American Idol: April 15 - Commentary

Cafe Society
1

Hey! If you’re from another time zone, you should know not to be reading this until you watch the show!

In the order I liked them:

KIMBERLEY LOCKE - Fabulous look, fabulous performance. Her best so far. I was blown away. Great song. She’s improving.

CLAY AIKEN - Christ, finally he did something other than a ballad, and he even poked fun at himself by starting it off that way. He still has a terrific voice and he finally listened to his critics. Back in the running, as far as I’m concerned.

RUUUUUBEN STUDDARD: I can’t believe I’m putting the big guy third, but he wasn’t as good as Kim Locke or Clay, and simon was right; he’s in a bit of a rut. I still think he’s the best overall, but he wasn’t this week. Still my favourite to win the whole shebang.

TRENYCE: I liked her performance more than the judges did; I thought it was absolutely terrific. The dress was ugly, and that’s my only criticism. At this point she’s middle of the pack only because, well, some others are even better.

JOSH GRACIN: The Singing Corporal was darned good, but at this point his voice just doesn’t hold up to the level of competition. He’ll last longer than he deserves to anyway.

KIMBERLEY CALDWELL: I actually like her and think she has some talent, but she sucked tonight, and she’s sucked three or four weeks running. She just doesn’t seem to know what songs to pick or how to fit them to her voice. She wasn’t the worst but I will shed no tears if she gets booted tomorrow; she’s way, way out of her league now.

CARMEN RASMUSEN: Ho. Ly. Crap.

Is there some sort of special Ultra Speed Dial function in the United States available only to people who are either insane, retarded, or tone deaf? Why is this hack in the TOP SEVEN of this show? She cannot sing. She has the worst, msot irritating SuperVibrato in human history. She dresses like she’s homeless. Get her off the show!
Guest Judge Smokey Robinson: Aww, bring back Lionel.

2

In order of how I liked them:

Ruben: He usually comes in 2nd or 3rd in my book but tonight he was amazing.

Kimberley L: Definitely the best she has ever done. Her look and sound were perfectly understated. Great song choice.

Clay: That arrangement worked really well for him. I agree that his stage presence needs more work.

Josh: Enough with the overpronounciation! If he’d tone it down, he’d be a lot better.

Caldwell: She’s out of her league, but she tried. Her stage presence is much better than her singing.

Trencye: Stop the yelling! Also, singing Billy like Whitney does not work.

Carmen: If she does not get voted off this week, there is no justice in this world. Her outfit was even worse than her bleating, if that was possible.

3

Holy crow, was that awful!

Smokey was useless.

Ruben phoned it in.

Carmen was horrendous, even by Carmen standards.

I laughed my way through Josh’s performance. Country Piano Man??!?

Trenyce looked like she wanted to deep throat the microphone.

Kimberly C. isn’t even good enough for Six Flags.

Broadway Clay indeed. He could sing Back in Black, and he’d still sound exactly the same.

Kimberley was the best of the night. She turned in a really good performance, but I can’t bring myself to care.

4

I pretty much agree with Rickjay on the order this week. so I’ll just add a few comments for each:

Kim C: Lame. Did for Billy Joel what Carmen did for Blondie. She needs to go soon, hopefully right after Carmen.

Ruben: Very good, as usual, but he wasn’t the best this week. I think he even dropped a cote or two.

Kim L: Her bst performance. Perfect song for her. She could make a career doing that low-key, bluesy, Norah Jones type stuff.

Josh: Mediocre. Missed the low notes, hit the high notes. No real presence, no real ability to interpret music. He’s born to sing in a Garth brooks cover band. He’s really outclassed at this point, and
I really think he’s just getting votes because of the Marine thing (if the voting is real at all, which I’m starting to doubt).

Carmen: SUCKED. Again. Simon was brutal on her tonight and I agreed with him completely.

Trenyce: One of her better efforts. She showed some emotion at the microphone. She just never seems to really knock me out, though. I’d like to fed her a Big Mac.

Clay: Not quite so Broadway. I really do like his voice. I’m glad he chose something uptempo. Simon is kind of right about the facial expressions, though.
After last week, it’s obvious that the loser can’t be predicted by performance, alone, but it damn well should be Carmen but it could be Kim C or Kim L though. Kim L doesn’t deserve it, but she keeps ending up in the bottom three. The voters are idiots.

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RickJay > Agree with you down the line, although I 'd put Clay ahead of Kim L. and I might put Josh above Trenyce. I just don’t like the “if I yell it loud enough, it’s good singing” way of performing, and she still has no personality. Josh started off iffy but it wasn’t so bad towards the end.

Will America please put us out of our misery this week and vote Carmen off? She is way out of her league now (of course IMO, she’s been out of her league the whole time).

Also, Simon can be a rat bastard but when he does try to give a constructive criticism nicely (like he did with Ruben) there is really no need to boo him. He didn’t say Ruben was bad, all he said was he needed to try something different songwise. All the tone deaf, insane or retarded people who aren’t sitting at home with their speed dials are in the audience.

