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

[koganbot]

Oh Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. The man has only been writing songs professionally for 48 years. Even not having paid attention to the last 35 of those, I can "find" two songs in a snap.

How about "I'm A Believer"? "Solitary Man"? "Cherry Cherry"? "I Thank The Lord For The Night Time"? I think you'd like those.

(Have you ever heard the Romantics' "What I Like About You"? It has become a staple at sports arenas in the U.S. It's basically a clumsy reworking of "Cherry Cherry.")

But I'm not sure how Brooke White is going to convince listeners that she's a solitary man. Oddly, though, the person who I think could put it over is David Cook. Giving it more growl than sorrow might work. Could compensate for last week's awful performance.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I think Brooke could do OK on a song in the "Song Sung Blue" type vein.

[koganbot]

Actually, that's what I was thinking - going on the basis of "Let It Be," she could be good at delivering another person's sap with conviction, as long as she avoided the temptation to make the song big. For her, "Solitary Man" would probably be too overemotional already as to how it's written, could throw her into caricature.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I don't know any of those except I'm A Believer, only cos of the Monkees. Of course I know What I Like About You, though - it's a teenpop cover staple!

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

But now I've listened to Solitary Man, I know it - it was covered by H.I.M, a Finnish rock band!

[koganbot]

And H.I.M.'s version (or should I say H.I.S. version?) isn't that different in effect from Neil's! Interesting thing was that Neil had a very minor hit with it back in 1966 and then it was rereleased in 1970 and did well. That's almost as big a gap as the one separating the two times "Space Oddity" hit in the UK.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're very similar. I always thought it was oddly catchy for that band. If David C has heard this he'll certainly know what to sing on Tuesday.