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Finally! It’s time for American Idol to get really good. It’s time for the Top 12 to come out swinging and fight each other for a spot in the finals.
It’s a two hour show tonight, I just hope I have the stamina to sit through it all.
The new set debuts tonight. It’s pretty freaking fantastic. Space agey and futuristic. I wish I had a fraction of the budget they spent on lighting to just go out and spend on myself.
The Lennon/McCartney songbook has been opened up for the first time on Idol. So it’s a night celebrating The Beatles.
Syesha Mercado is the first contestant to take the stage. She picked “Got To Get You Into My Life” from Revolver. I can’t say I’m really thrilled with the big band treatment the band has come up with. She seems to be having a bit of trouble with the key at the beginning. Syesha looks great tonight, with her skinny jeans and tamed hair. Vocally, she performed as well as she has any other week. She’s got a nice voice, but she’s not necessarily the strongest of the group. Simon thought she looked a bit nervous.
Chikezie is second out of the gate. He thought he was going home last week. So did a lot of other people. He’s picked “She’s a Woman” from the Lennon/McCartney songbook. If you can believe this, it’s starting as a bluegrass arrangement. There’s a banjo and fiddle. I’m not making this up. The full band came in and all hell seems to have broken loose on stage. It’s frantic and stuttered and manic. It’s also pretty good. What the hell!? Simon is really surprised to be agreeing with Randy and Paula who loved the performance.
Ok. The new set seems to be pumped full of Nitrus Oxide. They are all as high as Paula now.
Ramiele Malubay has to follow up that bit of madness without a commercial break. She’s picked one of the prettiest songs out of the songbook, “In My Life.” It’s a pretty sedate and frankly, boring, version. She’s stuck exactly to the melody and arrangement. Randy just said it was boring and just “laid there.” Paula called it “safe.” Simon said he was “bored to tears throughout the entire song.”
Jason Castro, one of my favorites, is singing one of my favorite Beatles songs, “If I Fell.” I love when plays the guitar and has that whole sensitive singer-songwriter vibe going on. His falsetto notes weren’t always dead on the pitch, but it was all very nice. Randy didn’t like the melodic changes. I did. I thought they were good choices. He certainly connects to a song emotionally, which is the point Paula tried to make. Simon thought it was good enough to move him forward, but not as good as last week.
Carly Smithson is up next. She’s performing “Come Together.” There is just no denying that Carly has got a fantastic voice and sense of style. UMB hates how she phrases a lot of songs, but I’m a huge fan. This was another great performance from Carly. She’s picked the perfect song for her, she’s got the style sewn up and she knocked it out of the park. Simon compared her to Kelly Clarkson standing in the same spot in the Top 12.
David Cook has chosen “Eleanor Rigby.” This is The Beatles as filtered through Fall Out Boy. Once again he has taken a sedate song and turned it a giant rock anthem that I can totally hear being a current radio hit. This interpretation is even better than last week’s “Hello.” Fucking killer. His vocals are great, his musicianship is stellar. Simon said, “If this show remains a talent competition rather than a popularity contest” David could very well win.
My girl, Brooke White is up next. I look forward to seeing her performance every week. She’s picked “Let It Be,” arguably the best Beatles song. She’s once again seated at the piano. She didn’t change the melody up much at all, but unlike Ramiele, I found myself hanging on every note. She’s got such a great vibe and connection to the song and the audience. She was in tears at the end of the song. A singer who can connect emotionally to a song will sell that emotion to the audience. The judges loved it. Simon thinks it was the best performance so far, and she’s had three fantastic weeks in a row.
David Hernandez picked “I Saw Her Standing There.” Not very believable in light of the whole gay stripper thing, but whatever. If his only issue was believability, it would be ok. He’s nasally and seems to be out of breath. The song choice was terrible, the performance was cheesy and not in a way that you could classify it as campy and therefore fun. It was just weak and icky. “Weak and Icky???” Randy didn’t like it. Paula thought he “overdid it” and put too many runs in it. Simon called it “corny verging on desperate.”
Amanda Overmyer picked “You Can’t Do That,” definitely a lesser known Beatles song from one of their earliest albums. She’s having a great time performing this song. She’s not having any pitch issues like she has had in the past. I really liked this performance. It was done really well. Loved the Ray Charles-esque arrangement. Randy and Paula loved it. Simon didn’t like it nearly as much as last week, but she’s like a “breath of fresh air” and the competition needs her.
Michael Johns is next. He picked “Across The Universe.” He picked a very “current” and popular song, with the recent movie and single on the radio. Rufus Wainwright has also covered this in the recent past. It was a pretty solid performance of the song, not varying from the original arrangement or melody much, if any. Paula thought it was brilliant. Simon and Randy not so much.
Kristy Lee Cook is up with “Eight Days a Week.” She’s done a “country” version of this song that was really fast and pretty corny. I expected Roy Clark to come out and start telling ugly wife jokes. The judges were definitely not impressed. Not even Paula could compliment this performance. Simon called it “ghastly.” I think this is bad enough to send her home. Even though she has a country fan base.
David Archuleta is up with “We Can Work It Out.” And uh oh right off the bat he lost the lyrics. That’s usually the KISS OF DEATH for a contestant especially at this stage of the competition. It will be interesting to see how this affects him, the favorite to win, to lose the words. The performance was just ok… he was really nervous and he tried to tackle the Stevie Wonder cover. Simon called it a “mess.” It’s the first real criticism Simon has lobbed at David this season.
Here’s the recap:
Safe:
Chikezie
Jason Castro
Brooke White
Carly Smithson
David Cook
Amanda Overmyer
Michael Johns
David Archuleta
Danger Danger:
Syesha Mercado
Ramiele Malubay
Bye Bye:
Kristy Lee Cook
or
David Hernandez
So what do you all think? Who’s going home?