Oh, and Smokey’s a great singer but he’s just another Paula when it comes to judging. He was even more sickeningly nice than Paula … if that’s possible.

6

Hmmm, I love Billy Joel, and I was excited at the prospect of hearing all Billy songs tonight. It was also frightening, thinking of how awful some of them were going to screw up.

Kimberly L - Best of the night, by far. Great job.

Second is a tie between Ruben and Josh. Yeah, most will disagree with me, but most will disagree with the rest of what I have to say, too. Here I think I actually liked Josh better than Ruben. I thought Josh did a good job. There were a few country-fied bits, but mostly he kept the country out of it. Ruben…eh, I dunno. I just didn’t like the arrangement. But I still think he’ll take it all in the finals.

Kimberly Caldwell - I really really REALLY like her performing ability, but tonight her voice just wasn’t up to par. Not as bad as some of the others, but not too good either.

Trenyce - M’eh.

Carmen - Ew.

Clay - Oh that was awful. Just awful. I couldn’t believe the judges all praised him. Gag! He completely butchered the song. Make it your own, indeed! Who ever heard of Billy Joel on Broadway???

What? Oh…yeah…nevermind :stuck_out_tongue:
But I still didn’t like Clay’s performance.

7

You know what really freaked me out? I was totally thinking that Clay was this skinny little tiny guy,but when they had him standing there beside Ryan Seacrest,he was damn huge! I’m glad he went for something a little more upbeat this week though!
As for who should go I think for sure Carmen but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is Kim L. unfortunately she has been in the bottom 3 numerous times…I think she is a little too “mature” for the average teeny bopper viewer and Kim C. and Carmen seem to have a bigger fan base that keep voting them on for another week

8

  1. Kimberly Caldwell–Beautiful as always. She made me smile and that’s a good thing. I thought she did well. I DO agree that she was capable of more though.

  2. Reuben–Looked ADORABLE! Frankly not among his better performances, but good as usual. Simon DID have a point.

  3. Kimberly Locke–Looked VERY beautiful! Fantastic! Loved it! Yup! Her best performance indeed!

  4. Carmen–Tolerable, but her vibrato has always been the death of her. I don’t actually agree that she was terrible, but I do agree that at this level, it’s not good enough. Then again, she never WAS good enough for the finals. Surely Justice will exist now and she will FINALLY be eliminated.

  5. Joshua–I KNEW someone would sing this song, I just didn’t expect Josh to do it! I guess the better things in life truly are unexpected! I LOVED IT! Course I LOVE this song, but still, I thought he was EXCELLENT and honestly the best of the night.

6.Trenyce–Slight problem with the low part at the end, but an otherwise very solid performance(as usual). I agreed with Simon: A little flawed, but well done!

  1. Clay–I don’t know what to say, really. It was very good, as always. He’s adorable. :smiley:

Bleagh, I’ll just rank starting from who I liked the best tonight(I spent an HOUR voting, btw. My mother needed the phone for the next hour):

  1. Joshua(I didn’t vote for him at all. Odd since I thought he was the best, but I KNOW he’s safe, so I didn’t worry and I don’t now).

  2. Kimberly Locke(I voted for her quite a bit for reasons that should be obvious. Yea, she’ll be in the bottom three, but no way will she be eliminated. I sure hope not!)

  3. Trenyce(She got the vast majority of my votes)

  4. Clay(No votes because I know he’s safe)

  5. Reuben(Uh-oh. Bottom three. No way he’ll actually be there, but he’s in MY bottom three. Even if he actually ends up there, he’ll NEVER be eliminated. No, I didn’t vote for him, because he’s safe no matter what).

  6. Kimberly C(Alas, she’ll be in the bottom three again. But, I like her and while I think her end is near, I don’t want her to go just yet. I voted for her quite a bit and I think she’ll be in the bottom 2, but hopefully NOT eliminated).

  7. Carmen(she has almost always been on my bottom three list. I honestly believe that this time, she will finally be BANISHED. She will end up in the bottom three and will end up eliminated. Needless to say, I didn’t vote for her).

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Clay - Just because he sang an uptempo song doesn’t mean he sang it any different than any other song he sang. And I hate when he mouths “Thank you” to the audience. It looks so creepy and dare I say gay.

I thought Josh was kind of good. I know people hate him and his country-style but I always like cover songs anyways.

Ruben wasn’t that great to me. I knew he would sing that song.

Carmen and Kim Caldwell were both awful. And what was Carmen wearing? Just wear a normal dress instead of a strapless dress with a tshirt underneath. Geez.

Trenyce was okay.

Kim Locke was great. I think she has a moustache though. I also have a feeling she will inexplicably be voted off.

