Wednesday, May 7, 2008
A.I. FINAL FOUR
E.K.: Here we are with yet another American Idol recap, and I must say, the themes this year have been ridiculous, in that they've hardly gotten to do any songs from this decade, let alone the last couple of years. Somebody singing "Proud Mary" or "Love Me Tender" doesn't mean a whole lot if there isn't a balance there. Anyway, Smooth, start us off with David Cook.
Smooth: His first song was "Hungry Like the Wolf", and he did a surprisingly straightforward rendition. It's fine, but it just sounds like Scott Weiland at a karaoke contest. Also (maybe this was just my TV) it seemed like the mix was way off, I could only hear the lead vocal, with everything else being very quiet. I found it strange that he didn't try to do more with it. The judges were not kind. His second song was "Baba O'Riley". He eliminated the trademark keyboard riff and slowed it way down. It was OK, but I had some issues with it. I've heard Pearl Jam's cover a number of times, so this version doesn't sound terribly fresh, and it's just too slow for an inherently energetic song. At the end it sounded like he was going to jump up to the normal tempo but he doesn't. It was not Cook's best night, but he was OK. I'm starting to wonder if his musical bag of tricks has been turned upside down and shaken one too many times.
E.K.: His take on "Hungry Like The Wolf" was completely "So what?" for me. You've got all these songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame classes and that is what you choose to do? Sheesh. I was much more interested to hear his take on the Who song, because I figured, here we go. He'll let the showmanship thing fly right now. And he didn't. I was simply stunned by his lack of energy Tuesday night, and also by his admission last night that his head wasn't in it that entire day. Huh?
Smooth: Next was Syesha Mercado, who opened with "Proud Mary". Not a fan of this song choice - she even pointed out how much it's been covered. Don't do it, then, Syesha! She even dressed kinda like Tina Turner, further inviting comparisons to her version. The vocal is surprisingly poor. She was all over the place pitchwise and some of the phrasing is odd. Maybe she's concentrating on the rather lame "choreography" too much, I don't know. Simon is the only judge to agree with me.
E.K.: I'll at least give her credit for trying to do the showmanship thing. It did seem like a somewhat bad Tina impression, but at least there was energy there. I wasn't too horrified by the vocals. And by the way...she is getting hotter and hotter every show. Must be the hairstyles. Wow.
Smooth: Before the second song, "A Change is Gonna Come", Syesha compared her time on American Idol to the Civil Rights movement. Yeah, she did that. I feel like I want to punch her.
E.K.: I'm just glad I don't recall hearing anyone refer to the competition as a "journey".
Smooth: Anyway, the vocal on the second song was pretty good. It's got a lot of glory notes that she did well with, although overall I think she did oversing it a bit. Afterwards she started blubbering, because when Randy doesn't like her vocal that's basically comparable to Martin Luther King being assassinated.
E.K.: I dunno, I thought she was crying because she was happy about Paula and Simon liking what she did. But I like your ire at the spectacle. And then last night she said that "A Change Is Gonna Come" was an appropriate song because we might have our first female or black president. If they're still lame, though, who cares? Okay, enough politics. What is this, Hardball? No, this is definitely much more important.
Smooth: Jason Castro's first song ("I Shot the Sheriff") was a train wreck, no doubt. Bob Marley is simply iconic and should not be attempted, especially by some goofy white dude.
E.K.: With dreads!
Smooth: And Jason didn't sound very good while attempting it. The second song ("Mr. Tambourine Man") had the potential to be good, but he totally forgot half a verse, and it's like another train comes in and smashes into the still-smoldering wreck of the previous song. After that I didn't even hear the rest of the song because I was lost in my amazement how he possibly even got this far. Awful.
E.K.: We should never have to deal with hearing contestants forget lyrics. Not in the auditions, not in Hollywood Week, not in the prelims, and certainly not the final four. Ridiculous. They should have done that whole cane-coming-out-from-the-side-to-pull-him-off-the-stage thing. How come that never happens anymore? I would love to see that.
Smooth: I have to laugh at the way David Archuleta is being dressed, like there's any way he would choose a T-shirt that didn't have a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh on it. Actually, make that Eeyore. He sounded pretty good on "Stand By Me", doing the standard Archuleta thing with tons of vocal runs. Luckily (for him), the song is right in his range and it has a very simple melody so the ornamentation wasn't quite as off-putting as it normally is. It ended up being one of his better performances in a while, I think. The second song is... pretty much more of the same, except now he's doing "Love Me Tender". I think he's a lot more comfortable singing songs he already knows, and it shows in his vocal.
E.K.: Yeah, I don't have any problems with what David did. He got out there, did his thing, and it was pleasant if not spectacular, and I can not stand the squealing from the little girls in the crowd. Tuesday night it seemed to go on forever and I just wanted to throw something. So anyway, what did you say about what would happen if Jason hadn't been eliminated?
Smooth: I would have eaten my left arm.
