American Idol - 11,12 March [open spoilers posibble, open at your own risk]

Cafe Society
201

Well. Wow. Okay…

SYESHA MERCADO, B

I liked that it was Motownish, but it was a bit more like a backup singer than like Diana Ross. Pretty, but bland. Elegant.
CHIKEZIE, A+

Where the hell did that come from? A brilliant, new, never before heard arrangement. Risk factor extremely high. But he pulled it off with extraordinary showmanship. Loved the starting interpretation and the change-up.
RAMIELE MALUBAY, C+

A corpse with a pretty voice. The start was especially weak, and unnecessarily cheesy. Nothing memorable or remarkable about any of it. Boring.
JASON CASTRO, B

The weak falsetto is going to be his downfall. He should abandon it. The only person it has ever worked for was Joe Cocker. Other than that, the voice is nice, and like Pauler said, he does connect emotionally.
CARLY SMITHSON, A

Great voice. Great presence. Good interpretation and performance. A very camera friendly face in terms of expressions.
DAVID COOK, A-

Michael Stipe called, and he wants his grunge back. Actually, I liked the sort of REM interpretation. It was really what he had to do, and good on him for realizing it. In the end, it was all just a wee bit forced, but not a lot.
BROOKE WHITE, A-

A bit too nervous, but somehow that was endearing. The simplicity was called for, and good on her for realizing it. The country tint lent itself well to her Sinead-ish interpretation. I’m glad she didn’t screw with the melody.
DAVID HERNANDEZ, F

Godawful by every standard. A terrible interpretation. A bad performance. A mousy and hollow voice. He actually ruined a Beatles song. Not even karaoke quality. It was the drunk guy at spring break, singing just before he pukes his guts out.
AMANDA OVERMYER, B-

Underwhelming and predictable, to be honest. But still energetic and kinky enough to stand out. The problem with her is that she’s a Janis Joplin singer who doesn’t have Joplin’s vocal quality.
MICHAEL JOHNS, B+

I finally got to hear what I wanted, which was Michael doing a song in which he’s not mimicking the original singer. I thought it was quite pretty, and his voice was outstanding on certain notes in the mid-low register. The guy’s a balladeer, and that’s all he’s really going to be. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
KRISTY LEE COOK, C-

Blech. If you’re going to do country, you can’t do it with a cob up your ass. It was almost like an android singing, technically proficient but artistically dead. With her scant fan base, she can’t afford to be so ordinary.
DAVID ARCHULETA, D

Speaking of fan bases, David is lucky to have such a huge one. It wasn’t just the flubbed lyrics and the lackluster performance. It was the — dear God — admission that he didn’t know anything about the Beatles. It’s like an aspiring artist who cheerfully declares that he has never checked out the Renaissance painters. Wow.

202

Is this available commercially? I must have it. Please let me know.

203

I agree with you, if by “nailed it” you mean beat a rusty spike through its heart with a big iron mallet and leaving it bleeding and defeated on the side of a barn somewhere. I LOATHED his rendition of that song. He didn’t stick with the melody, which is a lot of what makes the song beautiful. His version of the melody made me want to murder people.

204

Catching up on the three we missed earlier…

SYESHA MERCADO - solid middle on a night of highs and lows. Fine and forgettable.

CHIKEZIE - Loved it!

RAMIELE MALUBAY - zzzzzzzzzz… and also not good.

So, to revise my list, cribbed from Lama Pacos, top to suck:

Chikezie
Brooke
Jason Castro
Amanda
Carly
David Archuleta
Michael Johns
Syesha
David Cook
Ramiele
David Hernandez
Kristy Lee Cook

205

Well, damn, David Archuleta may very well be out by week 8. Who knew.

That may have been the worst performance by ANYONE at this stage of the competition in the 7 seasons it’s been on.

206

I didn’t see all of the performances but there is no justice if Kristy does not go home tomorrow for that awful countrification of a Beatles song.

207

Archuleta was indeed sucky, but Kristy Lee = Sanjaya levels of bad. If she doesn’t go home tomorrow, I’m going to have to start voting for “everyone but her.” Hey, it worked on Sanjaya.

I wonder what happened to David, by the way. What the hell was going on with that performance? Seems like more than just initial unfamiliarity with the song. It sounded like he’d only practiced it once ever in his whole life!

