Monday, April 27, 2009

AND YOU TURN YOURSELF AROUND: We've been predicting Danny Gokey as an inevitable finalist since just about the moment that we learned his backstory (and that he could sing). That inevitability is gone.

It's not that he's sung anything badly -- he's always been in tune, on point and engaging. It's just that he hasn't shown us anything new in quite some time -- ever since he impressed us with his little dance during "P.Y.T.", there has been nothing new, nothing unique, and nothing that really demonstrated to us (a) that he particularly enjoys doing this or (b) he has any vision for the kind of artist he wants to be. Indeed, in this new epoch of Idol in which each of the other remaining finalists has benefited from significant rearranging of at least one song, Hokey Gokey keeps hurling his performances right down the middle, fastball-fastball-fastball. His relentless competence has prevented him from erring like others along the way (come back, Alexis!), but he's not winning the competition like this. He shouldn't.

Danny v. Adam (or Kris, who's also ahead of Gokey in iTunes sales) feels like the second coming of Archuleta v. Cook or Diana DeGarmo v. Fantasia Barrino in season three -- sure, the latter may have missed a few notes along the way, but at least there was always a human being who gave a damn singing them. I don't get that feeling from RDJJ any more. One thing that unites all the Idol winners (except maybe Ruben) is that each had moments in which it was clear that each cared about what they were singing, cared enough to rearrange it or sing the hell out of it, and was comfortable being raw and real (or at least faking it well) rather than always seeming managed, rehearsed and step-by-step scripted. When we mocked Young David Archuleta for his Dead, Dead Eyes, those eyes were just a synecdoche for the rest of the performance, after all.

Danny has been just as risk-free as Young David. A list:
  • "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," Marvin Gaye
  • "Kiss From A Rose," Seal
  • "I Hope You Dance," Lee Ann Womack
  • "Hero," Mariah Carey
  • "Jesus, Take The Wheel," Carrie Underwood
  • "What Hurts The Most," Rascal Flatts
  • "Stand By Me," Ben E. King
  • "Endless Love," Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

These are the songs Gokey chose to sing in weeks when there was no real constraint on the era of his selections -- his auditions and Hollywood, the semifinals, Country, Top Downloads, Year You Were Born, Movie Songs. They're not the choices of the Next Pop Superstar; they're the selections of Sunny 104.5 FM's music director for stuff that's safe to play at your office cubicle during the workday. And not only did he choose to sing them; he chose to sing them straight up, bereft of even a hint of a personal touch.

Enough already. Gokey, it's time to go big or go home. Take a chance already.

[Our recommendations for Songs of the Rat Pack will be posted tomorrow morning.]

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