If you haven’t seen the reality show portion for this week, then the following will be full of spoilers.
For the first time since the show began, I saw JD as a Human Being, and more importantly, as a likable Human Being. Any questions about whether or not he considers Suzie to be his friend are probably moot at this point, with her drinking champagne (or whatever) off of his foot.
I fear that Suzie is going to sing exceptionally well, but that the Ty!riffic song will bomb (that is, sung well but not a very “INXS” song).
I think Jordis has kind of self-destructed at this point. She knows that she’s been on a downward spiral and her experience with the photo shoot and in prepping her original song can’t be helping her confidence level.
If MiG sings about castles in the sky again, I’m going to call shenanigans. He seemed very…theater in the photo shoot. If I didn’t know that he was married, I would think that he was a very “out” flambouyant gay man.
I’m thinking that JD or Marty will get the encore (if there is one) and that Jordis, Suzie, and MiG will be in the bottom three (again, if they continue to use that system.)
On a side note, the moderation policy at the TWoP forums is ludicrous. Just sayin’…
If there’s one formula that is certain in Mark Burnett productions (and which Rockstar has held to faithfully) is that anyone shown dramatically spiralling into despair and crashing is actually going to recover in a huge comeback. Have no fear for Jordis, I bet her rehearsal actually kicked major ass on the cutting room floor.
I like Suzie, and I fear that the positive light in which she has been shown means that the producers are expecting her to bomb big time. No matter who sings Bonnie Raitt, unfortunately, it won’t be popular with the vote.
I watched the show last night and thought Marty was far and away the best fit for INXS. I prefer other voices - pretty much all of them actually - but he comes across the best for them - I think I said this in a thread about the first or second round of shows, too. His song sounded like it could be an INXS song - or at least that with a little work he could fit into their style.
I fell asleep before Jordis and Marty sang last night. Can some kind soul please give me a Reader’s Digest account of their performances and the critiques (not that the critiques will mean anything. . . . )? BTW, I thought JD kicked some major ass last night!
Marty sang an acoustic version of Foo Fighters’ “Everlong” - the Foos’ CD cut was big and electrice, but Dave Grohl has done in-studio acoustic versions that got a lot of play. Marty was apparently trying to respond to INXS’s request that he show he can handle emotional material in a quieter context or something. He followed that up with his song - “Trees,” about a relationship - and it was a solid mid-tempo rockin’ tune that sounded, as I said before, INXS’y. His review was probably the best of the night - they loved his performances and told him his song was radio-ready and that they’d be happy to do it.
Jordis - sang, what?, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door or something? I love her voice but there was nothing inspired about the performance. She sang an original tune and it was good, but didn’t sound like INXS at all. Dave Navarro praised her voice but asked her if her heart was still in it. She didn’t have much of a response…
Poor Mig, he seems like a real nice guy, but he reminds me of a generic eighties rocker. I thought his original song last night sucked and I think so did Dave and INXS. But they couldn’t really critisize it without sounding rude considering what it was about.
I really think it’s coming down to Suzie and Marty and JD for the finals. INXS has already said that they love Suzie, that they’re really impressed with how Marty performs when he “meets them halfway” (not to mention their praise for his original song last night) and I think they also like JD’s creativity. Ultimately, if they go for one singer, I think they’ll go for Marty, because I think he brings more to the table as far as songwriting than Suzie and he’s going to be far easier to work with than JD. I think Suzie has the best voice, by far, but her songwriting just isn’t INXS material, from what I can tell. Jordis is all but gone. If she’s in the bottom three, I think this is her week to go.
I thought INXS essentially said last night they would play her song in a style different to the house band that would make it more INXS? That makes me think they feel they could collaborate with her.
First off, Brooke Burke (or as the chicken says: bock bock). It’s pillow fight time and her mom’s made Rice Krispy bars as BB is wearing a nightie. Sometimes I just think that she’s going to explain why she’s wearing what she is, but I’m teased into naughtsville there.
J.D. started off the show doing “Come as you are”. He started off quiet and then went loud. It’s a classic trick to make the song more interesting, but he had zero passion singing it. His “original” song was “Pretty Vegas”. This is the song that he wrote the lyrics to in that workshop a couple weeks ago. Not really an original song at all since the music was already there and he had done this a while ago. I call foul. The song is OK but when he uses a bullhorn for no good reason and stumbles the verse, well, it’s just annoying.
Suzie and the oddest f**kin’ dress/jeans/bottom thing you’ll ever see started with wildcard “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and has proven that title to me. I got bored. I made a snack and returned for her original song. She wrote that with Ty (and we can be thankful that it wasn’t Stop/Go) but this one was called “Soul Life”. I looked over at my friend in the middle of the song and asked if he remembered the movie “Coming to America”. At that point, we began singing the jingle for “Soul Glo”. The lyrics were really pedestrian.
MiG got his skinny snake Chris Robinson impression on for Redding’s “Hard to Handle”. I expected sparklers and a baton. He then introduces his original song and tells about how it’s about losing someone and makes the possible second Michael Hutchence reference in this series. (SIDENOTE: Has anyone noticed how little is said about MH?) MiG then sings this Air Supply/Foreigner/Journey power ballad reject song and INXS shuns it as saying it’s not too INXSy.
