A Weird Night

Like Simon said – it was a weird night. It was overall kind of ho-hum. In order:

1) David Cook – especially the second performance. He looks like a winner and, if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. He sounds great on record. You’re right, Wanda, listening back to Mariah’s “My Baby” on the iTunes single version, I was really impressed. [more on this later]

2) Syesha – I liked her best in the first round; I liked her better in the second round – very theatrical. And, if I turn up missing for a while, I’m stalking her. I AM REALLY MAD AT SIMON FOR GIVING HER THE KISS OF DEATH!!!!

3) David A. – who I am just plain bored with. I HATE both of his songs (“Sweet Caroline” and “America”). Who didn’t see “America” coming from him? I just want him to surprise me once.

4) Brooke – oh, my girl really mangled “I’m a Believer”. “I Am, I Said” was better but only by comparison. It wasn’t that good, either, to me.

5) Jason – nice voice but bad karaoke on both

Geez, maybe Syehsa goes because of Simon’s comment at the end. Look, she’s not going to win and she shouldn’t win. But she’s better than Brooke and Jason. But I think because of Simon, Syehsa goes this week.

About the iTunes singles versions – David’s and Carly’s are VERY, VERY good! Check them out and make sure they are the “Single” version and not the “Performance” versions which are from the first few final 12 shows. The single versions are real studio recordings of their performance songs.

BTW, Carly’s 2001 album (age 17 under her maiden name Carly Hennessy) that went nowhere is also on iTunes (how smart of them). I haven’t heard any of the clips but the review was amazing.

Sayonara Kristy Lee

Justice is finally served. Now we have my top six that I started off with way back when. And each week, somebody good will go down.

However, mark my words. Kristy will get a contract; have a hit country record out of the gate; and a Kellie Pickler like start to her career. She doesn’t have Kellie’s goofy personality but she’s much, much prettier and the label will get her all the vocal coaching and styling she needs.

??????????????

WHAT THE %$$#%&(&%$%*))^%%$^*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CARLY AND SYESHA?

CARLY?

WHAT THE %$$#%&(&%$%*))^%%$^*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is easy:

1) David Cook – smart choice in deciding to show off how good his voice is

2) Carly – PERFECT song choice for her, great energy, and she can really sing

On the next level:

3) Syesha – OK, I’m in love again. Good enough (not great, not bad) vocal but best PERFORMANCE – after all, they were doing stage songs and she really brought her acting chops. Yeah, and she was hot . . . .

4) David A. – just OK, I didn’t think he connected with the song and I’m rather tired of hearing him do a ballad each week. He’s good, we get that but I‘d like to surprised in the way that David Cook can surprise us

On the bottom and one should go this week:

5) Brooke – I thought she connected with and really sold the song but just didn’t sing it that well

6) Jason

On the whole, I was more in line with Simon than any week I can remember this year.

Not the expected trainwreck

Warning – this could be a long commentary.

OK, some introductory remarks. First, I really used to love Mariah. I still think her first album is a classic for debut albums. And her Christmas CD is also a classic which was also the last album of hers I liked. Beginning with Daydream, her 4^th album (not counting the Christmas one), she began to move more towards hip-hop which really undervalues her considerable vocal talents. And then there was all the sleazy and bizarre behavior, etc.

Second, wow, for some reason tonight Kristy Lee looked a lot like my first major girlfriend. Since Christine hates Kristy Lee and hated Donna, I thought it best not to bring up the resemblance. Still, it made me fondly reminiscent . . . until she started singing, that is, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Lastly, Diandra has been taking notes each week and she had some keepers this week, especially as she channeled her inner Music Theorist. She noted early on that “Randy’s judging is particularly tentative tonight. He loves Mariah!”

Now, onto the show which was not even close the train wreck I feared. And Mariah was one of the best mentors I can remember.

David A. – strong, strong, strong. Gave me goosebumps. Diandra wrote, “Awesome melisma.” It’s a musical term. Look it up on Wikipedia like I had to.

Carly – finally didn’t over-sing and looked pretty, too. She has an amazing voice but Simon is right, she’s tentative and over-thinking too much.

Syesha – I was scared she would try to take on a big Mariah song like “Hero” (see Brooke) but she instead chose a more technically challenging song, “Vanishing”, one of my favorites. I thought she did well to avoid a Big Song, and did reasonably well. Still, I think Simon doesn’t like her and she ends up in the bottom three and could undeservedly go. I thought his criticism continues to be “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. He picks on her for choosing an unknown song but would have crushed her if she has picked a familiar song because she isn’t Mariah.

Brooke – Totally overmatched by the theme. She just wasn’t going to do well no matter what. And she didn’t. I still love her, though. But she could go.

Kristy Lee – Bad beyond words. That was like a bad song from a bad beach movie. She’s gotten enough sympathy votes. She seriously needs to go now.

David Cook – I could not DISAGREE with the judges more. What was that? I thought he was HORRIBLE. Music Theorist Diandra wrote, “Diction, phrasing, melody transposition and vocal tone all needed work.” I have no idea what any of that means but I agree with her. (serves me right for getting my children so intensely into music.) I thought it was one of worst performances of the year by anybody. I just didn’t get it at all and certainly didn’t get the judges.

Jason – I was sure he, too, would be overmatched like Brooke but I thought he did really well.

Bottom Three – Kristy and Brooke plus Syesha or Carly. Kristy should go but she’s had momentum.

Ray with assistance from Dr. Diandra, guest Musicologist

Yawn . . .

Jason Castro doing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on a ukulele is the best of the night? And I liked Kristy Lee more that David Cook? What a bizarre night.
OK, the blow-by-blow:

Michael - horrible, just horrible. He's not a rocker.
Syesha - glad my girl abandoned the "trying to look old and serious" look and went back to "young and cute". She was OK tonight but she needs to drop the big song approach and define who she is an an artist although she may not get that chance
Jason - I really liked him tonight. He HAS defined himself as being unique.
Kristy Lee - is it me or is she actually getting better? I know that's not saying much but she is getting less annoying
David Cook - what was that? He actually was terrible.
Carly - oversang and was terrible. She could go.
David A - OK, nothing great for me
Brooke - totally agree with Simon, a nice walk in the park but just OK. I would have rather heard her play the piano.

Bottom Three - Kristy Lee, Carly, Syesha although Michael deserves to be there

Diandra's Report

Sadly, I missed out on tonight. I'm in Orlando and business called in the form of an important dinner I needed to be a part of but I did actually think about bagging the dinner in favor of Idol. Apparently none of the people I was with watch Idol which does beg the question of why I am doing business with these people.

Anyway, I did stay in touch with the family via the magic of text messaging and got the usual "Ryan is hot" report from my wife. Diandra gave a more substantiative report as follows:
"Brooke and David Cook were good. David A. bought himself a ticket to the final. Carly was awesome. Mom liked Syesha. The surprise of the night? Michael Johns. I think Ramiele is gone and Kristy will go thru with flying colors 'cause it's Dolly P week. Blech."

On the other hand, I heard from my mom who didn't like Kristy Lee, Brooke and Ramiele and Jason (although she liked his song).

Your thoughts?