My daughter was just beginning a rant on this topic as David was speaking, so I’ll repeat her hypothesis: Cook does a cover of a cover – picking an arrangement that varied considerably from the original; and then gets showered with undeserved praise for daring to try something different.
With Dolly I think it’s natural. She’s just a positive person. You could probably burn down Dollywood and she’d respond with “Don’t feel bad, honey, I wanted to redo the place anyway.”
So whose cover did he cover this week?
Beats me. He claimed it was an original arrangement.
I am in the category of the pop-culture-clueless, who do not recognize the updated covers, so I’m suckered into the “gee, that was original” mindset. For instance: the ratio of people who are familiar with the Michael Jackson version of “Billie Jean” to those who are familiar with the Chris Cornell version is probably at least 1000:1. I’m in the 1000. Unfortunately, I think our panel of judges is, too…they’re not exactly quick to give credit where credit is due.
(The same thing happened last year with Chris Daughtry, IIRC).
I myself don’t care if it’s a cover-cover or just a cover. I am sick of slowed-down, over-dramatic covers of songs, period, and find them not at all original. It’s just like, well, did anyone else emo all over that specific song yet? I don’t care. The whole notion of doing it is done to death and boring as hell.
The only good thing about choosing Dolly Parton as the “theme” was that it didn’t occur earlier, so thankfully we only had to hear 9 songs.
I enjoyed the two Davids very much but don’t remember the others so well.
DialIdol indicates that things are not looking good for Ramiele.
That’s not a surprise.
BROOKE WHITE C-
Her worst performance yet. She tried, with some success, to mimic a country singer singing country. And then in the process, she completely disconnected from what she was singing. By the end, she seemed to be downright thankful that Jolene was fucking her over.
DAVID COOK C
I have no idea what was supposed to be original about his interpretation other than sucking out the song’s soul. This is the most haunting and minimal of songs, about a fragile creature who is banged and batted from point to point in its life, its kindnesses rewarded by treachery. Dolly’s version.
RAMIELE MALUBAY C-
She started things quite well, in full control of her voice and stage presence. But as she is so wont to do, when the chorus approached, she decided that she must make a mark with her volume. She struggled with this, taking almost a full measure to decide whether to start belting. She decided wrongly, and she will likely pay.
JASON CASTRO C+
Our minstrel gave us yet another performance in which we are to sit on our hands and listen to the folk singer while the band warms up de-amped just off-stage. His voice at the beginning was especially weak, almost inaudible. And his high registers are still fingernails-on-a-chalkboard squeaky. I promised two weeks in a row no more generosity for him. Next time, I mean it.
CARLY SMITHSON A-
Despite an outstanding vocal, her persona is distracting. It may be a cultural thing, but trash is not the new chic. It is a business in which looks matter, and I’m not talking about physical beauty. She needs some fucking clothes. I do realize that she isn’t shooting to be Barbara Streisand or anything, but a bit of glamor would go a long way in establishing her credibility.
DAVID ARCHULETA B+
Emotive and genuine with the usual beautiful voice, but he needs to fix two things: (1) just like Carly, he needs to begin dressing less like the high school slacker and more like the superstar performer, but (2) he also needs to ask the makeup and hair artists to help him shed his baby boy look insofar as that is possible. Which it is, as his spiky hair at his original audition will attest. He looked older then than he does now.
KRISTY LEE COOK C+
It is fortunate for her that she stole a bit of a fan base last week and that this week more people will like her than like Ramiele. The problem with Kristy is her Children of the Corn eyes. There is no feeling one can read anywhere in her face, other than the pain of stage fright. This may be the last week she survives.
SAYESHA MERCADO C
Sigh.
MICHAEL JOHNS A-
I feel like I’m grading on a curve a bit here, but I feel obligated to acknowledge his Queenless effort. The blues treatment almost, but not quite, went overboard. He did struggle in spots to keep the song afloat, but in the end he succeeded. I really can’t put my finger on it or describe it coherently at this point, but there’s something about Michael that deteriorates when he begins to sing.
A review of last night’s performances brought me some insight. All of their performances were kinda amateurish, but the performances I didn’t like weren’t as bad as I originally thought and the ones I did like, weren’t as good as I thought. My bias were working overtime last night; today my ears without the “show”. Rami and Kristy has to go. You’d think Kristy would nail a country song and I can’t even recall what Rami sang. David needs to fall from the top spot to get him to sing a whole step better. I always thought, “Here You Come Again” was a song about being angry. Carly didn’t seem angry. Then again, neither did Brooke sound anguished and pained in “Jolene”. Dolly swinged in the “Travelin’ Thru” video. I personally think it should have won this year’s Oscar. I kind half-hoped Jason was gonna sing it Reggae style, at lleast. He kinda sang it straight, without that beat that made it interesting. While I actually liked this version of “Little Sparrow”, I presume time did not permit David to sing begin singing it slow and acapella.
Make that ten. You can bet your sweet (looking around to make sure the kids are at church) ass that we’ll be hearing something horrible tonight. I’m sure it’ll be “Workin’ 9 To 5,” butchered like never before by our top nine. Gentlemen, ready your DVRs.
The evening was a blur of mediocrety to me, the only one standing out being Syesha, for blowing it bigtime halfway through “I Will Always Love You.” She has a knack for doing that apparently (see “Yesterday” for more evidence).
Simon finally mentioned the horror show knows as Carly’s wardrobe. Hopefully she’ll get some help there.
Ramiele has a gorgeous voice. I can’t figure out why her performances aren’t more engaging. Last night she seemed tentative, like she was holding back, or didn’t know how to interpret the song. Is she afraid to let go?
I agree with everyone who’s said that David A. has a future on Broadway. I think Ramiele does too. Her voice is too good not to be used somewhere. And not Disneyland or a cruise ship.
I don’t see that at all. I agree she has a great voice, but she has the stage presence of unbuttered toast. I think she has a great future in a studio, but not so much elsewhere.
David Cook was taken to the hospital…
True. Can she be trained? Maybe that’s what she needs to build her confidence and get some stage presence.
I actually liked just about everyone last night. Maybe it’s because I like Dolly Parton, who I haven’t really heard before.
David Cook earned some respect from me for his performance. He showed he’s more than a one trick pony.
9 to 5 was the Group Sing… what a surprise.
I’m really curious to what people think of the Clark Brothers, especially those of you who never watched The Next Great American Band.
Did something weird happen with the start time? I turned my DVR’d show on at about 10 after, hoping to skip some commercials, and the beginning of what I recorded cut in at the beginning of “9 to 5”.
It started at 8:58.
I didn’t like the lead singer of the Clark Brothers, but the other two musicians rocked.
Wow, Dolly sounds awful. I like her but she just doesn’t have it tonight. This song is horrible too. She’s capable of much better than this. This is embarrassing.