In the beginning I thought The Pickler was sweet and sincere (you can even go check previous threads) but the tears and her dad and more tears and her dad and her dad and that annoying voice weeping and talking about her dad and that horrible, horrible country twang and the whining about her dad while she cries in that annoying country twang.
And then she sounded pretty bad during the competition. That’s why I don’t like The Pickler.
It seems virtually *all * songs picked by AI women work this way; and very few of them have the range to do the lower register, quiet beginning in key. They pick a key where they can belt the ending, and give up the beginning.
I have a bad feeling about general production direction…I’m already sick of Randy exhorting the “dawg pound”. And it seems that in seasons past, once Ryan got on stage and chatted with the contestants, the judging was over. Now they’re goading the judges to keep yammering back & forth with the contestant, up to & including the “call this number”.
And to paraphrase Cato the Elder…Brenna Delenda Est.
Mandisa – Good choice of song and she performed it well. She could be the revenge of Frenchy if she went up a few notches. Could be a finalist, but she won’t beat Paris.
Paris Bennet – I know she has done better, but the competition is still hers to lose. I do want her to break out of the Motown standards playlist for a change.
Ayla Brown – A lot of love from me to Ayla, for two reasons 1) she seems very real and sang very nicely; 2) she made a song I hate sound better than the original. A little predictable, though. Next time you do a Mulan song, choose “A Girl Worth Fighting For” or “Make A Man Out of You”. That’ll stir ‘em up.
Katharine McPhee – cutest of the bunch, and she did a good job on a song I hate. I want her to sing something without 6,000 runs in it, though.
Lisa Tucker – She seems to be getting a lot of love on these boards. I thought she was good, but didn’t make me want to pick up the phone and dial. If she were gone, I don’t think I would be too upset.
Kinnik Sky – Good job, don’t understand the hate from the Judges. My only problem was that the performance was a better than average Oleta Adams impersonation. She really brought nothing new to the table. But I think she could be great.
Kelly Pickler – I don’t think she is as bad as most posters do. No the best performance, but better than some. I liked that she was singing along in the background while the others performed. She doesn’t seem to have the chops to make it much past the final 12, but she’ll probably make it that far. She’s got to lay off the sob story, sing a couple of rounds in other genres, and stop fixating on dad. (Dedicating that song as a message to him – talk about an Electra complex).
Heather Cox – Who? Oh yeah, the forgettable one.
Melissa McGhee – See Heather Cox, but add dramatic eye make-up.
Brenna Gethers – Wow, simultaneously abrasive and boring. She seems to forget that AI is as much a popularity contest as it is a talent competition. Bitchy attitude and nothing to suggest she has the voice to justify it.
Stevie Scott – I want to like Opera Girl, but I hated this song and this breathy performance. I don’t want to cast her off completely until she sings something a little meatier, though.
Becky O’Donohue – Hated it – looked like affected rock wannabe. Get her off soon.
Okay. Let’s give you the dad thing. Let’s ignore that the producers have possibly selected that as the story arch and might be deliberately fishing it out of suggestive interviews. So she weeps about her father — the one who is in prison and has disappointed her, lied to her, and abandoned her. How does that make her any less sweet and/or sincere? Have you come to believe that she’s making stuff up? Do you now doubt her story? If not, then I just don’t understand why you “don’t like” someone who is doing the best she possibly can with a really shitty situation that is no fault of her own, which includes the accent she acquired growing up in the small town of Albemarle, North Carolina. It seems to me that Fantasia was far more overboard with her single mother shtick than Pickler is with her dad, and Fantasia had the attitude of a spoiled brat diva to boot. And plenty of twang. High Point isn’t much bigger than Albemarle.
I’m willing to cut Pickler some slack, because I think the producers are encouraging her, and all contestants, to hype their personal backstories. It’s starting to look like goddam Queen for a Day. (And this matches up with Simon’s ominous comments, quoted upthread (I believe) that this year’s contestants were chosen more for their “personality” than their voice. Bodes ill.)
GAH!! This is killing me. I don’t have a TV, but I’ve been watching the season TIVO-style in a way, which means I’m at least a day or two behind. I’ll probably get to see last night’s episode tonight.
But I had to come in and express my delight that Lisa’s finally gettin’ some love here. As I’ve said earlier, I’ve been completely bewildered by the lack of buzz about her ever since her audition. I was starting to examine my own possible psychological variables for thinking her audition may have seemed better than it actually was.
But now, let me re-affirm my original pick for this year’s AI, for all to baske in my predictive greatness: Lisa Tucker is this year’s American Idol.
Though not my spelling greatness.
::wander’s off wondering why he didn’t predict such a mistake::
So true! Quite honestly, the only thing I don’t especially like about Pickler is her voice, and to some extent her posture (but a couple of others are just as bad in that regard). The first time I heard her, I thought ‘Just another caterwauler’.
The producers may ask her leading questions but they don’t make her weep and whine and weep and whine and sqeeeeeeeeeze every last drop of melodrama from the poor, pitiful me story. Like I said, I was with her in the beginning but “I’m singing this for my dad. . . blah…blah…blah…weep…weep.” Give it a break already. And it isn’t the accent that’s annoying, it’s her voice. Her whiny, feel-sorry-for-me, I-just-sucked-10-balloons-full-of-helium voice. Paris has the same voice but she doesn’t go on and on and on and on and on about how terrible her life is, so it’s nowhere near as annoying.
[Cindy Lou Who]
Santy Claus, why? Why are you making us watch a whole entire episode of “previouslies” and footage we’ve already freaking seen about 140 times? Why?
[/Cindy Lou Who]
Huh. There really is a dude who looks just like Peter Brady. I hope his voice has already changed.
Know what I’m happy is gone? Seacreast OUT! Has he said it once this season?
I think he looks more like Fred Savage. He even has the sleepy eye.
I don’t remember Patrick. I should have remembered that Hollywood. I like Come To My Window. He looks a little like Ray Barono. This song does not show off his really good singing.
Patrick: Eh…kind of boy band. Competent but not exceptional
Melissa Etheridge sings “Come to My Window” significantly more balls than Patrick Hall did. And why are his friends 286 years old?
Yeah, Paula start shoving him in that box, early and often.
I remember him last week, saying “I don’t look like Ace, but nobody does.”
Should say: "… “Window’ with significantly more …” Carry on.
Patrick was so blah that I have nothing to say other than blah.