That’s so odd, it made me wonder if the editors are trying to give Jordis the boot. Only negative comments were shown. Out of all of the original songs, hers was the only one with a bridge for crying out loud (I’m pretty sure of that). It was alright, not hooky at all though and that could be problematic. Her wildcard song of “We are the Champions” was good, flat in a couple spots though.
Finally, it’s one-mood-Marty. Always brooding. Marty’s been told by INXS that his screaming isn’t always wanted, Marty decides to go “half-way” by not screaming at all. Umm, so, yeah. His wildcard is “Everlong” which is a bit of a screamy song, but he won’t do it. Why? Because he’s meeting INXS “half-way” and instead of doing a melodious original and “Everlong” appropriately, he does 'em both without the screaming. But the brooding? Yup. Still there. His original is the best of the night though. It sounded better acoustically on Sunday’s show and a bit too oddly arranged for the live performance.
I don’t think Tim responded well to MiG’s attempt to use MH’s memory to score points with the band. In fact, it was a tacky move that killed his chances, IMHO.
I’ve been a Suzie fan pretty much since she did “Losing my religion” back in week 5, so I would be happy if she ended up with the gig. However I just don’t see what she’s going to bring to INXS creatively, other than to give Andrew a powerful vocal instrument to write for. That’s why I think that JD and Marty have a better chance at winning this (if INXS really does want a true collaborator and not just a really good singer).
I worry a little about Marty taking it, because he sounded really rough at times in the studio trying to lay down a track on “Us”. Sounds like he’s been screaming so long that his vocal cords have taken a pretty bad hit. He pulled off “Don’t Change” pretty well, but can he pull off something really soft and “pretty” like “Beautiful Girl?” He just comes across as so angry in most of his performances. I did like “Trees” quite a bit, though.
JD, as some people have noted before, sounds the most like MH and as Dave Navarro noted, he’s probably one of the best suited for INXS’ back catalog. “Pretty Vegas” even sounded a little bit like old school INXS. If I were a member of INXS I’d be a little worried about his response to the question “Musically, where would you take our band?” “I’d take you into my heart…and…give you back what you’ve given me for 25 years.” WTF?? Musically, you’d take them into your heart? Survey says…BUUUUZZTTT! Sorry. From “Pretty Vegas” it sounds like you’d like to lead their band back to “Listen Like Thieves.”
MiG sounded horrible when he tried to belt out some lines during the group sing of “Us” and I’m really, really hoping that he doesn’t get the gig. I’m starting to really hate the way his voice does that thing where it starts out almost in falsetto and jumps around a bit as the lyrics come out. And his metrosexualness is also kind of off-putting for me. “Photo shoots are so much FUN! Squeee!”
I have to say that I was underwhelmed by “Us.” I really liked the part that we got to hear of Suzie singing it in the studio a few weeks back, but this just sounded like a U2ish attempt at “We Are the World 2005.” On the other hand, I really liked the music that was backing “Pretty Vegas” which was, IIRC, the music from the unfinished INXS song.
If there’s voting again next week, I’m hoping that MiG gets in there and gets sent home. I wonder if INXS really likes him or if they keep thinking, “Come on, people! Put him in the bottom three so we can send him home!”
I’m thinkin’ they’re gonna have a Final Three, not a Final Two. And I’m thinkin’ Suzie is gonna get booted next week, no matter what she does. Reason? Fans don’t like her. She’s been in the Bottom Three how many times? Like almost every week! What does that tell you about what she would add to the band?
I think Marty is going to win this thing, but I really like J.D. (I will now get into my little solo canoe and paddle quietly away.)
Dunno about that – remember, voting isn’t against, it’s for, so when she ends up in the bottom three it’s because all the teenage girls are voting like mad for one or the other of the guys.
I’m glad Jordis finally went – Dave was right the other night, her heart wasn’t in it.
Same difference. A vote FOR somebody is also a vote that is AGAINST everybody else in the race. If the fans liked her, they’d vote for her.
Amen to this! It was painful to watch and listen to Jordis the past few weeks. She had the attitude of a loser. . . and so she was. I liked her a lot, but her hair looked like a nest of squirrels with the squirrels still inside.
Yeah, but the fans have voted for her in the past, as well. Most importantly, INXS likes her a lot.
I tend to take the voting with a grain or three of salt; there are a lot of powervoters out there that I know will vote for their favorite singer no matter what (witness Jordis’ ability to avoid bottom three after totally wrecking “Dream On” so I’m not sure how much the voting reflects overall public perception. I’d venture to say that MSN music downloads are a better indication than the voting, and that seems to indicate that of the remaining singers, Marty and MiG have the most popularity, followed by Suzie and in a relatively distant fourth is JD. Interestingly, Jordis’ cover of “Imagine” is currently #1 in MSN music downloads.
Also, at this point it’s hard not to be in the bottom three. By the "# of times in the bottom three logic, MiG had this wrapped up weeks ago.
