MAKE A WISH, TAKE A CHANCE, MAKE A CHANGE: In a week in which there seemed to be no rules on song selection and the Amazing Idol Dual Camera returned in full effect, few chances were taken by the women during a largely competent, but only once-inspiring evening. Who delivered the goods? Duh.
Awesome
Crystal: Has now delivered the best two performances in the semifinals, male or female. Great, impassioned phrasing on "Give Me One Reason," and I loved every moment of it. (Which means that she won't win the whole thing, but pencil her in until May.)
Certainly Good Enough
Siobhan: "House of the Rising Sun" should never feel rushed like this, and her delivery felt a little safe -- there's a roughness one should hear in the vocals to this song which was missing. But, still, she's rightfully a lock. This is the performer Gina Glocksen wanted to be on Idol.
Katie: hit the notes of Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway," but as Ellen properly noted DeGarmoBot 2.0 lacked the passion to sell it. Still, over the course of the evening and especially when paired with last week, she's someone I want to see remain in the competition.
Played It Safe In An Unsafe Week
Katelyn: competent, but as Kara said not competing. As Dan Fienberg wrote, too much of this week was the musical equivalent of a prevent defense.
Lilly: It was ... I dunno. I don't get it. (Sepinwall does.) If she didn't look like that, would we care?
Didi: Oh, there was a bad note there in the middle of "Rhiannon" which made me cringe. Didi hasn't shown me enough, honestly, and between her and Katelyn I'd rather have the former.
Pack Your Bags, and Not in the "Tyra Says We're Going To Milan!" Way
Lacey: sharp and weird. Please stop looking at me like that.
Paige: "Smile" is a song that can be performed a lot of ways. Just not this one, and just like Gina Glocksen (and this was sub-Glocksen) (I'm almost over -- no more Glocksen references tonight) it'll make for an ironic farewell song tomorrow. Nothing Paige has shown us in three weeks suggests she should still be in this competition.
Adam, I don't get Lilly either. I felt like going right after Crystal kind of exposed her tonight. They both have the same different, "authentic" vibe going, but tonight Crystal really backed up the hype but Lilly just sang a classic in a quirky way that made me miss the original. Obviously other people can like her a lot, but my husband and I both felt like the judges must have been told to go on about how great she was, because we didn't see it tonight.
ReplyDeleteinteresting that you thought she hit all the notes in breakaway. to my ears it sounded like she missed them all....
ReplyDeleteI liked Didi a lot more than you did (though not as much as Simon did). I've kinda liked Katie the last couple of weeks, but I thought she was really bad this week.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to feel the way Sepinwall did last week - you can start to see the separation between those who can win and those who can't. Crystal and Siobhan are obvious contenders. I wouldn't put Katelyn in that category yet, but her performance last week made me think she could emerge as a sleeper. I would have billed Katie as a contender last week because of her combination of youth, looks and raw talent. Now I'm thinking all the females other than Crystal, Siobhn and Katelyn are just competing for spots on the tour.
As for Lilly, I'm kinda agreeing with USA Today's Brian Mansfield. I was intrigued a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm starting to think her performances are all too similar, and I'm wondering if she's ever going to do a song that's relatively recent.
Is the headline from the last five years?
ReplyDeleteIt's from Breakaway...
ReplyDeleteI loved Crystal (obviously) and enjoyed Lilly, Didi, and (oddly enough) Lacey a lot more than you did. Katie was meh. I wish they'd raise the age level---to many kids with good voices showing up before they have the life experience to connect with a song. Paige (whom I enjoyed the last two weeks) was awful. Katelyn was just okay, but I'd give her another chance based on last week. I actually thought that Siobhan was kind of meh, as well---like last week, some really good moments, and some off moments.
ReplyDeleteStrongly disagree on Katie, that was not very good. Strongly agree on Lilly, I just didn't get it. I think if you wanted to bust out the term "poseur," it wouldn't feel wrong. Can't stand Lacey's voice and hope she won't be joining us next week.
ReplyDeleteI'm not getting the Katie like either. I thought it was horrible and would put her in the bottom 3. In fact, I think she should be going home tomorrow along with Paige. It wasn't Lilly's best week but I think she did enough to stay. It seems that Shiobon and Crystal are the two to beat.
