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Before I get to the music and the results, I have to say my now-annual bit about the costumes. I suppose I can appreciate the desire for something telegenic but non-identical within each group, but the colors are so ridiculously loud (the Backbeats’ outfits during “White Christmas” actually hurt my eyes), the almost-but-not-quite-matching thing is distracting and painful, and worst of all, tonight the female Backbeats looked like the greatest hits of the Judy Jetson Streetwalker Collection. When their lead singer is in a shiny dress so short I hope her mother isn’t watching, and she’s singing “I need somebody to love” to a man three times her age, I don’t know how NBC is getting away with airing this in the family hour.On to the music! I think with the mid-show elimination I have to go song-by-song tonight. Right off the bat we see what Maret was talking about with On the Rocks – Maret, are you visible in the crowd? Or interviewed? I have no idea what you look like! Their sound on the Elton John medley is really lacking in the bass – a group of 15 men should have more depth. The biggest problem here is that the soloist on “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down” completely showed up the soloist from “Bennie and the Jets” – if you don’t have two guys who can nail the falsetto, do a different song. Ben (the only judge I’m actually watching) is absolutely right about the tempo issues here – it’s very hard to get an a cappella group to keep a slow tempo, and the bigger the group, the harder it is. Some minor pitch problems in the final chord – pleasant, but they can and need to do better than this.
I come to the Committed performance a bit handicapped by not knowing any Usher songs, and thus not knowing if they’ve played these straight or put their spin on them. However, I continue to love their blend – there’s always a strong but unobtrusive anchor in the bass and percussion, the high melismas aren’t annoying, and the sound is full and warm, which takes a lot of talent with a smaller group. I also love that they never seem frenetic – they’re relaxed up there. Those jazzy chords they do give me goose bumps – its so, so hard to get those right, especially two guys doing matched runs. Fabulous.
Oh, Street Corner Symphony, I feel for you. Taking on the Beatles is hard, especially for guys who think of themselves as Southern Rockers. Here’s where I see a big difference between them and Committed – both groups are six guys, but to me Committed always sounds full and warm, whereas SCS often sounds thin and tinny. The opening of “Help” was weak, and the sound didn’t fill out until they got to the climax of “Hey Jude.” This is a group that needs another bass and another baritone. They had other issues – “Eleanor Rigby” was rhythmically all over the place and too fast, the percussion was missing from way too much of the arrangement. Not their best outing.
Yay! The Backbeats have a new soloist! And she’s great! Alas, then we’re right back to our usual. These folks still aren’t gelling for me. To me they sound like a bunch of sopranos, one bass and a killer percussionist. The whole middle range is missing in their sound – when the women sing low they all sound strained and out of their element. I ‘m not a fan, but they did fairly well with this medley. It’s hard to do stuff that’s this relentless and this musically odd without Gaga’s electronica stuff, and they acquitted themselves fairly well.
Now, why couldn’t they have given Otis Redding to the Backbeats and Lady Gaga to Talk of the Town? THAT would have shown me whether these people have outside-the-box chops. This medley has terrible transitions, but man, do I love the guy who soloed on “Try a Little Tenderness.” If we’d seen more of him throughout this competition, they might have made a better impression – relying so much on Jerry Lawson has been a mistake. These guys are great at what they do but everything sounds the same. They made “Respect” boring, despite the tempo, and had pitch issues for the first time.
I would have sent Talk of the Town home in the first round, but I have no problem with the On the Rocks elimination. The only group I thought really did a great job with these medleys was Committed – all the other struggled with pitch, speed, or transitions. OTR had issues with all 3, plus a weak soloist on one of the numbers. Valid elimination.
Can we pause for a word on the clip packages? Could we be more stereotypical? They sent the black groups to the barbershop and the basketball courts, the Californians to go shopping, and the college kids to Karaoke. Only the Southern Rockers got to go sing at a club. The hell? And a word on the Swan Songs – can’t we let these folks leave singing their best songs? Do they really all have to be “leaving” or “goodbye” or “final” themed songs? Though a little Gob Bluth reference is always ok with me.
Committed, “Let’s Stay Together”: You want degree of difficulty – this was impossibly hard. They switched soloists every two lines, and you never heard any variation or missteps in the background. That’s HARD. Just having 6 guys who can all solo – most groups have a few people whose job it is to anchor the harmonies but don’t have solo quality voices. All 6 of these guys are not only good, but no one was clearly better or worse. The harmonies were stunning here. This was a fantastic arrangement – made me smile. I hope they record this.
SCS, “Down on the Corner”: If they can’t nail this, they can’t nail anything. They came close. Their percussionist needed to be more prominent toward the end when they came to what would ordinarily be thought of as the a cappella section – those high hats need to explode. I didn’t love the middle of the arrangement, but they did a nice job with this. I still say they need two more guys – even on this, so totally in their wheelhouse , the sound is thin.
Backbeats, “Landslide”: talk about peaking at the right time. This was gorgeous. Wonderful mature blend on complex chords, and a fabulous subtle solo turn from Joanna, who I wouldn’t have thought had it in her. It’s so hard to maintain this tempo and blend standing far apart on a huge stage with individual microphones. I rewound this to watch again – only song I did that with tonight. I would love to buy a recording of this too. I’m a lot happier with their inevitable move on to the finals after this. Basically, what Ben said here – this is why I love a cappella.
TOTT, “House of the Rising Sun”: An interesting song choice – the other three groups got stuff that seemed very natural for them. This is not a song I think of as classic doowop, and I think they suffered for trying to make it so. I liked it, but it was missing some of the malevolence the song needs. (Speaking of malevolence, I’d have liked to see their take on “Eli’s Coming” but the 90 second version probably wouldn’t work.) The judges liked this better than I did.
The final four performances were much, much better than the medleys. But what a frickin’ cop out on the ending. I have nothing to say, except that there’s no way TOTT should be in this finale, and this is why they shouldn’t have been in the competition in the first place. The judges never managed to treat them like just another group.
Oh, and shut up Nicole.
