Idol Idol Damn

[koganbot]

Got home late, watched 'em all on YouTube, Brooke, David, and Jason are still the only three I care about, Syesha ran her voice 'round several ferris wheels and impressed the judges but not me, Ramiele lost her voice and the judges sympathized and I couldn't tell the difference, Michael Johns sang "We Are The Champions" with no swish but with volume, judges thought it was a breakthrough, Kristy Lee Cook actually found a way to be husky and OK on "God Bless The USA," though she's still a mediocrity, Chikezie went for smoke and lust but doesn't have the voice for it, Carly Smithson's pipes are just too rigid to make "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" sing, as it were, but I liked her for pulling out all the stops, and I'll be sad if this is her swan song but am afraid that the judges may have swayed voters to give Kristy and Michael one more chance. So:

Brooke White "Every Breath You Take": False start, then she's fine, quietly lets the intensity of the song speak through her, then the accompaniment rushes in and whooshes her away and wrecks the mood. The judges were spot-on for once, though the first part of this was still better than anyone else on the show can do.

David Archuleta "You're The Voice": Last week I was saying he couldn't emote in the deep register but he's OK deep tonight; I don't like the song but he's on top of it. Still wish he'd emphasize beauty rather than energy.

Jason Castro "Fragile": His voice is as sketchy as ever and as natural and comfortable, and I don't mind where it sounds torn.

David Cook "Billie Jean": A lot of gall to do the deep ruminative Soundgarden thing on this one. A lot of gall. I have to give the fucker credit. Holds the mood. Damn. (Link.)

(But David's not pretending to the originality that the judges credit him with, since Ryan tells us that David's basing his version on this one.)

Comments

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Oooh! This is SO the question for me to answer. Check out 'Think' from the third round of semi finals, 'Come Rain or Come Shine' from 1950s week, 'Who Wants To Live Forever' from Queen week (vocals quite suspect but the performance and lights are AMAZING), 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' from Songs from the Top 10 week, and 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' from Top 3, judges' choice round.

Paid up and card-carrying McPhan reporting for duty. I bought her album and everything.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

PS. 'Someone To Watch Over Me' from Great American Songbook week was pretty good, too.

[koganbot]

What did you think of the album? I remember when it streamed on AOL Listening Party that I thought the songs were good and that she was singing really intelligently, using her vocal apparatus without wallowing in melisma etc., but that somehow I wasn't connecting.

(Also was flustered by the fact that four different performers released four different songs called "Over It" within two months of each other.)

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

I liked it. I mean, I recognise that it wasn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I was happy enough with the end result. I'm possibly the only person in the world who unashamedly likes 'Open Toes'. Actually, I think I had the opposite reaction to most people, because the most common response that I heard was that people hated the R&B-type songs and preferred the big ballads, but I thought that some of the ballads were a bit bland and drippy, and preferred songs like 'Love Story' and 'Do What U Do'. I'm quite fond of 'Everywhere I Go' (particulary the middle eight). But on the grounds that I was still listening to the album quite regularly at least three months after I bought it, I figured she must have definitely done something right.

I do understand what you mean about not connecting with it, though. I think for me it was a fine pop album, but it could've been anyone's fine pop album, and that was kind of disappointing. I would've liked a bit more of a McPhee trademark on there somewhere.

[koganbot]

I was under the impression that everyone around me was liking "Open Toes," though now that I reflect on it, what I mean by "everyone around me" is everyone around me who has an opinion on Kat McPhee, which is skyecaptain and maybe three other people. I liked "Over It" straight off because it sounded so much like JoJo's "Too Little Too Late" (not surprising since the two songs were written by the same people), but I also kept saying to myself "'Too Little Too Late' is better." (Of course, "Open Toes" managed to combine writers who wrote about two-thirds of Britney's "Blackout": the Clutch and Danja and DioGuardi. And my sub-sub-subgroup of humanity pores over the doings of Kara DioGuardi.)