Conventional Wisdom had it that disco night would not go down well. After all, with the exception of Adam Lambert, none of the group was particularly qualified to handle the… unique aspects of disco music.
As it turned out, however, the whole Top 7 was taking a correspondence course from the Lewis-Cook School of Theme Avoidance. Did anyone really do a straight-up disco night? They didn’t, and that was a great example of musical savviness that we haven’t seen much of this year… up until last night.
Best of the night – surprisingly – was Kris Allen. It was definitely not the standard way to do She Works Hard For the Money – but it worked brilliantly. It was a very relaxed, laid-back vibe to the song that reminded us of of a Jason Castro on good form. As Kara said: it’s hard to believe it was a Donna Summer original. Well done, and perhaps his best performance to date. It’s a pity, though, that the judging was full of references to cross-dressing – which was a distraction, to say the least.
Adam Lambert was supposed to be the best at disco music, but curiously he went back to his restrained self with If I Can’t Have You. It was a good performance – controlled vocals, good job with the emotions… but style-wise it was quite similar to his earlier ballad efforts. (Note: since the Top 11, Adam has always alternated his pace – a fast song one week, then a slow one the next.) Still, overall, a good effort, not what people expected… maybe not what he should have done. It still gets the second best performance of the night, though.
It’s pretty clear that one’s opinion of Allison Iraheta’s Hot Stuff depends on what one thinks of the arrangement. I thought it was okay – though it seemed to have suffered even more than usual at the hands of the Idol editors to fit it in the allotted time. Still, the vocals were in the same league as Adam or Kris, but it just wasn’t as well put together. Great effort, but just a bit short.
Danny wins the dubious award of Most Overpraised performance of the night. It wasn’t a bad performance per se, but all that praise had me wondering if the judges and me were in the same universe. (Except for Simon.) It didn’t sound particularly stand out to me vocally, and the whole performance smacked of extremely well-done karaoke.
Matt Giraud improved over last week… but that’s not saying much. Like Danny, Matt’s version of Stayin’ Alive wasn’t the most original or groundbreaking performance around. It was decent, entertaining… and not much else.
That’s better than could be said for Anoop Desai, though. It was… strange. The vocals weren’t bad per se, it just that it didn’t fit together into a coherent song very well. Like Danny again, this felt like karaoke – except that it wasn’t even good karaoke, with a strange arrangement.
Lil is again occupying the cellar with I’m Every Woman. It wasn’t as execrably bad as some of her other efforts have been, but… this was the most karaoke of karaoke performances. It was a classic case of making up bad singing with energy – but that’s something which just shouldn’t be the case this deep into the competition. Not good enough for any stage of the finals, let alone past the halfway point.
Overall, it was a pretty decent night. The top three really stood out and made their presence felt. They took what might have been a difficult theme and made it work pretty well for them. Even the rest of the field was decent, and even the “bad” performances like Anoop and Lil weren’t utter trainwrecks; they may not have made much sense (musically), but the vocals weren’t decent. This week was the first sign of life this season has seen in a while. (I’ll have more on this for our full-up analysis piece later in the week.)
Double Trouble: Honestly, if you read last week’s ranking this week shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Within reason, those who have been good up to this date stayed good, while those who were bad stayed awful.
The obvious pick to go home is Lil. She was no good this week, and she’s been in the bottom three for two past weeks. It’s time for her to go home.
As for the other slot… it’s either going to be Anoop or Matt. That one is pretty clear. It’s going to be another fanbase battle, and I have to give the advantage to Matt there: his fanbase is probably the most energized in Idol history. Getting saved by the judges produces what is essentially a bottom three bounce writ large.
Anoop, on the other hand, was not as good as Matt (although, to be fair, not a lot separated them), and just as importantly his fanbase has not really been there: even when he’s been good of late he’s ended up in the bottom three. This week, without even the benefit of a good performance to save him… his time is up.
The Idol Guy picks: Anoop and Lil to go home.
Tags: Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta, Anoop Desai, Danny Gokey, Kris Allen, Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud, Performance night
I soooooo heart Kris Allen… I like his disco night performance. I agreed with you when you compared him with “Jason Castro in good form..”
for me adam lambert was the best of the evening!crazy vocals.kris is second.