Finally a decent theme. How can they ruin it? Let's see...
ROUND 1
I'll just put them in order of how they went, and then grade them after each Round, shall I?
David Cook went with Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" for his first song. Duran Duran? I immediately thought of that show Rock Star and imagined Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro turning their noses up at the poser-rock song. As for the performance itself, it was kind of poser-y. Meh. Not Cookie's best by a long shot. The song itself is kind of dull, the lyric doesn't suit Cook at all and the performance was phoned in at best. But like Simon said, probably good enough to get through and certainly not the worst of the night. Oh, no, not the worst. Save that "gem" for later, shall we?
Syesha Mercado got to chit-chat with Ryan about the Tour. She said she looks forward to meeting ALL of her fans. That's thinking small, isn't it? For "Proud Mary" she chose a sexy gold dress that was reminiscent of Tina Turner. However, her solid performance was also reminiscent of Ms Turner and that's a good thing. Syesha definitely showed she can adapt to the genre and put on a great performance. The crowd went wild. I liked the nice balance of a slow first verse, then pumping it up to a rocking second verse. Blah blah from the judges, mostly. When Simon started with the "bad shrieky impersonation of Tina Turner" of course the crowd booed. Syesha doesn't care. She was all smiles standing with Ryan. She knew she had a good performance and earned some new fans.
Jason Castro chose "I Shot The Sheriff," a Bob Marley tune. Okay. He's got the look for it. But oh dear. Once he began singing, or more specifically, bleating, I realized it wasn't so much a bad song choice for him as a disastrous miscalculation. His voice is completely wrong for the Marley oeuvre. He has sounded good on other songs, but Marley's voice is deeper. Or maybe Bob has just smoked more pot than Jason. Whatever, Jason's voice was very weak and thin on this one. Not enjoyable. Randy said it was nothing special, but I think it was worse than nothing special. Paula babbled a lot, but did say something about how he played more to the audience than ever before. True. A point for that. Simon decreed, "Utterly atrocious," but then took offense to Jason's re-arrangement of the song. So hang on - rearranging is bad now? What happened to making it one's own? Following Simon's comments for Syesha slamming her for "impersonating" Tina Turner, I just want to slap Simon. Either you change it up or you imitate the best-known previous performer, there isn't a whole lot of option.
Archuleta chose "Stand by Me." Finally a song that suits him, since it reminds me of that movie with the four young boys who find a dead body. For once his voice didn't sound dreadful. I may have to rate him higher than Jason, anyway. I agree with Simon that Archie did struggle at the end, but disagree he was best of Round 1. He just wasn't the worst.
Round 1:
1. Syesha
2. Archuleta
3. David Cook
4. Jason
ROUND 2
For his second outing, David C. chose 'Baba O'Reilly' by The Who. This was an ambitious choice, but I think it may be his best performance of the season. Actually it's a perfect song choice mostly because the song contains the words "teenage wasteland." How very, very appropriate. For once, I really would have liked to hear him perform the whole song. I liked that a lot more than his first. Indeed, I liked it more than the entire first round. Well done, David C. Now I'm wondering why he wasted his first choice on Duran Duran, when there had to have been a gazillion other songs he could have rocked the house with.
Syesha's second choice was "A Change Is Gone Come" by Sam Cooke. This is more of an R&B number, soulful. I do like her a lot. This was a good showcase for her, taken together. Having said that, she would be smart to find a way to perform a song without resorting to power notes. Randy dissed her performance. Paula made Syesha cry giving her a standing ovation and telling her she's changed. Simon agreed with Paula, which was sweet. I agreed with them too. She did do a good performance. I would like to see her change up her performance style next week, is all.
