American Idol 5/13 and 5/14

Cafe Society
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A few thoughts…

David A - I thought he did a nice job with the first song (the name of which escapes me). I thought #2 was rather painful, although my 6 year old enjoyed it. #3 was a real snoozer.

Syesha - Her first and third songs were, you know, just alright for me (sorry, I can’t even write it the way Randy says it), but she really looked as if she were enjoying singing Fever. Surely she’ll have a career somewhere in performance, but I just don’t think recorded music will be her thing.

David C - Ahh, he had me at Hello. This week, I thought he showed off his range nicely. I’m not quite sure what to make of the Roberta Flack song. Paula’s comments on the Switchfoot song were spot on - the arrangement tried to cram too much into 1 1/2 minutes. I would have really enjoyed the full thing, but as it was it wasn’t quite up to par. The Aerosmith song is one of those guilty pleasure songs for me, and I thought he did a nice job with it.
A few other random comments… some dissertation-related procrastination on Monday led me to watch the Ellen Degeneres show (possibly for the first time ever), and Jason Castro was one of her guests. He seemed soooo much more relaxed than he has on AI in ages. Also, he performed a song and sounded just leagues better than he has since Hallelujah. Made me rethink the possibility of him actually having a career.

In other dissertation-related procrastination news, David Cook’s band Axium’s version of Radiohead’s Creep on youtube is totally worth listening to.

Finally, about the talent on this season’s show, I’ve only watched parts of other seasons, but I’m much more enthusiastic about this bunch than I have been about others. Fantasia’s year, (season 3?) she was the obvious winner, and no one else there even seemed worth watching. (Although Jennifer Hudson sure showed us, eh?) I watched parts of Carrie Underwood’s season, and while I recognize that Carrie has a lovely voice, I just couldn’t get all that excited about her, 'cause she sings, like, country. (Urk.) And I think David Cook is a much more polished performer than Bo Bice. I missed the Chris Daughtery year, sadly. And seriously, Taylor Hicks? Really? That’s more talent than this crew has?

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I’m disappointed that I missed both the Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks seasons, because it seems like I watch all the stinker seasons. Last season with Jordin Sparks wasn’t very good.

I haven’t seen a truly suspenseful final since the Season 2 Clay/Ruben showdown. But I’ve seen enough former winners with lackluster careers to know that it doesn’t really matter who wins anyway.

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:smack:

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LMAO at Simon’s comment about one of Archuleta’s performances …“like a Chihuahua trying to be a tiger” !!!

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Season 5 (top four: Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Elliott Yamin, Chris Daughtry) was the only other season I watched closely, from auditions to finale. Season 5 had some real talent, but nobody stood out as having the potential to set the world on fire. Chris Daughtry had a lot of difficulty with anything that wasn’t squarely in his “modern rock” strike zone (Elvis night killed him). I wasn’t terribly fond of Katharine McPhee but she blew everyone away with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (her top-three judge’s choice IIRC) Goofy-looking Elliott Yamin was hands-down the best singer but, sort of Archuleta-like, could not get out of his R&B Ballad box. But almost every week there was one great or at least surprising performance. Taylor won primarily because of his diversity - goofy as hell to watch, but no theme night could trip him up. And he always came off as a real professional, someone you could imagine on stage in front of thousands (or, you know, tens). I don’t remember too many dud performances in the final weeks, but then again I could be selectively forgetting.

The problem was that though all of them had great moments on the show, this is not a good indication of the contestants as recording artists. I enjoyed some of the pre-Idol recordings of Taylor’s that I managed to find, but he’s not someone I listen to on a long commute. He works especially well, in fact, in 1.5 minute increments on a brightly-lit TV show. Although I am sure there is an audience for that type of music, it is not a mainstream pop audience, and I’m not surprised his album tanked. Katharine always seemed a bit soulless, but if she could write decent songs she might have been the U.S. Natasha Beddingfield. Apparently she can’t, so now it looks like she’s going into movies. Makes perfect sense. Elliott, as far as I can tell, is still doing exactly the same stuff and doing it very well (after wisely improving his look) but he’s just not going to churn out the catchy singles. He’s not that guy. Daughtry, on the other hand, succeeded because he always belonged in a band, not a stand-alone singer, and his type of music happens to be very marketable. And “Home” is, to date, the best Wednesday night Idol send-off song ever.

