Pale-and-washed-away-and-left-for-dead Week on Idol

[koganbot]

Finally watched this week's Idol clips. Was this the worst Idol week ever? Last week's was almost as bad, and I recall Beatles 2 being lousy, but this was as disengaged as I've ever felt.

Brooke White: Unfortunately took Andrew's advice and overacted the dying-swan effect, but was bearable.

David Cook: Completely a fish out of water, would not even have been good enough for a third-rate dinner theater in Petaluma. (Nothing against Petaluma, mind you, where I've never been.) This was just wrong, totally wrong.

Jason Castro: Weak. Terribly weak. Pale and washed-away and left for dead weak. Should've accompanied himself on the ukulele and maybe his puniness would have muscled its way through. Have there ever been such bad performances as this and David C's this late in the tournament? This is only the second year I've paid much attention, so I don't know. I remember Sanjaya's final couple of performances last year actually being pretty reasonable.

Carly Smithson: OK. She's at home, rocks it and stomps it, but home is still average bar-band soul.

Syesha Mercado: Is right with the rhythm but she has zilch personality to give it, despite her alleged "animation" this evening. I always feel like I'm hearing a simulation.

David Archuleta: Sweet, nice, ok...zzz...zzz.

Bearable: Carly, Brooke
Bearable if you've been restricted to a spice-and-herb-free diet: David A., Syesha
Blood was extracted and replaced by condensed milk: David C., Jason

But I don't see any great injustice in Carly's being voted off. Her voice is too emotionally blocked to convey much personality, even if she's got volume and energy. Of course Syesha is twice as bad at projecting emotion and personality or much of anything, and she ought to go down next week but I wouldn't be surprised if they take away Brooke instead.

Comments

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I thought Jason was really terrible, but yes, a rotten week. ALW's advice was mostly laughable - "Try it unanimated. Now try it animated. Okay, we're going with that version." Thanks, Andrew - so we're not going to deliberate sing it with as little life and expression as possible, then? I've not seen results yet, but judging the Davids' surprising popularity, I can see it being between Jason and Brooke - I hope Jason goes.

[koganbot]

Are you going to watch the results show? If so, I won't give it away. I will say that despite Jason's terrible performance, it would be a bad thing if he went: he's absolutely, inimitably himself, usually he gets a reasonably pleasant performance out of his sketch of a voice and his lackadaisical air, sometimes better than pleasant, and he's the one performer this year (maybe any year) who puts himself at odds with the show's vaunting of professionalism. He's a stoner, not a punk, but in the context of the show he's almost a symbol of resistance. (Not that resistance necessarily makes better music than professionalism - it usually makes worse - but with Brooke being the only talent with pro potential whom I actually care about this year, Jason's a nice counterbalance to the whole thing. But man he sucked this week.)