Wednesday, April 27, 2011
I FELT THE EARTH MOVE UNDER MY FEET because stretching out six finalists into 90 minutes by adding three duet numbers in an unexciting genre (The Songs of Carole King) left me so bored that I sensed the earth's rotation while sitting on the couch. Even the show's two best moments -- the Casey/Haley duet and Durbin's davidcookian take on "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" -- have to be placed in quotes, because it's so been there, done that at this point. I agree with Dan that the final James/Jacob duet was a travesty, but that's the only other remarkable thing about a show the leaves me wondering if anything other than habit is keeping me in this until the James/(Someone Country) finals. So read Ann Powers on Idol, women and contemporary music, and I'll see you in what I expect to be a short comment thread.
I'm going to come out and admit I actually enjoyed tonight's episode. Possibly more than any other overall episode this season. It probably helped that like Carole King's music. Plus, with the exception of Jacob and the James/Jacob duet they were all pretty strong performances.
ReplyDeleteJames and Lauren were tops for me, then Haley, Casey and Scotty. Was I imagining it or did Scotty seem to be holding the mic a little better tonight?
Really liked the Haley/Casey duet and the Lauren/Scotty duet (I love Up on the Roof). The James/Jacob duet was truly a debacle.
Rooting for Jacob to head home tomorrow night.
On a side note, Pia Toscano performed on Dancing With the Stars last night. If you missed it, don't worry -- it was pretty much the exact same performance she gave every week on Idol except it was on ABC and people were dancing. Even that didn't make her interesting or entertaining. That girl is a complete snooze.
I think James Durbin just won American Idol. That was easily my favorite performance of the season, and it was pretty much a breakthrough for him, like Kris singing Heartless or Falling Slowly. Scotty peaked too early, and has now plateaued. And between the two, James is the more interesting performer... which should help him in these last few weeks.
ReplyDeleteI found Scotty almost unlistenable. He took no advice about making the song seem more intimate, and instead just went full bore on it and ruined it for me. And I couldn't even listen to his duet for the same reason. Everyone else had good moments last night; agreed that James is really coming on strong.
ReplyDeleteI'd say James won the night by a huge amount. My one regret is that the rehearsal footage let us in on a fair amount of the arrangement.
ReplyDeleteI'd put Scotty next. I thought that his voice sounded good---thanks in part to Babyface, who can visit Idol any time he wants, as far as I'm concerned. And the song made sense emotionally in a way that he doesn't always manage.
I have Lauren next. She had good energy, and I do like her voice. Even if her being on the show did inflict Miley Cyrus on me.
[gap]
Haley. Parts of the song were good, and she gets points for degree of difficulty. But the pacing was off, and she really couldn't keep up with the faster parts.
[large gap]
Casey: please stop yelling at me. Feel free to replace all yells and growls with light piano playing.
Jacob: he sounded awful. Why did he start the song in such a high register.
So, the three frontrunners deserve to be safe this week. The bottom three should be filled with the usual suspects. I hope Jacob goes home, and wouldn't really mind if he took Casey with him.
Ponderous, man, just ponderous.
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