208

Chikezie
Amanda
David Cook
Jason Castro
Syesha
Carly
Brooke
David Archuleta
Michael Johns
Ramiele
David Hernandez
Kristy Lee Cook
At Target last night my son got all googly-eyed over the checkout girl. Then he whispers to me “She looks like Danny!” Which, actually, she did.

The twins were going to boycott the show on principle, but Chikezie pulled 'em in.

209

Actually, I didn’t think I would even watch, after D.W. didn’t win last year. But I’ll be composing this post as the show progresses.

Syesha deserves to go home after her mangling of Got to Get You Into My Life. She can’t handle Earth, Wind and Fire.

Chikezie absolutely TORE UP She’s a Woman!

I don’t have a BIG problem with the assessment of Ramiele’s version of In My Life, but she’s still not the worst.

Jason made a tactical error in his choice of If I Fell. This really needs to be a duet, and he couldn’t choose a line to sing. I agree with Simon, that it won’t be fatal, but only because they can only kick off one person.

Carly Smithson with Come Together: It’s all right, but I think there’s a reason Grace Slick never covered this this record. Move her forward.

David sings Eleanor Rigby: Call me a traditionalist, but Wrigley Field needs no lights, Pauley Pavilion needs John Wooden, and Eleanor Rigby needs a string quartet. He can stay, but only because Syesha was worse (I just can’t get over how bad she was – show’s not over yet, though).

Brooke sings Let It Be: No problems, but nothing to be excited about.

Can ANYONE have the imagination to cover an Eva Cassidy arrangement? She was a freakin’ genius…

David H with I Saw Her Standing There: Good use of the backup singers. I thought he was carrying a nice Kenny Loggins vibe. I bet his momma don’t dance (much). He’s still better than Syesha. She seems to be that standard for badness, regardless of what any of the judges might say.

Liberal, Michaela saw you give him an F, and she says you’re on her list… :wink:

Amanda singing You Can’t Do That: She seems to be channeling Tina Turner a bit here. I have no problems with her performance, but it doesn’t blow me away.

Michael sings Across the Universe: I see what Simon meant by some songs being easier and some songs harder. He’s handling this pretty nicely. Good use of the backup harmonies, but he’s just a tad bel canto. No serious damage to his chances, though.

Kristy Lee does Eight Days a Week: I had to grin at the bluegrass approach to it. She should have had the backup singers do some parallel fifths. This was fun, and earned her another week in the hot tub (or whatever they do in their off-hours).

David A is Michaela’s [del]sweetie[/del] crush (this year). And he sings We Can Work it Out. I’m not really impressed with this outing. First verse anyway. Second verse; he didn’t bother learning the lyrics, did he? I feel kind of bad for him, on Michaela’s behalf.

Still, nobody sang down to Syesha’s level.

210

It’s a bootleg. May be available somewhere on the internet; Robyn doesn’t have a problem with people posting and trading his shows. I’d be happy to burn it for you if you want to send me an e-mail, though.

And I thought the “country” version of “Eight Days A Week” and David A’s “We Can Work It Out” were the low points.

211

I told this to my husband, and his response was “Eight Days of Polka.” :smiley:

I almost loved Chickpeasie - the bluegrass/rockabilly arrangement kicked ass, but his voice seemed to get too weak to carry the song at points.

I loved, loved, loved David Cook’s version of “Eleanor Rigby.” Loved it. And I hate most straight-ahead rock n roll. I would go buy this version of the song right now if it was available. And I’d buy “Hello” from last week, too. There’s something I really like about him.

I think “Eight Days a Week” could have worked as a country arrangement, maybe something *a la * Kathy Mattea, but not that thrash country shite Kristy Lee Swanson sang. And we thought she was singing at a different tempo than the band, too - she couldn’t keep up with it. Sad, sad trainwreck.

David Enchilada - oh, you poor little thing. If you’re going to be a musician, you’re probably going to want to learn about The Beatles. Look into The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley while you’re at it.

212

Good show tonight. I laughed, I cried, etc. Mostly laughed. Random thoughts:

  • Omg songs from the Lennon/McCartney catalog! I love Lennon/McCartney songs. I remember when I was a kid when my dad gave me my first tape that had songs from the Lennon/McCartney catalog on it. I was blown away! I think we all remember the first time we heard Lennon/McCartney songs. :slight_smile:

  • Syesha and Ramelie are in trouble. Especially Ramelie. I knew someone would butcher my favorite Lennon/McCartney song (In My Life), but I didn’t know how badly. Plus she looks like a fish when she sings. The only good thing about the performance was that it reminded me that Danny is gone. I took a moment to smile and enjoy myself.

