Agreed. I only got to see the quick recaps of the first six tonight–saw the last four–and they really have the guys over a barrel, collectively.
I liked the last four, especially Lilly.
I like Siobhan - I want to hang out and be weird with her. I also want to colour with Paige. 
I’m not a normal AI watcher, but there wasn’t anything else on and I couldn’t sleep. I missed the first few tonight*. Katie has the best voice of those I saw, but she can’t pick a song. Lilly had the best “performance**,” but a (trained) singer myself, she annoyed the fuck out of me with her refusal to open her goddam throat.
*: From other comments here, it seems I missed some of the better stuff.
**: meaning song selection, groove, and presentation, etc.
At least this week the judges and Seacrest both came out and said directly that their advice can be confusing and contradictory.
And the only performance I really liked… well nothing blew me away but I enjoyed Siobhan and the black chick… Ah, that sounds horrible. Umm, whoever did “Lean on me” needs to go away NOW.
Best of the night: Lilly Scott. That was a great performance.
Next is Crystal. Although Diogenes has a point about how easy that song is to sing, so I could go with knocking her down a rung or two on the ladder.
Then Katelyn - sure, she slowed down the song too much, but she delivered it very well, and it seemed honest.
Didi was much better than the judges gave her credit for being. I didn’t like the way she changed the song, but it was a thoughtful arrangement, and she can really sing.
Next, Siobhan. Again, not the best song choice for her, but she delivered it in style.
Frankly, the rest can all go home. Not one of them has a hint of being a real artist. Katie might be at some point, but she’s too young. The others just seems like contestants, not artists. There’s a pretty big gap between the bottom five girls and the top five.
But all in all, this hasn’t been a good year. It could still turn into one if we wind up with:
Lilly
Siobhan
Crystal
Katelyn
Didi
Casey
Big Mike
Neck Tat
Lee
That’s all I can come up with. Maybe I’m missing some, but I can’t come up with 12 of them that deserve to be in the top 12. But those nine do.
And right now, I’d have to say that the top four are likely to be:
Lilly Scott
Crystal
Casey
Andrew Garcia
Count me in on the Siobhan bandwagon. Gotta love the combination of half-crazy, half-amazing.
Let me simplify it for you, Katie: The judges want you to sing higher. I know that you like your lower register, and fancy yourself to be all sultry and growed-up when you use it. It does sound nice. But the problem is that you look like twelve year old Alice in Wonderland. The incongruity is jarring. Besides, your voice is really amazing when you go for those glory notes. Pick a happy song and forget trying to be sexy, you’ve got to go for cute.
Another general word about song choice: Y’all, please don’t only think about what is fun for you to sing, think about what we the audience would like to hear. The show seems to have become almost entirely dark or slow songs with occasional spots of uptempo color. It should be the other way round. Paige stood out last night because she was trying to entertain us for a change (though I did feel dirty after hearing that Kara wrote the song).
Special note re Lean on Me: That song already exists in its most perfect form. In this form, it has been heard by everyone approximately 900 billion times. It is as dead as week-old chewing gum on the bedpost. No new versions shall be allowed, especially by the likes of you.
I was really worried for Siobhan when I realized she was singing Aretha. She got away with it this time, but I hope she chooses more fitting songs in the future. She’s the only reason I’m going to watch this season any longer.
The same thing could be said for “My Girl”. I hated that song forever b/c it was so overdone for so long, but Ruffin really was a genius with it. Nobody else should ever try to sing it, b/c it only comes across as an 80s remake.
Agreed, and those 4 are light-years ahead of any of the guys.
I’m not sure I’d call Siobhan’s do a “mohawk”. A real mohawk has no hair at all except for the strip down the middle. She just had it cut real short on the sides.
And when she said she was doing “Think” I thought…good luck with that. And she pulled it off.
So far (with a few notable exceptions) we’ve got a steaming pile of meh, and the judges are tying themselves in knots trying to say something meaningful (either good or bad) about any of these performances.
Sam Stone and DungBeetle, thank you for your well-considered posts. You have consistently made reading these threads worthwhile.
I am frustrated with Didi Bernami. I like her style (she reminds me of the wispy blonde from year before last IIRC who started her song over–what was her name??). I really liked her song choice last week, and have been listening to the original on youtube. Nice song. This week, however, she could not have chosen a worse song. What was she thinking? I don’t think she is such a novice that she couldn’t have chosen better.
Brooke White?
I knew she had a great voice, but felt maybe she was too young to know how to use it. You articulated exactly what is wrong with her and why she doesn’t blow me away. You articulated it better than any of the judges, too.
Thanks, y’all! I’m glad you enjoyed it. :o
That’s her! Thanks!
I think that’s the single most annoying thing about this show: the judges are completely incapable of articulating what they’re looking for and how a performance may have failed to measure up.
They aren’t paid to critique the performances. It’s all just “entertainment,” and not at all about music. If they had serious practice and critiques, it would be relegated to A&E. This is just a dog and pony show.
That being said, the “experts” posting on this thread are just perfect examples of the second hypothesis of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I haven’t got the faintest idea what you mean by this.
Me either, but I think I’ve just been insulted.
[After Googling]
Oh, please. I can recognize genuine skill. These clowns just don’t have it. if I say I can do something just as well as one of these bozos, it’s because it’s true. It’s not a statement about my wonderful ability, it’s about the mediocrity of their own. My ability is dime a dozen, but that doesn’t mean I have no ability or willingness to recognize talent in others. I do it all the time in these threads. If I call someone a mediocrity, it’s because it’s true.I use my own mediocrity as a barometer. If they aren’t any better than me, then I’m not going to be impressed.
Last night I said Bowersox made an easy, lazy song choice and she did. She chose a song with a very narrow pitch range, a simple chordal arrangement and an easy, repetitive hook. A lot of CCR songs are like that. To be clear, I wasn’t saying that made Bowersox herself a mediocrity. I think she’s the best of the girls – probably the best of the entire season – but that particular song choice was easy and lazy. Maybe it was because she was sick, but she was mailing it in.
Actually, your post would be an example of it, since you have no idea of the expertise of the people posting in this thread, yet you are sure they are incompetent and that you’re a good judge of their competency.
When I see someone playing a simple strum on the guitar, using simple chord structures, and they are constantly looking down at their hands to make sure they’re in the right place, I can make some guesses as to the technical ability of that person. I’m not a great guitarist. I’m not even a good one. But I’m good enough that I can recognize ability in others. The same goes for singing. I’m not a great singer, but I’ve sung enough to know what real ability looks like.