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American Idol is roaring towards its conclusion (the show clocked its biggest voting numbers last night) and this week the remaining four contestants tried to amp it up to win over the audience. Except that, even with the breadth of the songbook on offer this week (songs from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame), the two Davids, Jason, and Syesha pretty much gave limp performances. Who fumbled hardest? Hard to say. Let’s count down last night’s top five weakest moments:
5. Steely Dan Salute
The show’s group performances are always an uphill battle, but as the competition wears on, these segments seem to get worse and worse. The fab four tried their hand at Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years,” and eradicated hopes anyone might have had about the formation of an Idol super-group. The vocals were passable. What killed this thing were the clunky attempts at dancing. You could call it synchronized walking, ‘cept it wasn’t all that synchronized.
Last night the fab four selected tunes from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 most influential songs. Given the breadth of music history from which to choose, the performances showcased the competitors’ talent while revealing their own musical preferences. NOT! It seems all but Archuleta were thrown by the freedom the open-ended theme provided, choosing classics that were either out of their league or wildly inappropriate. Charm and skill may have saved Cook and Mercado, but Castro is surely head back to nowheresville – hey guy, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. More after the jump.
Gotta know the words to the songs if you’re going to sing the songs. Gotta sing the songs if you’re going to win the contest. Gotta win the contest if you’re going to be an American Idol. Smells like Jason Castro is going to be relegated to wannabe status. He messed up the lyrics to “Mr. Tambourine Man” on last night’s show. After that, it’s pretty likely his ancient, empty street’s too dead for dreaming, know what I mean?
JC shoulda hit our Lyrics site, a wonderful resource that we supply gratis to all our visitors.
Or maybe he shoulda studied the real deal in action, which you can see after the jump.
We’re getting to the good part of American Idol, the section of the season where the real-deal contestants are left (and bizarre pop culture stuff starts to emerge). The fab four - David Cook, Syesha Mercado, David Archuleta, and Jason Castro - are trying their hands at tunes from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame songbook tonight. Which singer do you think will feel most comfortable with that kind of classic material?
Better Still: Which singer is getting the boot on Wednesday night? Tell everyone why in “Comments.”
American Idol’s Neil Diamond week was a brutal trial for the young hopefuls, a chance to show just how poorly they could perform songs with which they had only the most passing of acquaintance. (“Sweet Caroline” notwithstanding, Diamond’s tunes are hardly American classics; mentorship on Idol has never seemed so much a PR opportunity as it did this week – dude’s got a new disc coming next week.)
There was no Paula craziness, and though no contestants performed perfectly, three were poorer than the rest:
Welcome to Neil Diamond week (can you tell he’s got a new disc coming out soon?). With Carly gone and only a handful of hopefuls to humiliate, our producers doubled the degradation by having the kids perform two tunes. The evening was frenzied, and its effect on the judges palpable. Simon complained that things felt strange. Paula flubbed her way into the future.Randy stayed chill, but you know, that’s how he rolls. Check it:
Poor Paula. We told you she’s a little nutso. She got a bit confused giving notes on last night’s Idoland critiqued Jason Castro on two songs, even though he had only sung one. Awkward! Did Paula just have a little brain fart, or did she accidentally read notes that some had given her a little early? Either way, it’s a classically crazy Paula moment that you’ll want to watch over and over again.
After Tuesday’s train wreck, how would the six Idol hopefuls fare? The musical theater songs of Sir Andrew Lord Webber, as the judges rightly noted, are more complex than most of the pop hits the contestants have so far taken on; the bigger voices carried the night, and the more musically adept performers seemed closest to making it to the next round. But how would America vote?
After a season of intentionally provoking our contestants into the most deliciously awkward, humiliating and shameful of situations, the producers of Idol have clearly lost all sense of restraint. On last night’s American Idol, the songs of musical theater composer Andrew Llloyd Webber served as the “music of the night.” Throughout the season, anecdotes and baby pictures have painted pictures of our contestants’ childhoods. Tonight we learned who had friends in middle school (Brooke, Carly and Jason Cook), and who spent most of afternoons organizing collections of Broadway revival programs (Syesha Mercado, David Cook). While Carly, Jason and Brooke all seemed reluctant about the theatrical challenge of this campy composer, Cook, Archuletta and Mercado were clearly up to the challenge.
Last night’s gushy balladeering won the contestants some wildly mixed reviews. Would America follow the opinions of the judges? Or, after last week’s surprise ousting of Michael Johns, make another daring decision?
Someone tell Teri Hatcher that “Idol Gives Back” is over. On last night’s episode our desperate straggler was joined in the audience by two other celebs - Minnie Driver and Ramile Malubay – who are known for skills other than singing. No doubt all three were eager to hear what the unstoppable pop icon Mariah Carey would serve up as mentor to our seven remaining hopefuls. The contestants joined her at the piano for some lessons in the method of Mimi. How did they fare as they attempted her chirpy and dramatic ditties?