  • Chikezie was great. I was quite surprised.

  • Brooke was great too. Every once in a while I get a faint glimpse that someone on this circus could actually have some artistic talent in him or her. Brooke strikes me this way so far. I sure I’ll eventually be disappointed (I always am), but so far she’s my favorite.

  • Simon sez: “What’s the Irish girl’s name?” ROFL! I love Simon. Carly sez: I’m going to make this song my own. Apparently singing it exactly like the original is making it your own. Maybe she’s counting the fact that it was originally sung by a man and she’s a woman, so it’s different. I have no idea. Side note: I think Carly is the biggest two-face this show has ever seen.

  • David Cook is pretty good. Too bad for him it is indeed a popularity contest, and he looks like a moving DUI arrest mugshot.

  • David Hernandez, wow that was a big bag of ass. All I could think was “I saw him standing there with a handful of singles.” Something tells me every picture of him features the douchebag “rock on” hand symbols.

edit: Rankings:

Chikezie
Brooke White
David Cook
Jason Castro
Carly Smithson
Michael Johns
Syesha Mercado
David Archuleta
David Hernandez
Kristy Lee Cook
Ramiele Mulabey
Amanda Overmyer

213

Chikezie
Brooke White
Amanda Overmyer
David Cook
Jason Castro
Carly Smithson
Michael Johns
Ramiele Mulabey
Syesha Mercado
David Hernandez
Kristy Lee Cook
David Archuleta

David Archuleta was by FAR the worst performance of the night. Much worse than Kristy’s. I hated her song, but that’s because it represents everything that’s wrong about modern country. But judged technically, it wasn’t that bad. She can sing, and she hit the notes, mostly.

But my, David Archuleta was a trainwreck. First he admits that he’s not familiar with the Beatles. Major points lost there. Then he forgets the lyrics. Very unprofessional. But worst of all, he completely mangled the song. He tried to put some sort of wacky R&B vibe on it that failed far worse than Kristy’s country song did. At least I can still remember her song. Archuleta’s was stripped of all the melody, replaced by some sort of vocal jazz noodlings that just sucked. And he missed a lot of notes, and looked like a kid way out of his depth.

What’s worse, is that this ruined my impression of him. I thought he might be some kind of musical prodigy, but now I’m thinking he may be a one-trick pony who can only sing soulful ballads and that’s about it. That may be the most rapid fall from front-runner to worst I’ve seen on the show.

Ah well, it’s probably all part of the ‘story’. Knock him down so that next week he can come back and blow everyone away and be the big comeback kid. I kid, mostly. I’m not quite cynical enough yet to believe that the show is manipulated at that level. I think he just overreached his talent level and sucked.

214

but they keep screwing up the lyrics… :mad:

215

I am only watching AI out of the corner of my eye this season. Having said that, I actually went to find out the name of the woman who did what I would have thought was impossible - destroy a classic Beatles song.

Her name is Kristy Lee Cook. And she should be incarcerated for that abomination.

Archuleta deserves a spank on the bot for what he did to “We Can Work It Out,” but he was trying to imitate Stevie Wonder’s take on the song. He just flubbed the lyrics and didn’t do it well, though. But Ms. Cook… if she was actually responsible for that “interpretation,” why didn’t the instrumentalists toss down their fiddles and say, “I’m sorry, I’d rather be fired and never work in this town again that defile that song in that way”?

If Heather Mills really wants to get back at Macca, she should buy the rights to that recording and play it on the radio once. When Paul hears it, he’ll jump headfirst into a shallow pool.

216

  1. Chikeze - Loved this. THoroughly entertained. Very risky and he pulled it off and then some.

  2. David Cook - Also very entertaining and it actuallly rocked. I want to say he is overdoing the Emo, but I just can 't. I really enjoy his arrangements a lot.

  3. Amanda Overmyer - I am noticing a trend, I really liked some of the folks who took a chance and pretty much nailed it. AMnda would be a great fornt woman for a band, not so much an American Idol.

  4. Carly -She has the enrgy and the pipes for sure and I thought she did weel tonight although she didn’t have any edge to it.