ReplyDeleteAdam, did you see that What Not to Sing linked to you in their current editorial? Scroll down below the current preliminary scores, and there you are....
ReplyDeleteLoved Crystal and Didi, liked Siobhan (very nice vocals and love the quirkiness, but have a hard time picturing her making music without the backdrop of Idol) and thought Katelyn and Lilly were somewhere in the middle of the pack. I think Lilly may be getting a little one-note for me, and I didn't feel like there was any heartache in her take on Patsy Cline. Her performance was too peppy for a song about falling to pieces. Lacey was improved, but didn't do anything for me. Paige and Katie stunk it up, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOf the three she's sung so far (not counting auditions and Hollywood) the most recent is from 1967.
ReplyDeleteI've never much cared for that Tracy Chapman song, even though I like Tracy Chapman. I thought Crystal improved on the original, and that's saying something.
ReplyDeleteI was compelled by Kara's (I think?) comment to Siobhan that she's doing really well even though she's ugly (or however she put it). It was breathtakingly honest but also...wow.
ReplyDeleteI loved Crystal and Didi. Liked Siobhan and surprisingly, Lacey. I thought Katie was just terrible. She really has no business being there, she's too young and unformed. I agree that raising the age limit would be a good thing.
ReplyDeletePaige...? Oh lord. Don't pick a song where you have to smile when your heart is breaking, because you WILL be trying to smile while your heart breaks on Thursday when you are eliminated and you have to sing this song again. I think there's a good voice under there somewhere, but it didn't show last night.
I think that Katie will be safe, though. She's the female Covais, and I fear we'll be listening to her warble until mid-to-late April. God, I hope I'm wrong about this, but the signs are all there.
While I agree that Lacey should see the seal, I don't think her pitch was the issue.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think the issue was, was that she discarded one of the greatest modern arrangements around, removing a sizeable amount of the song's appeal. When the doors blow the eff off the walls in the second verse of that song is when I'm in it, and when her voice cracks going into that last verse I lose my mind entirely.
http://www.youtube.com/v/o8pQLtHTPaI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Bowersox, as usual, has me, but I wish just once someone would sing Baby Can I Hold You on this show.
I'm worried for Siobhan, but I've always been wrong about when people pick House of the Rising Sun, because I always think it's the most boring song you can cover (I like the Animals version, but everything else seems to fall flat, because they nailed it) and not anything anyone would vote for, so I'm hoping I'm wrong here too.
Loved Crystal - loved how she did a song that could've been really predictable for her, right in her wheelhouse, but burst out in the second verse in a way the original didn't. I didn't like that Kara said it was easy for her - I hope she meant that Crystal makes it look easy. Because I'm sure there's a lot of work and thinking behind her choices.
ReplyDeleteDidi and Siobhan were my next two favorites. Didi did a lovely version of Rhiannon, again changing it up a bit, mostly just that it was acoustic and spare and beautifully phrased. I sure hope she stays - in retrospect, I should've done all my voting for her (I gave her a bunch), because Crystal and Siobhan don't really need my votes. Loved Siobhan's perfect a cappella opening and her control in the rest of the song - thought Simon was really wrong in saying that she didn't change anything.
Oh, Katelyn, I loved you last week, and this week you deserved Simon's comment that you sounded like Request Night at the Holiday Inn.
I'm so glad other people are annoyed by Lacey's voice - it drives me and my son crazy, though my husband thought she sounded great. I think it's that her vowels are always nasal. I like the kind of singer she's trying to be -- Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Cranberries, etc.? -- but I don't like her singing it, not one bit. I hope all the praise from the judges doesn't keep her from going home.
I have a certain affection for Katie, and wouldn't mind seeing her go forward (and my son is strongly rooting for her), but she needs to do better. I actually like her low range, and thought she sounded good and strong on the choruses, but yeah, she's not connecting with the song.
Paige was so bad, partly because she was so nervous her voice was shaking. She had these long notes where your voice needs to be full but hers was thin, she had no vibrato and no rich tone when she sang straight without vibrato, it was just bad all over.
On Lilly, I have to agree with everyone who kind of likes her but thinks she's sounding kind of samey. I was worried Crystal would do that and she isn't at all, but Lilly needs some variety. (Though then they'll say "I don't know what kind of artist you want to be." Sigh.)
