Did it hurt you feelings that I said mean stuff about Simon?
1.Crystal
2.Siobhan, she’s my favorite but…she biffed the big note.
3.Lee
4.The rest, except Paige.
24.Paige
I should add that I really liked Siobhan’s performance, liked the 80s look, sang great. I hope she wins.
Siobahn is still my favorite contestant, but Rowsbower was marginally the best of the night without really having to work at it.
Casey is the one I’d want in my band (but he’d have to learn some better taste in material).
Seeing the recaps, my favorites are Lee, Casey, Crystal (I know I said I wasn’t crazy about her, but she was a’aight) and Didi.
Hmm. Not much that knocked my socks off tonight. I thought Lee was the best he’s sounded. Crystal was good. I have mixed feelings about Casey. On the one hand, 12 year old BetsQ loved Huey Lewis, but on the other, Huey Lewis? Really? It was all very competent, though. Siobhan was entertaining. Big Mike isn’t really my thing. So very … smarmy. Is that even a word?
Paige, Tim, and Andrew were uncomfortable to watch. Can they all go home?
Perhaps you’re new to the show. The only thing that “counts” is how many votes are cast for a singer. If someone could sell a Gregorian chant to America, they’d stick around. You think your average 13-year-old girl can evaluate degree of difficulty?
The pretense, though, is that people are being judged on singing ability. You may be right to say that’s largely bullshit, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of line for me to go along with the pretense and actually judge singing ability.
I’ve decided on a new method for judging this show.
First, there are the performances I can’t get through without fast forwarding. I’ll just lump them together and not try to rate them, since I didn’t see them all. I’d rather have needles stuck in my eyes.
Then there are the performances I could actually stomach and make it through. They may be good or bad, but something about them kept me from hitting the fast-forward button. Sometimes it could be just because I was shocked into paralysis by the horror.
So… The FFs:
**
Paige.** My God. I had to listen to it longer than I wanted, because my frenzied stabbing at the remote caused me to lose accuracy.
Tim Urban. He’s way more fun to watch at 2X>> Boy has some life in him then. And mercifully, the sound cuts out. Interestingly, his head helmet shimmers like waves of grain at that speed.
Andrew Garcia: He almost made it to the non-FF group, but not for a good reason. At first, I was trying to figure out why in hell he wouldn’t want to hide behind a guitar. Then I was trying to figure out why a guy with a natural sense of rhythm would ever want to put Ricky Minor and the band in charge of the beat. Then I listened more, and started berating myself for thinking he had a sense of rhythm. Then, mercifully, my finger found the FF button, and whisked me away from the pain.
The Kid: Just no. I didn’t last long on this one. Having to watch the Kit and Miley Cyrus together was giving me a contact sugar rush. Then the singing started, and it was either fast-forward or fall into a diabetic coma.
Bike Mike: Look, I know people like him, and I guess if I were to digitize his vocals and examine the waveforms there would be a certain amount of symmetry or some damn thing, but he does nothing for me at all. Never has, probably never will. His voice doesn’t have enough soul and depth to it to make me care about his soulful noodlings, and he sings with too much soulful noodling to ever be able to rock, or roll, or twang, or jive, or funk, or do pretty much anything but melismate his way around Motown. FF to the rescue, about halfway through.
Lee: Best of the FF’s. You didn’t do anything wrong, but you bored me, and I didn’t expect to hear anything new in the last minute that I didn’t hear in the first minute, so buh-bye.
Now, the ones I actually made it all the way through:
Katie: Don’t ask me why. My finger was hovering over the button, but I held back. But it was close. Perhaps I blacked out for a minute - by this time, the show was becoming a bit of a blur.
Siobhan: This is the first time I didn’t care for her. We get it - she’s really weird. She can sing great big notes and put a scream into them. Cool. But when she’s singing in a normal range, she’s actually not all that impressive. And Simon nailed it - the big scream finish is now officially a cliche, and if she does it again in the next couple of weeks they’ll hammer her for it. The question is whether she can impress without it.