  5. Brooke - Nice song, well done, fairly safe, but she does she does exude earnestness and honesty in her performances.

  6. Michael Johns - I think is the dividing line for me, between performances I liked versus those Ididn’t. I don’t get this guy at all. Everytime I hear him sing I think, "Is that it?’

  7. Jason Castro - Good guy, nice simple voice, but I get tired of it very quickly. Too me he is not interesting at all. Go to any coffe shop on a Friday night and you will find Jason Castro there.

  8. Ramia - I agree that it was incredibly boring. She has a beautiful voice, fantastic tone, but she lacks soul in it. She can sing but she hasn’t shown the ability that takes a singer and makes them into performer.

  9. Syesha - I just don’t see anything special about this girl and that performance was mediocre to bad. The arrangement was kind of a faux risky one.

  10. Daved H. - This performance so lacked anything interesting that it just fell flat. I think technically he probably sang the song well, butit just seemed so devoid of character, soul and was complete cheese.

  11. Kristy Lee - It was almost as if they told her do country and she thought, “Oh they want country, I’ll give them country.” And then proceded to do some sort of country satire. It was comically bad and she should go home like yesterday.

  12. David A. - It was absolutely awful. I probably hated KL more, just because I don’t care for country, but to be objective David A performance was unprofessional, compleyely amateurish and kind of insulting.

217

but they kept screwing up the lyrics… :frowning:

218

et tu, David! :mad:

219

Well now. Chicky rocketing to the front, Archuleta with a unexpected stumble, and…that first blonde with judgments all over the board. Who knew. And who knew that I’d be posting on two American Idol threads in a row. (And who knew that I could listen to 12 Lennon/McCartney songs and actually be reasonably entertained. :slight_smile: )

Anyway, agree totally on Chikeze, he owned tonight. I have the uneasy feeling that he knows he’s not winning this and his strategy now is to throw as many bombs as possible before bowing out. On a related note, I think rocker chick #2 is safe this week but will be in trouble the moment she’s forced out of her element. Seriously, what the hell else does she have?

Re. Kristy Lee Cook…ugh. I never liked these weird “remixes”, and doing it on SIMON FREAKIN’ COWELL’S recommendation is insane. News flash: He’s your boss if you win. Until that point, the audience is your judge, and a lot of them do not like seeing classics manhandled like this.

Archuleta…yes, that was bad. Even I thought it was bad. His future prospects depend on why. If he’s getting overconfident and not preparing properly, he’s in serious trouble. If he got a little clumsy and forgot about fundamentals this one time, he has plenty of time to right the ship. If the enormity of what’s at stake is weighing on him, it’s a toss up. He’s safe this week, of course, but right now even making the top four is a big question mark. (I personally hope he does; he’s one of the few AI contestants who I can honestly say is consitently entertaining.)

Elimination prospects…well, the round of 12 has votes going all over the place, so the really critical thing is not totally screwing the pooch. That’s why I didn’t mind the blue-dress singer’s “boring” song or Castro…safe and unremarkable is the perfect choice for this stage, and there’s always someone who bottoms out. Things like limited abiliity or redundancy (two rocker chicks, two or three wannabe boy banders, etc.) are doom, but not at this early stage. Cook is the obvious choice; if not her, maybe the guy in the green shirt who messed up a few words.

P.S.: Wow, I’m amazed and more than a little flattered as to how “rock bottom plus one” caught on. SDMB rules! :smiley: (Depending on how Archie turns out, I might invent an expression for him…“David Archuleta stumble”, perhaps?)

P.P.S.: Yes, yes, I know I don’t have a lot of these names down yet. I don’t like going throught the trouble to learn about a bunch of people I’m never going to see again after two weeks. I should have everyone down by…let’s say the round of 7.

220

Chekezie stole the show, in my opinion. And I’ll probably get flack but I though Amanda was a close second. They both picked slightly more obscure tunes and had a lot of fun with them and it showed. David Cooke also did very well and I disagreed with the judges (and many here) about Ramiele (sp). She has such a pristine voice and I thought she did justice to that song.

There are 100 songs that would have suited David Archuletta’s voice better but he was at a distinct disadvantage by not being familiar enough with their catalog to choose a better song for his style. Absolutely horrid choice. Likewise with David Hernandez, that sounded so fake.

And don’t even get me going about Eight Days a Week. It was entertaining because it was so bad, but Archuletta was a pretty close second.