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What gave me the creeps was Ryan Seacrest’s calling attention to Carmen’s “many fans” who vote for her week after week, seemingly giving the ballot box stuffers credence. (They should all have their little tiny phones taken away and stomped into tiny bits, IMHO!!!)
Hated Smokey Robinson. How much of those shoulders were his shoulders and how much was padding? What WAS he hiding underneath that plushy turtleneck?
Paula looked OK this week. Randy was a’ight! And Simon was his adorable Grinchy self.
Question: Does anybody know what they’re going to do with the “special” Monday show next week??? (Other than provide a ready made lead-in to MR. PERSONALITY.)

11

I pretty much agree with everyone here, so I’ll just say two things:

  1. Paula’s rack looked mighty fine this week, and
  2. What in super pink hell was Carmen wearing?
12

A shower curtain.

I feel bad for Carmen, the show can’t be any fun for her anymore. I bet even she is thinking* please oh please won’t people stop voting for me so I can get out of this.* Of course, the sadder she looks after each performance, the more sympathy votes she racks up, so maybe she is the next American idol.

Paula is hilarious, whatever it was she said “Girls all want to hear these words of the last songs, and yours was one of them, good job?” What?

I thought Clay was going to sing For the Longest Time. At the start of the season, I really liked him. Now, eh, so-so, whatever. I agree he’s overly theatrical with his faces. And I bet Kim C. is getting tired of always being praised for how she looks after she sings. That’s almost like failing a math test, and the teacher writing on paper “Don’t feel bad, you wore a great outfit the day of the test.” (which, come to think of it, would be a seriously creepy comment to get on a test. Pretend I didn’t just make this analogy).

13

Wow.

First time I actually cringed during a performance. Carmen, what are you doing to me? I really wanted to like you, dammit!
And even worse, Ryan Seacrest, what the hell are you thinking encouraging those 7 mass-dialers out there?
Now even Simon, secret-relationship-and-all, is trashing her.

Wow.

Bottom Three:
Kim L., Kim C., and Carmen

In Luck Tomorrow:
Kim L., Kim C., and the rest of America.

14

My thoughts exactly! On both points!! (no pun intended)

15

All I want from life is to never have to hear Randy say the utterly lame and meaningless “you did yer thang” anymore. Please. Please, I beg you.

And as much as I adore him, I have to say that Simon is kinda right about Clay’s faces. Poor guy, he can’t win for losing on the whole looks thing.

I agreed with Rickjay (and everybody, this week was more clear cut) for the most part. Except I hate Josh Gracin. Yuck, eww, barf, he always comes across like he’s pissed. Maybe it’s a marine thing.

And I have to give props to Trenyce for ending her song properly. I’m sick of everybody seizing the (contrived for time) ends of the songs to go off to some “one-last-time-to-prove-I-can-do-runs-and-belt” place instead of a more natural ending to the song.

16

In order of performance:

  1. Kimberly Caldwell - Ugh. Butchered that song. Bottom 3 again, hon.

  2. Reuben - Someone actually called Reuben on sounding the same every week?! :eek: Wow! I totally agree with Simon. He’s gotta go for something new soon or else we may all get tired of his act.

  3. Kimberly Locke - WOW! I’ll say it again, WOW! The best of the night, by far. In my opinion, the BEST performance of the ENTIRE competition. It was that good. If she can keep this up, she’ll be the dark horse winner.

  4. Carmen - I didn’t think she was utterly terrible like everyone else, but she shouldn’t stay much longer.

  5. Joshua - It was alright. Nothing special. The beginning sucked, but the second part of the song was good.

6.Trenyce - I liked it. I thought she did a wonderful sultry singing of it.

  1. Clay - Great! He actually went uptempo, and I think it paid off for him.

–

My ranking:

  1. Kim Locke
  2. Clay
  3. Rueben
  4. Trenyce
  5. Josh
  6. Kim Caldwell
  7. Carmen
17

Billy Joel night? BILLY JOEL NIGHT?! They are really starting to reach here aren’t they? While I am not a huge Billy Joel fan I think it would have made more sense for him to be a guest judge for his own songs than Smokey Robinson. That being said I thought most of the performances were pretty good. Kimberly Locke was awesome. One of her best performances. Ruben was good but is starting to sound the same every week. Kim C. is way out of her league and Josh is too. It was nice to see Clay try something uptempo but it was still too theatrical. It is becoming really apparent that Clay does not know how to take and implement constructive criticism. If he doesn’t learn how to he’ll never improve. I wouldn’t sign him to a recording contract.

And Diogenes, I don’t believe it!! We actually agree on something! :eek: I think most of your comments regarding the performances are right on.

18

Actually, I have to defend Bill Joel Night. It was a good choice, because

A) Billy Joel is a nice guy who sees his being a pop star as work, so it was probably easy to get him to do the interviews.

B) Billy Joel wrote a lot of really good songs, and

C) Billy Joel songs are a lot harder to sing than you might expect. Forcing the contestants to pick a Billy Joel song pretty much guarantees you’ll be asking them to do something they might find tricky. It’s a lot harder than “pick any #1 song from the last forty years.”

19

Guys, what song did Clay sing? I watched the entire show, then got pulled away at the last minute to help my husband.

20

“Tell Her About It” (and it was good!)