Didi: That was actually pretty good. And she wins the award for worst judging of the night. She got hammered harder than some of the lemons above, and her performance was just not that bad. And what’s with giving her crap for trying to be dramatic? It’s a freaking dramatic, angry song. She performed it exactly the way she should have. What, did they want her to smile and skip around while singing “You’re no good”? This is the second or third time Didi has gotten a bum rap from the judges. I think someone somewhere has decided they can’t market her for whatever reason, and they’re trying to submarine her. For that reason alone, I hope she goes a long way.
Casey: First, some awesome points for the best line of the night, and maybe the season: “Miley Cyrus! I’m a big fan… of your dad’s”. Knocked it right out of the park, he did. But now I have to deduct style points for choosing that godawful song. I like me some Huey Lewis, but that’s one of the worst songs they did. In checking, “Heart and Soul” made it to #1, and it’s ten times the song of that piece of crap. What were you thinking? But anyway, good job singing it. The guitar was pretty superfluous, though.
Crystal: Yes, you were the best on the night. Predictable song choice, but I can’t blame you since it’s a great song. She knows she’s got to get through Neil Diamond Week, or Neil Sedaka week, or one of the other boring Neil weeks, so she’s probably thinking, “This may be the last time for a while I get to sing a song that doesn’t blow Neils.” Best of the night.
There is no doubt now that this is the worst season of American Idol I’ve ever seen. Amazingly so. The bottom six or seven contestants shouldn’t even have made it to Hollywood, let alone to where they are now.
Rating them for the night:
Crystal
Casey
Didi
Siobhan
Katie
.
.
.
The FF’s.
wish we could see David Cook every week instead of these bad song choosers
I’ve got to say something about song selection on this show. Ryan said that they could choose ANY number one hit. I call BS on that. My guess is that it’s more like, “You can play any #1 hit, so long as we can get clearances for it, and it doesn’t scare the old people or confuse the tweens, and as long as we don’t have to pay too much in royalties, and as long as Simon likes it and Ricky Minor and the band can figure out how to play it. So here’s twelve songs - pick ten of them.”
It HAS to be something like that, because otherwise, these choices are baffling. For example, in the same years “The Power of Love” charted, these were some of the other #1 hits on the hot 100:
Money for Nothing - Dire Straits
Take on Me - A Ha
Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
Kyrie - Mr. Mister
Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears
The Way it Is = Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Amanda - Boston
Why would Casey choose to play “The Power of Love” when he could play Dire Straits or Boston? And that’s just from that year. Some other standout songs for the various performers from the hot 100:
U2 - With or Without You. That song would kill in the right hands.
The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian. Siobhan, this one had your name written all over it.
Los Lobos - La Bamba: Andrew Garcia, this was the song that might have saved you.
Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child O’ Mine. Casey, I don’t know if you’re good enough to keep up with Slash, but if you could play this song, you would have owned the night.
Phil Collins - Groovy Kind of Love: Just kidding. That song sucks. I’m surprised someone didn’t sing it on the show.
Sinead O’Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U: Oh, Siobhan, you’ve got Sinead’s weird thing going. You could have done a good job on this, I’ll bet.
Rod Stewart - Maggie Mae: Lee, you’ve got the raspy vocals. What were you thinking, not choosing something like this?
Steve Miller Band - The Joker: Casey could even pass for a space cowboy. He’s a picker AND a grinner, and I’ll bet he knows all about the pompetous of love.
Anyway, I could go on. I can’t believe that some of those contestants wouldn’t have picked better songs had they been free to do so. Or if they could and didn’t, they should be kicked off the show just on principle.
I think you’re right. It always looks to me like they really have a very limited selection of cleared songs, and that’s why you get so many of the same crappy songs repeated year after year.
This is what I’ve been thinking every week 
I’m not following this show since Melinda Doolitle was voted off a couple of years ago, but my daughter had it on when I brought dinner in tonight, and I saw a young lady singing Me & Bobby McGee. I was particularly struck by the fact that she looked like she was dressed for a prom, and I immediately began to worry that John Travolta was about to drop a bucket of pig blood on her.