In comparison, this year we have David Cook, who has all the marketability of Chris Daughtry with all the adaptability and professionalism of Taylor Hicks. He’s unbeatable. David A. is this year’s Elliott, wonderful singer but very limited in scope, and Syesha is the Katharine McPhee, good singer but not much of an artist. And for some reason these last few weeks have only served to solidify these roles, not surprise us. Where are Cook’s brilliant and surprising song choices (Eleanor Rigby, You Will Always Be My Baby)? Why hasn’t David A. gotten back behind the piano? If Syesha ever needed a “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” it was this week, and “Fever” wasn’t it. If anything hurts David C, it’s his lame taste in music. Switchfoot? Our Lady Peace? Jee-zus. :rolleyes:

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Interesting youtube video of David Cook singing Make 'em Laugh in a high school version of Singin’ in the Rain. It’s obviously his singing but the video is grainy; if that is him on stage then he’s a lot more agile than I’d have thought.

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The only performance worth mentioning was David C’s First Time etc; as it showed he can really sing, on a song that’s 180 degrees from his comfort zone. The other 5 performances would go into the Meh Hall of Fame.

Has anyone noticed that the direction/production of the show is getting really sloppy? I know it’s live TV, but c’mon – it’s like nobody shows up for the walkthrough. Awkward “stand here/go there” moments, judges talking into dead mikes, and the audience is getting completely out of control.

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Meant to add this one as well- Cook’s praise from Caesar.

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Man, you almost have to feel sorry for Cowell. He’s like that king (Danish? Scandinavian?) who had such incredible delusions of grandeur, he thought he could control the tides. Except that Cowell is a surfer, and he’s going to have an extremely unpleasant time if the ocean doesn’t start cooperating. Something like that.

It’s going to be Mercado, isn’t it? Yeah. Only slightly less predictable than Castro last week. She’s been an incredible survivor, and vocal-wise, she’s a Goliath, but we all know who Goliath ultimately fell to. And there are two of them here (literally and figuratively).

Nothing out of the ordinary this week…placeholder semis, just as I thought. Should be the tightest final yet.

jsc1953 - You noticed? Okay, I can (with tremendous reluctance) brook howls of protest during the judges’ comments; it’s all part of the dog and pony show. But is it too much to ask them to keep quiet during the performance? That’s a line that should never be crossed. Dang, I’m half-expecting rotten vegetables to go flying at this point.

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So between having to write three papers for Ethics (ugh!) and trying to finalize the details of the Greatest Birthday Party in the WORLD, I missed most of the performances last night. I’m quite sure that doesn’t matter so here are my ratings based on almost nothing at all.

Jason Castro: I know you’re gone now but I just wanted to say once again: HAIRCUT, DUDE.

David C. I think you should go home. Not because I don’t like you but because I agree that it would be the very best thing for your career. You’ll probably win though.

Syesha I’m only ranking you second as a way of wishful thinking because I would rather watch David A. get run over by a tanker truck than see him win this thing. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a great singer (really!) but I am so effin’ bored watching you that I want to clean my bathroom. Seriously.

David A. You should breathe through the nose from the diaphragm. Just saying.

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Watching Fantasia, who I’ve never really seen perform before. All I can say is:
:eek:
She is all kinds of awesome.
By the way, I put that (eek) face in about 1 second before they showed Simon’s identical face.

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Need less camera time for the red haired chick, more for the back-up singers. Wow!

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Is Fantasia last cycle’s winner? This is the first time I’ve followed AI regularly. She . . . is weird. Simon’s expression summarizes my feelings quite nicely.

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Season 3.

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Fantasia. I hated it. But I’m here to ask what was that look from Simon? It looked a lot like “OMFG” but I couldn’t tell if it was “OMFG, this is AWESOME!” or “OMFG, this is the most horrible thing I’ve ever been witness to, EVER, in my time on Earth!”

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Could be either. Or…both? I started out the latter but it turned into the former. If any of the contestants this season could have pulled that off, I woulda voted for them. It shows how milquetoast and safe even the “daring” performances are. Need more crazy Fantasia! Plus she looked great - like “This is a REAL ass! Check it out!” Love it.

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Oh, I appreciated it as a performance of course. It’s just not something I would buy.

David A’s video: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE CRYING.

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Simon just seemed stunned. Like he didn’t know WHAT to think.

David A’s following is scary.

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Anyone else think that David’s mom looks a little like Syesha?

…or am I nuts?

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Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my GOSH. OH my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh. Oh my GOSH. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.