Tuesday, May 19, 2009

LOVING THE MOTLEY CRUE T-SHIRT: Man, it is astonishing how much Carrie Underwood has developed as a live performer since her days as the FemBot on Season Four. And, um, that might be the most positive thing we have to say about tonight's Final Two performance show. Let's get to it.

I: SING IT AGAIN, SAM.

Adam: First off, I love the audition footage they dusted off for the intro package, especially with both Adam and Kris professing that each would be T.N.A.I. As for "Mad World," a bit too much on the dry ice, but it's a lovely song that Lambert, as before, aced. See, America? He doesn't have to screech! As for Kris, the nicest parts about his performance were the pauses. He's got a great way with his phrasing; he knows how to sell a song, and even without the greatest natural tools he knows how to maximize what he's got.

Here's a question: who's more poorly dressed -- Randy Jackson in that fugly suit, or Hokey Gokey rocking the plain white t?

Kim: Good lord, Randy's suit is Public Offender #1. Gokey's just broke from paying off the thousand dollar leather jacket from last week. And while Simon and Randy were busy vacillating between Phantom of the Opera and Twilight, they completely missed the fact that Lambert had in fact come to the party dressed as Neo. The smoke machine and the blue light were more than a little excessive, but yeah, "Mad World" was more or less the same as it was last time around for those of us who saw it. And having seen the rest of the show before writing this, I actually have a huge gripe with this song selection. When I heard he was doing "Mad World," I immediately said "ah, cool, this means a new uptempo rocker from Simon Fuller or at least a reworkable tune from Kara and her co-writers." Given what came later, I would never have picked a crooner for Adam's reprise. As for Kris, I loved the fact that he changed up his own "Ain't No Sunshine" a bit from the last go-round. The big piano instead of the keyboard, not bringing the guys from the band front and center with him (oh wait, we're saving that bit for his second number) -- Kris's reprise felt fresh in a way that Lambert's didn't.

II. SIMON FULLER IS AN IDIOT.

Kim: Well, Lambert's 2009 "A Change is Gonna Come" was certainly different from his 2004 version. I sat there the entire time thinking didn't I see this on youtube already? I have a little confession: I don't like this song. I'm sure that flags me as a social reactionary or something, but I don't like the song and, whether relatedly or not, didn't particularly care for Adam's performance of it. And then when we got "What's Going On" for Kris -- well, heck, what's with the social consciousness thing? Kris had the "this feels small" problem on this one that I was worried he might. (And, incidentally, I should have credited Mr. Cosmo with first coming up with this concern.)

Adam: I'm just going to assume that the people who don't like Adam will find his "A Change Is Gonna Come" indulgent. I guess I was hoping for that little wink that acknowledged the gravity of the change Sam Cooke was singing about and which Lambert presumably was connecting with in his own interpretation. But he cut both the "too hard living but I'm afraid to die" and "go downtown"/"don't hang around" verses, the latter of which especially would have brought that home, and so what we were left with was a song sung well but without the depth that could have made it transcendent. What change, Adam? And, yes, interesting that they gave both Kris and Adam social protest songs. Gawd, Kara is stoopid; I'm so distracted that I can barely evaluate Kris' performance. Okay, it was nice, but there was no greatness to it.

III. THE ROSES AND THE PONIES AND THE RAINBOWS.

Adam: First off, a non-rainbows and ponies thought: I think it's cruel -- but amusing as hell -- to do a group shot of the Fallen Idols and not tell Scott where the camera is.

Back to the roses and mountains. I hate these songs, except when Fantasia blew us away with "Believe" back in Season Three. Adam did what he could with it, singing it the way it was meant to be sung (to be used behind the pregame package of NBA Finals Game 1, presumably). Have they ever had them sing the same song back-to-back before? For the first time in a long time, I felt like the song was bigger than Kris -- I didn't think his voice was as big as the chorus needed it to be. If Kris loses this competition, it shouldn't be because he can't excel in a crappy inspirational pageant song, but because America thinks Adam has earned over the course of this competition the right to be the next pop superstar slightly more so than Kris has. Kris wasn't better tonight, but mostly because of a song he never should have had to sing to prove his worth.

Kim: Ugh. This is a particularly bad song even among the universe of bad songs that have been written for this event. I disagree with Adam, though -- even though Lambert technically sang the song better than Kris did, I think the song was more suited to Kris's style and thus I liked the Kris version a smidge better. Who cares, though, the song sucks. And it also sucks that they ended the already somewhat sucky show with this sucky song. I didn't get the sense during the show that the judges were consciously trying to throw Kris under the bus, but maybe the song order reflects something of a positioning for Adam.

IV. FOUR MONTHS AND SIX DAYS LATER . . .

Kim: I like Kris, I respect Kris and what he's accomplished this season, and I look forward to the prospect of Kris having a long and successful musical career. But for me there's only been one American Idol this season, and so my 20-minutes-worth of voting went to Adam Lambert.

Adam: Neither contestant "won" this tonight in the same way Jordin clearly wrestled the title from Blake two years ago. I'm voting for Adam based on the whole of the season, but both men, properly promoted, can have real music careers in a way that I'm not sure David Cook ever will.
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And so that's it. We may be a little late in getting started on the CoverItLive-powered real-time rumination on the finale. (Recorder recitals and Girls Nights Out occasionally get in the way of important things like blogging.) But we'll get here as soon as we can, and it's not like there will be any results prior to sometime well after 10 pm anyway, so bring your popcorn and enjoy the festivities with us!

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