AND THE WHOLE WORLD HAS TO ANSWER RIGHT NOW JUST TO TELL YOU ONCE AGAIN WHO'S BAD: For those rewatching it on Fox tonight from 8-10p, and even for those who aren't, our insta-recap of the AI Michael Jackson Night (including links to many others, and of course your comments) might prove interesting.
ETA From Matt: I am a non-Idol viewer, though obviously, I read the commentary here and elsewhere, but I watched the replay, ff'ing through judge comments and pimp packages (and man, that makes the show VERY fast to watch). My thoughts:
Lil ("The Way You Make Me Feel")--There needs to be some funk in this song, and I didn't feel any funk. Don't shout at me, and don't turn that last "feeeeeeeeeel!" into a spurious glory note.
Scott ("Keep The Faith")--Not an MJ song I'm familiar with, but eeewww. Even though I like the man with a piano genre generally, a flat-ish Elton John take on MJ is not gonna be startin' something, particularly with the piano flourish at the end.
Danny ("P.Y.T.")--I'm not sure if he's a douchebag or a dork trying and failing to be hip. I'm also not sure if the silly white boy dancing is amusing or not. A little bit too Michael McDonald for my taste, on the whole/
Michael ("You Are Not Alone")--What may be MJ's cheesiest song (you can see R. Kelly's handiwork over it) solidly but blandly performed. It's adequately sung, but there's no charisma or audience connection at all.
Jasmine ("I'll Be There")--Wow, that's an unflattering dress, and I am distracted by the giant hoop earrings. A servicable Whitneyesque effort, but again, lacking in charisma or the instinct to realize that not every note needs to be a glory note.
Kris ("Remember The Time")--Acoustic guitar + new jack swing is not exactly a logical connection, and might have worked better had they let it be more stripped down. Nice vocals, but reminds me off too many guys I went to college with who would play the guitar as part of showing that they were Sensitive New Age Guys. Hard to believe from that performance he was the winner.
Allison ("Give It To Me")--I didn't like the rock arrangement, but no denying she's got a heck of a voice and impressive onstage presence, though the inability to see her eyes due to the floppy hair reduces her impact. Perhaps something by Jamie Jimpler would have been a better choice.
Anoop ("Beat It")--Stiff as a board, not helped by the strange Matrix-esque graphic behind him. A bad karaoke bar performance, including bizarro glory notes ("truth or daaaaarrreee?"). Ewwww.
Jorge ("Never Can Say Goodbye")--Your bizarre eyebrows are not enough to distract me from that mess of a performance. Why are they putting these two clunkers back to back? It might have been less noticable if I'd watched the pimpfilms, judge "banter," and commercials which split them up.
Megan ("Rockin' Robin")--Oh, dear lord, is this Kellie Pickler 2.0? Actually, it's not quite that bad--she's got some singing ability, and the huge tat on her right arm kind of freaks me out, in part because her face and hair read rather differently from that. Lost me at the end with the glory note fail and "CAW! CAW!"
Adam ("Black or White")--Has a bit of a tendency to mumble his lyrics so that they're incomprehensible, and I'm not sold on some of the vocal gymnastics. The bridge of that song is the weakest part of it, and turned into an excuse for a glory note/scream. But you can see him connecting with the audience as he goes deeper into the song, which is worth something.
Matt ("Human Nature")--Hey, Scott, THAT'S how you do the "piano man" thing. And he very much knows how to work the camera and audience. The falsetto glory notes were a bit much, but appropriate for the song, and he could pull them off.
Alexis ("Dirty Diana")--Suffers immediately from being a less strong singer than Allison, who's trying to play in a somewhat similar vein. Nice arrangement of the song, making it rock rather than be a pop song. The vocal flourish at the end, though? Big mistake.
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