E.K.: Good thing you are right-handed. I, on the other hand, would have pulled my own arms off, beaten myself to death with them, and then put my left arm back where my right arm had been and my right arm back where my left arm had been and then carried my own dead body out into the street for pickup by Waste Management. All the while wondering, how the hell is it physically possible that I am doing this?
Smooth: His first song was "Hungry Like the Wolf", and he did a surprisingly straightforward rendition. It's fine, but it just sounds like Scott Weiland at a karaoke contest. Also (maybe this was just my TV) it seemed like the mix was way off, I could only hear the lead vocal, with everything else being very quiet. I found it strange that he didn't try to do more with it. The judges were not kind. His second song was "Baba O'Riley". He eliminated the trademark keyboard riff and slowed it way down. It was OK, but I had some issues with it. I've heard Pearl Jam's cover a number of times, so this version doesn't sound terribly fresh, and it's just too slow for an inherently energetic song. At the end it sounded like he was going to jump up to the normal tempo but he doesn't. It was not Cook's best night, but he was OK. I'm starting to wonder if his musical bag of tricks has been turned upside down and shaken one too many times.
E.K.: His take on "Hungry Like The Wolf" was completely "So what?" for me. You've got all these songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame classes and that is what you choose to do? Sheesh. I was much more interested to hear his take on the Who song, because I figured, here we go. He'll let the showmanship thing fly right now. And he didn't. I was simply stunned by his lack of energy Tuesday night, and also by his admission last night that his head wasn't in it that entire day. Huh?
Smooth: Next was Syesha Mercado, who opened with "Proud Mary". Not a fan of this song choice - she even pointed out how much it's been covered. Don't do it, then, Syesha! She even dressed kinda like Tina Turner, further inviting comparisons to her version. The vocal is surprisingly poor. She was all over the place pitchwise and some of the phrasing is odd. Maybe she's concentrating on the rather lame "choreography" too much, I don't know. Simon is the only judge to agree with me.
E.K.: I'll at least give her credit for trying to do the showmanship thing. It did seem like a somewhat bad Tina impression, but at least there was energy there. I wasn't too horrified by the vocals. And by the way...she is getting hotter and hotter every show. Must be the hairstyles. Wow.
Smooth: Before the second song, "A Change is Gonna Come", Syesha compared her time on American Idol to the Civil Rights movement. Yeah, she did that. I feel like I want to punch her.
E.K.: I'm just glad I don't recall hearing anyone refer to the competition as a "journey".
Smooth: Anyway, the vocal on the second song was pretty good. It's got a lot of glory notes that she did well with, although overall I think she did oversing it a bit. Afterwards she started blubbering, because when Randy doesn't like her vocal that's basically comparable to Martin Luther King being assassinated.
E.K.: I dunno, I thought she was crying because she was happy about Paula and Simon liking what she did. But I like your ire at the spectacle. And then last night she said that "A Change Is Gonna Come" was an appropriate song because we might have our first female or black president. If they're still lame, though, who cares? Okay, enough politics. What is this, Hardball? No, this is definitely much more important.
Smooth: Jason Castro's first song ("I Shot the Sheriff") was a train wreck, no doubt. Bob Marley is simply iconic and should not be attempted, especially by some goofy white dude.
E.K.: With dreads!
Smooth: And Jason didn't sound very good while attempting it. The second song ("Mr. Tambourine Man") had the potential to be good, but he totally forgot half a verse, and it's like another train comes in and smashes into the still-smoldering wreck of the previous song. After that I didn't even hear the rest of the song because I was lost in my amazement how he possibly even got this far. Awful.
E.K.: We should never have to deal with hearing contestants forget lyrics. Not in the auditions, not in Hollywood Week, not in the prelims, and certainly not the final four. Ridiculous. They should have done that whole cane-coming-out-from-the-side-to-pull-him-off-the-stage thing. How come that never happens anymore? I would love to see that.
Smooth: I have to laugh at the way David Archuleta is being dressed, like there's any way he would choose a T-shirt that didn't have a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh on it. Actually, make that Eeyore. He sounded pretty good on "Stand By Me", doing the standard Archuleta thing with tons of vocal runs. Luckily (for him), the song is right in his range and it has a very simple melody so the ornamentation wasn't quite as off-putting as it normally is. It ended up being one of his better performances in a while, I think. The second song is... pretty much more of the same, except now he's doing "Love Me Tender". I think he's a lot more comfortable singing songs he already knows, and it shows in his vocal.
E.K.: Yeah, I don't have any problems with what David did. He got out there, did his thing, and it was pleasant if not spectacular, and I can not stand the squealing from the little girls in the crowd. Tuesday night it seemed to go on forever and I just wanted to throw something. So anyway, what did you say about what would happen if Jason hadn't been eliminated?
Smooth: I would have eaten my left arm.
E.K.: Good thing you are right-handed. I, on the other hand, would have pulled my own arms off, beaten myself to death with them, and then put my left arm back where my right arm had been and my right arm back where my left arm had been and then carried my own dead body out into the street for pickup by Waste Management. All the while wondering, how the hell is it physically possible that I am doing this?