Jason's second song was "Mr Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan. This was so much better, right up until he forgot the lyrics, which unfortunately occurred on about the 2nd line of the first verse. Dammit. Holy shit. And yet, I think it's Jason's last desperate act to claw his way out of this dreadful "competition." He sure is trying to get booted
. After forgetting lyrics and humming through, he then started making up lyrics. But the style
of song suited his voice ten times better than Bob Marley. Muted applausae. When Simon said, "Jason? I'd pack your suitcase," was it just me or
did Jason's face say, "It's been packed for weeks, but they won't send me home"? I still rate this higher than a few others, notably the
next number.
When Archuleta announced he'd chosen Elvis' "Love Me Tender" for his second song, I panicked. "Oh god. NO!" I was cringing during the blahblah. Then I remembered I could flip over and read the AI thread at Sucks, where almost everyone was puking over this song. Only the older gay men were giving the thumbs up. Hmmm interesting. Randy is a tad unseemly in his adoration of the Archtard. I wonder if that means he's gay? He's never been this effusive without reason before, has he? And what is up with Simon telling the kid he crushed the competition? Not in my book he didn't.
Round 2
1. David. C
2. Syesha
3. Jason
4. Archtard
COMBINED ROUNDS 1 AND 2
The two sets of ratings, one for each Round, don't quite tell the whole story. It's only when you see them combined you really appreciate what happened tonight.
These were good:
1. David C. #2
2. Syesha #1
3. Syesha #2
The rest sucked.
4. Jason #2 - yes, despite the lyric fuck-up
5. Archtard #1
6. David C. #1
7. Jason #1
8. Archtard #2 - so horrible I made an effort to tune him out. And I didn't even cheat by pressing mute.
Perhaps now the image I chose for this week's banner will make sense.
When I think back to the beginning of this season, it had so much promise. What has gone wrong? I think it was the third week, when the pimpage of the kid first started. If you like him, I suppose you're happy. But if you're a grown-up, chances are you're not enjoying seeing him over-praised for mediocre performances.
It'll soon be over. Feel free to post.
Thanks for reading.
* * *
Fans of Survivor - enjoy my weekly essay on the Half-Ass Season in the S16 forum, here.
Check out Sir Links A Lot American Idol for more articles and recaps for this show.
ROUND 1
I'll just put them in order of how they went, and then grade them after each Round, shall I?
David Cook went with Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" for his first song. Duran Duran? I immediately thought of that show Rock Star and imagined Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro turning their noses up at the poser-rock song. As for the performance itself, it was kind of poser-y. Meh. Not Cookie's best by a long shot. The song itself is kind of dull, the lyric doesn't suit Cook at all and the performance was phoned in at best. But like Simon said, probably good enough to get through and certainly not the worst of the night. Oh, no, not the worst. Save that "gem" for later, shall we?
Syesha Mercado got to chit-chat with Ryan about the Tour. She said she looks forward to meeting ALL of her fans. That's thinking small, isn't it? For "Proud Mary" she chose a sexy gold dress that was reminiscent of Tina Turner. However, her solid performance was also reminiscent of Ms Turner and that's a good thing. Syesha definitely showed she can adapt to the genre and put on a great performance. The crowd went wild. I liked the nice balance of a slow first verse, then pumping it up to a rocking second verse. Blah blah from the judges, mostly. When Simon started with the "bad shrieky impersonation of Tina Turner" of course the crowd booed. Syesha doesn't care. She was all smiles standing with Ryan. She knew she had a good performance and earned some new fans.
Jason Castro chose "I Shot The Sheriff," a Bob Marley tune. Okay. He's got the look for it. But oh dear. Once he began singing, or more specifically, bleating, I realized it wasn't so much a bad song choice for him as a disastrous miscalculation. His voice is completely wrong for the Marley oeuvre. He has sounded good on other songs, but Marley's voice is deeper. Or maybe Bob has just smoked more pot than Jason. Whatever, Jason's voice was very weak and thin on this one. Not enjoyable. Randy said it was nothing special, but I think it was worse than nothing special. Paula babbled a lot, but did say something about how he played more to the audience than ever before. True. A point for that. Simon decreed, "Utterly atrocious," but then took offense to Jason's re-arrangement of the song. So hang on - rearranging is bad now? What happened to making it one's own? Following Simon's comments for Syesha slamming her for "impersonating" Tina Turner, I just want to slap Simon. Either you change it up or you imitate the best-known previous performer, there isn't a whole lot of option.
