best performance of the night, but that’s not saying much.
Antonella Barba – Because You Loved Me Well, as the events of the past week has shown, singing is nowhere near the best thing she does with her mouth.
Jordin Sparks – Reflections Wake me when it gets interesting.
Stephanie Edwards – Dangerously In Love Still not interesting.
Leslie Hunt – Feeling Good I didn’t enjoy this song last night when AJ did it. I don’t enjoy it now, either.
Haley Scarnato – Queen Of The Night More like handmaid of the night.
Sabrina Sloan – All The Man That I Need Well, at least the night ended on a boring note. No reason to change things this far into it.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Idol - Top Ten Women
Save Leslie!
It's actually too late to "save" Leslie. The votes are in and if she's going home, she's going home. But I would like to write about why I think we need her in the competition.
There are excellent female singers in the competition this year. Melinda, in particular, shined last night with My Funny Valentine. Then there's LaKisha (I hate a capital letter in the middle of a first name. Ugh.) who is clearly a frontrunner, but like I said last week she could run out of steam before the season ends. I like Gina and Jordin as well. Sabrina and Stephanie can belt the songs, too. But here's the thing - no one is coming across as unique. We've seen great belters before. One just won an Academy award. We've seen the punk chick before. Remember Nikki from season one? And then there's the cannon fodder we get every season. This season it's Amy-Antonella-Alaina attempting songs that are way out of their league.
Leslie is different. Her voice is unique. It's not a powerhouse, but it has a great tone. And she's willing to choose different sorts of songs, like this week's Feeling Good by Nina Simone and Micheal Buble. I had never heard of it, but it was catchy and interesting and so unlike anyone else's choices. Throw a little scatting in the middle and you have the makings of a really interesting contestant. I'm anxious to see what she might do next week.
However, I am terribly afraid we won't get the chance to find out. And that would be a real shame.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Idol - Top Ten Men (And Another Site We Love)
Rickey.org is a must for Idol fans, though for one and only one reason. Shortly after each broadcast, he has clips (either video or mp3s) of all the performances. Idol is one of the few shows that doesn’t do a Web rebroadcast – they aren’t even posting performance clips on the Idol site, though they do have exclusive video interviews. So if you want to watch or rewatch the performances, you have to either search You Tube and hope someone posted them or go straight to Rickey.org. The drawback is that he doesn’t usually include the judges comments. On the other hand, considering the songs run less than 2 minutes a piece, it means you can watch all the performances in under a half-hour. So Rickey.org is a site we love.
And now on to the Top Ten men.
Phil Stacey – Missing You If he was voted out of the competition, and weeks later someone asked me how I felt about it, I would say “I ain’t missing him at all.” Lame cover of a lame original song.
Jared Cotter – Let’s Get It On It’s funny. Every year we have a female singer attempt a song by a distinctive artist (Aretha jumps to mind) and they get criticized for choosing something by an artist so memorable that it invites unfavorable comparisons. You almost never hear this criticism of the male singers. (They say it about singers doing Stevie songs, but it’s the song, not the performance they talk about.) But Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On certainly has to be the male equivalent of that. This wasn’t a bad performance, but it certainly was not Marvin Gaye.
AJ Tabaldo – Feeling Good I think it was good, but I’m not sure – it almost put me to sleep.
Sanjaya – Steppin’ Out With My Baby I didn’t watch any of the auditions. Was there really no one better than this kid to have sent to the round of 24? This is awful, god awful.
Chris Sligh – Trouble I can’t get by his looking like a Jack Osborne clone. Sorry. Can’t do it. He’s a good singer, but he is in dire need of a makeover.
Nick Pedro – Fever Great song, crappy performance. I bet he’s gone.
Blake Lewis – Virtual Insanity Not bad, but pretty damn forgettable. Lose the hat, dude. Lose the hat.
Brandon Rogers – Time After Time Boring. There’s really nothing else to say. Boring.
Chris Richardson – Geek In The Pink I love it when an Idol singer performs a song I’ve never heard before and I like it so much I rush out to buy the record of the original performer. That happened last season when Katherine McPhee sang Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. I went out the next day and got K.T Tunstall’s Eye to the Telescope. I’m not rushing out to buy any Jason Mraz today, but I did like the song and the performance a lot. A lot.
Sundance – Mustang Sally I always think of the movie The Commitments when I hear this song. Although the band in that movie is a fake band, they are still a great band that does a great version of Mustang Sally. This version isn’t as good as that one, but it’s pretty good nonetheless.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Thoughts about the Top 12 AI Boys
Wow, that really sucked, huh? There wasn't one memorable performance on American Idol last night. There were a couple of good performances and a lot of not too bad performances, but we were also treated to some absolutely wretched singing.
Let's talk about the good first. The two best performances of the night were Phil and Blake. 
Phil started very rough, but by the end of the song ("I Could Not Ask for More") he had it under control. I wish to god he had some hair though. He's difficult to watch for any length of time. I think he ought to make hats a permanent part of his wardrobe each week.
You might remember Blake as the beat boxer. Turns out he can sing too. He was Sharon's favorite. I like the pure tone of his voice and that he didn't add any crazy embellishments to her performance. He just stood and sung the words with emotion.
Now those two were the best of the night, but they weren't amazing. Both had decent performances, but neither was unforgettable like Constantine's rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody from season four. But both were much better than everyone else last night.
I will give props to Chris Sligh for a decent if not excellent performance. But he loses some points for the stupid digs at Simon. Chris, take the criticism like a man and sing better next time.
And now the truly horrible...
This boy is the poster child for the Raise the Age Limit campaign.
His name is Sanjaya and he's got a great voice. But he's just too young and lacks the maturity to go all the way. Every year there are teenagers in the competition and every year they fail to get very far. Sanjaya's performance last night was so boring I fell asleep. Well, I wish I could have fallen asleep.
Then there's this idiot:
His name is Paul Kim and he's decided his "thing" is to go barefoot every week. If he makes it through, which would be a surprise, I think he better buy some shoes. Trying to invent something memorable about yourself doesn't work. Let it happen naturally.
Everyone else was pretty forgettable. I hope the women are better. Check 'em out tonight!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Speaking of sites we love...
If you're an American Idol fan, you have to check out MJ's Big Blog, which is clearly the most comprehensive AI site on the web. What's nice about it is that not only does MJ give us everything you could possibly want to know about American Idols past and present, she also has some interesting commentary. Check out this post which details the top 12 guys who will perform tonight.
Oh and thanks, Dweeze, for inviting me to join the fun here at DTV.