ReplyDeleteVaguely related: pictures of Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo from their opening night in HAIR on Broadway last night. Mostly clothed, but the Young six-pack in attendance.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, Paul. Thanks for posting that link, I had not heard that before and... wow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteNow I'll say though, that Lacey couldn't have come CLOSE to doing justice to that arrangement, so maybe it's just as well she switched it up.
Is that the opera house from BSG?
ReplyDeleteWhen they said Crystal was doing Tracy Chapman, I thought it would be Baby Can I Hold You and I got really excited. I think she'd kill on that song. I love love love how musically authoritative she is on the stage -- she knows exactly what she's doing.
ReplyDeleteI really thought Katie was terrible on Breakaway. (It gives me additional respect for Kelly Clarkson to hear someone else with a good voice nevertheless butcher it.) Her low range in the verse was warbly and then when she hit the high notes in the chorus, she was flat. Arghh.
ReplyDeleteOr chosen "Brand New Key."
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be so weird when it's just her and Siobhan, being super-calm and zenning out American Idol, while Ryan tries in vain to get either of them to speak faster to get people excited.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, Paul. When she started singing The Story, I was rather wondering how in the world she'd be able to handle the chorus. So, she just kept it pretty low-key.
ReplyDeleteI will say this, though, for Lacey: For three of the four songs that she's performed, it's made me return to favorite versions of the songs. (Dixie Chicks' Landslide, Eva Cassidy's Over the Rainbow, and the original The Story.) While that doesn't say much for Lacey's singing, as I have no desire to own her versions of the songs, I think that it does say something positive about her taste in songs.
I think Didi & Crystal were the best of the night. Katie, Katelyn, & Paige were horrible.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what you think of my recap:
http://iamnoahjames.com/2010/03/10/idolspec-top-8-ladies-performance-show-%e2%80%93-392010/
I have to disagree with those who liked Didi's version of Rhiannon. I say this because Stevie Nicks did a wonderful acoustic version of this song on that reunion album, and even now, with her voice almost completely shot, Stevie's version was light years better than Didi's. I'm sad to say this because I remember Didi's version of Hey Jude during the auditions and I thought it was spectacular, transformational, indeed, one of the best reimaginings of a fab 4 song for me ever. Haven't heard anything like that from her since.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I like Lilly, but didn't like her massacre of Patsy Cline. The only thing I will say is that it may have just been that it was Patsy, because I genuinely like Lilly's voice. And, her performance did leave me thinking that she should mine the great american country music songbook for something that would be right for her. I think what she needs is a song by a country music female singer that is a great song, but not so recognizable that she is compared to superior singer or that is a great song done by someone who had a similarly distinctive vocal so she doesn't seem to be trying a copy. As example of the former, something like "Looking for blue eyes" by Jessi Colter (Whalen's wife), as examples of the latter, anything popular by Loretta Lynn. Or, maybe she should try the old sex change trick on a male cw song... I don't of course think any of this is likely to help her during most of the theme weeks. I hope she stays around a little longer though.
ReplyDeleteJim, your suggestion of a lesser known country song/artist for Lilly got me thinking of other country/alt-country songs for Lilly, Crystal and Didi. I was listening to a mix earlier today and would love to see someone tackle "New Favorite" by Alison Krauss and Union Station, or maybe Gillian Welch's "Revelator", but I'm not sure how it would go over with the general Idol audience (both are very subdued songs) or how the comparison to the original singer would play out. Alison Krauss is pretty well known, though I think Gillian Welch is less so.
ReplyDeleteThanks! The Schmuel song has similar lyrics which I think I have been mis-singing likely because of Breakaway.
ReplyDeleteI think that's the right line of thinking for her, and, even though beloved, Ms. Kraus's voice is distinctive enough that people might not think its a straight up impersonation. I was also thinking she might tackle a Willie Nelson song, someone else known for unusual phrasing. She'd have to go deep into the catalog though, no You were always on my mind for example, but maybe something like Help me make it through the night. I was also thinking that Pancho and Lefty might be a song for her... There is a spare acoustic arrangment for a female voice out there that I'm sure the Idol audience is not familiar with...
ReplyDeleteI wonder how she'd sound on "I'll Fly Away"?
ReplyDeleteMy husband suggested "Whiskey Lullaby," a duet between Allison Krauss and Brad Paisley. Of course, the point is now moot.
ReplyDelete