Archuleta chose "Stand by Me." Finally a song that suits him, since it reminds me of that movie with the four young boys who find a dead body. For once his voice didn't sound dreadful. I may have to rate him higher than Jason, anyway. I agree with Simon that Archie did struggle at the end, but disagree he was best of Round 1. He just wasn't the worst.
Round 1:
1. Syesha
2. Archuleta
3. David Cook
4. Jason
ROUND 2
For his second outing, David C. chose 'Baba O'Reilly' by The Who. This was an ambitious choice, but I think it may be his best performance of the season. Actually it's a perfect song choice mostly because the song contains the words "teenage wasteland." How very, very appropriate. For once, I really would have liked to hear him perform the whole song. I liked that a lot more than his first. Indeed, I liked it more than the entire first round. Well done, David C. Now I'm wondering why he wasted his first choice on Duran Duran, when there had to have been a gazillion other songs he could have rocked the house with.
Syesha's second choice was "A Change Is Gone Come" by Sam Cooke. This is more of an R&B number, soulful. I do like her a lot. This was a good showcase for her, taken together. Having said that, she would be smart to find a way to perform a song without resorting to power notes. Randy dissed her performance. Paula made Syesha cry giving her a standing ovation and telling her she's changed. Simon agreed with Paula, which was sweet. I agreed with them too. She did do a good performance. I would like to see her change up her performance style next week, is all.
Jason's second song was "Mr Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan. This was so much better, right up until he forgot the lyrics, which unfortunately occurred on about the 2nd line of the first verse. Dammit. Holy shit. And yet, I think it's Jason's last desperate act to claw his way out of this dreadful "competition." He sure is trying to get booted
. After forgetting lyrics and humming through, he then started making up lyrics. But the style
of song suited his voice ten times better than Bob Marley. Muted applausae. When Simon said, "Jason? I'd pack your suitcase," was it just me or
did Jason's face say, "It's been packed for weeks, but they won't send me home"? I still rate this higher than a few others, notably the
next number.
When Archuleta announced he'd chosen Elvis' "Love Me Tender" for his second song, I panicked. "Oh god. NO!" I was cringing during the blahblah. Then I remembered I could flip over and read the AI thread at Sucks, where almost everyone was puking over this song. Only the older gay men were giving the thumbs up. Hmmm interesting. Randy is a tad unseemly in his adoration of the Archtard. I wonder if that means he's gay? He's never been this effusive without reason before, has he? And what is up with Simon telling the kid he crushed the competition? Not in my book he didn't.
Round 2
1. David. C
2. Syesha
3. Jason
4. Archtard
COMBINED ROUNDS 1 AND 2
The two sets of ratings, one for each Round, don't quite tell the whole story. It's only when you see them combined you really appreciate what happened tonight.
These were good:
1. David C. #2
2. Syesha #1
3. Syesha #2
The rest sucked.
4. Jason #2 - yes, despite the lyric fuck-up
5. Archtard #1
6. David C. #1
7. Jason #1
8. Archtard #2 - so horrible I made an effort to tune him out. And I didn't even cheat by pressing mute.
Perhaps now the image I chose for this week's banner will make sense.
When I think back to the beginning of this season, it had so much promise. What has gone wrong? I think it was the third week, when the pimpage of the kid first started. If you like him, I suppose you're happy. But if you're a grown-up, chances are you're not enjoying seeing him over-praised for mediocre performances.
It'll soon be over. Feel free to post.
Thanks for reading.
* * *
Fans of Survivor - enjoy my weekly essay on the Half-Ass Season in the S16 forum, here.
Check out Sir Links A Lot American Idol for more articles and recaps for this show.