Followed, of course by the inevitable psychokinetic rampage.
Lee DeWyze - “The Letter” - Sort of a big band sound - nice arrangement, and he sang it okay. I’m just not feeling it from this guy - I don’t think he has a bad voice, I’m just not interested in anything he does on stage. 6/10
Paige Miles - “Against All Odds” - I have a complete and utter new respect for how good a singer Phil Collins is - that was awful. “Pitchy” doesn’t cover it - I think she missed more notes than she hit. 2/10 (mostly for not falling down)
Tim Urban - “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” - Bo. Ring. 3/10
Aaron Kelly - “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” - Aaron and Miley, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G… Well, that sucked, too. 3/10
Crystal Bowersox - “Me And Bobby McGee” - Wow, that’s a surprise. :rolleyes: Please, judges, bust her on always taking the safe route. She sang it well, but it was the same goddamned song she’s done every goddamned week. Yeah, quit being a stuck-up piece of crap and be a performer. I kind of hate that she is the best singer this year, because I find her personality so repugnant. 6/10
Michael Lynche - “When A Man Loves A Woman” - Best song choice of the night by FAR. That’s the Big Mike I loved from earlier on. I do love Michael’s voice. 8/10
Andrew Garcia - “Heard It Through The Grapevine” - The cojones on this guy, to take on Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight. That was, I suppose, the same song. If you say so. Is it just me, or is this guy a black hole of charisma? Kara - “You look at what you did.” Hah! 5/10
Katie Stevens - “Big Girls Don’t Cry” - Every week when I see her, I have a moment of, “She’s still here?” Well, that sucked too. Close to a good song choice, but she didn’t sing it very well. 4/10
Casey James - “Power of Love” - What a stupid, plodding, uninspired, inappropriate song choice. He did mostly okay with it, but there isn’t much there to work with to start. I do like Casey, though - I wish he’d pick better songs - I think he has lots of potential. 5/10
Didi Benami - “You’re No Good” - Oh, God, more bitchface. That sucked too. Good judge’s comments - playing a role, the irony of her singing, “You’re no good, you’re no good.” 4/10
Siobhan Magnus - “Superstition” - I like this kid SO MUCH. Any of you Murkins want to throw a couple of votes her way for me? She didn’t do much spectacular with the song, but she gave a competent performance, which puts her in the top three for tonight. Minus one point for the Big Finish, though. 7/10
General notes - I hate that friggin’ audience. Judge - “You sucked.” Audience - “BOOO!” Shut up, audience. They DID suck - they sucked about as much as I’ve ever heard on this show.
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I desperately want one of the judges to call these young idiots on picking songs “because I liked it.” You pick a song YOU CAN HANDLE. If it is out of your range, YOU CAN’T SING IT. It WILL end you on this show.
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Miley busts Crystal on not pushing herself - YES! She seems to be giving good advice to everyone - how unexpected!
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Simon telling everyone on the show to push themselves except Crystal made me shout at the television.
By the way, I take notes as I watch the show on Mountain time - I haven’t read anything by anyone else, if there are repetitions in my comments.
Ah, i get it, it was suck night and most of the contestants came through!
Yes!
They could have a bottom three where one person makes the top 9, one person is eliminated but on the tour, and one person is completely eliminated. That could be an interesting change of pace.
After sleeping on it, I disagree that Janis Joplin is easy or safe. Maybe it is for Crystal, but all that shows me is that she’s talented. I’m a reasonably competent karaoke singer, in that nobody would boo me, nor would anyone consider me the best of the night. I couldn’t even attempt Janis. Countless others on this show have tried Janis, and failed to retain any of her gravelly, gospelly voice. Crystal was the first to do it any justice. And that’s safe? Maybe only because she’s clearl been doing that song her whole life…but this is a competition, and I don’t begrudge her trying to win the damn thing.
Incidentally, Lee’s song would have worked anyway. The Box Tops were a teen band from the sixties; Alex Chilton was only 16 when “The Letter” was #1.