Last week the hype machine that is American Idol ran aground after the much-hyped Group 1 turned out to be largely ordinary. So things had to get better after that, right? Uh… no. It’s safe to say Group 2 turned out to be even worse than Group 1. Ouch.
Just like last week, it was a case where no one was really great. If anything, it was even worse: we have a hard time calling any of the performances last night good at all. There were good spots in some of the performances, to be sure, but the performances were not really all that confidence-inspiring.
The two performances that seem to be getting a lot of praise from some quarters are Allison Iraheta’s Alone and Adam Lambert’s (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. Let’s deal with those one at a time.
Iraheta’s song choice flew in the face of one of the Indisputable Facts of American Idol: the best version of Alone on the Idol stage was, is, and forever will be Carrie Underwood’s. Period. Now, to her credit, Iraheta didn’t do as badly as others have in the past. She commands the stage with an ease that you don’t expect to see this early. Keep in mind she’s doing this at the age of 16 – has any teenager showed better stage presence? Probably not recently, if ever.
That said, Alone is a song that will expose any and all deficiencies in a singer’s vocals. In some spots, Iraheta was shouting that song, not singing it. Even when she was singing it, she was just powering through it with not much subtlety, as if she took a sledgehammer to the song. As far as I’m concerned, Iraheta’s performance is the most overrated of the current AI season.
Adam Lambert… where do I begin? He got things off to bad start for me when he stared a little too deeply into the camera at the start. It reminded us of Constantine Maroulis, which is rarely, if ever, a good comparison. And then the singing itself… well, when he was singing and not screeching, it was pretty good.
The singing is almost irrelevant, though, because of the theatrics. The last time I saw anyone like this would be… Taylor Hicks, in his full Soul Patrol mode. However, for me, it’s about the singing first, theatrics second. The theatrics were so over the top, it distracted from the singing – not enhanced it. Color me not impressed. Unless he proves he can really sing – which I don’t think he did this week – this whole manic act might wear thin sooner rather than later.
If Iraheta and Lambert were over-rated, then I think there were two singers that were actually pretty good – and both tended to get lost in the shuffle. Kara was right, the first half of Kris Allen’s Man In The Mirror, but by the second half it was surprisingly good. It would be interesting to see what he’d do with less nerves, and, maybe, better song choice. Unfortunately, that’ll be unlikely to happen – anothe reason to hate the new semifinal format.
The other underrated performance was Jesse Langeth’s Bette Davis Eyes. Randy was off-base when he criticized her for the limited range – not every singer needs to be Whitney or Mariah who can sing in more octaves than there are fingers in a hand. There’s definitely some real artistry and subtlety there that I just didn’t find elsewhere tonight. Vocally, there were some rough bits, but overall, she did a great job of expressing who she is as an artist – better than anyone else in the group, I thought. Langeth possibly has the biggest overall potential upside of anyone left – if she can make it past this week.
If those four constituted the “best” of the night, then we had four more people in the Muddled Middle. Mishavonna Henson, Meghan Corkrey, Kai Kalama, and Matt Brietzke all turned in the equivalent of musical wallpaper. Brietzke and Kalama’s singing was actually decent, but dull. Henson was, if anything, worse: she was boring and the singing was off in places.
Our biggest disappointment, however, was Corkrey: in a night of boneheaded song choices, she ran into a gigantic land mine when she picked Corinne Bailey Rae. Yes, she did better than the only other person to do Put Your Records On – but when that person is Antonella Barba, there’s no other direction but up. However, the song is something of a trap – it’s not a song which demands a power voice, which makes people think it’s easy to sing. But it isn’t – it’s a very quirky, unique song that works for Corinne Bailey Rae, but not anyone else.
Worst of the night was, easily, the first three singers. Have we Idol viewers ever been subjected to three worse songs in a row to open a show? Jasmine Murray, Matt Giraud, Jeanine Vailes – you three are, collectively, 2009′s first entry into the Sanjaya Zone! Sit beside your fellow inductees Sanjaya Malakar and half of the girls in last year’s top 20 to be “honored” for achievements in musical horror. Songs that didn’t fit, mediocre singing (at best)… let’s not waste any more time. I almost wanted to take a page out of the Elvis playbook and shoot the TV.
What about Nick Mitchell, a.k.a Norman Gentle? He isn’t really playing the same game as everyone else. I never thought I would say this, but: I was glad to see him come on. After the last three disasters, we needed some entertainment – and he was entertaining. Should he go any further? No, but Nick wasn’t playing the same game everyone else was. He’s gold for any comedy club that wants him for the next few months or so. G
Enough about Hollywood week!: The judges – Kara, in particular – seem to love to refer to how the contestants did in Hollywood. Is it too much to ask them to stop unless we viewers at home actually heard what they’re talking about? Thanks to the shenaningans of the editing team, the Hollywood episodes were sadly lacking in actual singing. You’re there, in theory, to give critiques to help the viewers at home. So how can I, and everyone else watching, refer to events we didn’t see at all? It’s ridiculous.
Quick thought about the judges: Media reports have it Paula isn’t particularly pleased by the fourth judge, and Kara is, quote, “disappointed”. Boy, Paula and Kara looked awfully awkward last night, didn’t they?
Up in the air: Well, picking the top guy and top girl is pretty easy: that’ll be Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert. Both had love-it-or-hate-it quantities – particularly Lambert – but they’ll get enough votes to make it to the finals easily.
The third slot, though, well, just about anyone can make it. I can’t even rule out Normund Gentle. Only Jeanine Vailes is probably completely screwed and out of it. That said, I would like either Jesse Langseth or Kris Allen to make it to the finals – but even if betting on reality TV was legal, I wouldn’t put any money on it. If I had to pick one of the two… Kris Allen, largely because the preliminary What Not to Sing numbers are better for him.
The Idol Guy picks: Lambert, Iraheta, and Allen to advance.
