It’s 50s night with Barry Manilow as The Arranger. Let’s get to it:
Mandisa has a yellow tongue. She might want to see a doctor about it. Her uvula is also intact. That’s what I learned last night from the final notes of “I Don’t Hurt Anymore.” It’s a bit of a torch song, I suppose, and Mandisa dressed and tried to act the part. I don’t think she made it all the way there, but the judges did.
The makeup people went nuts last night. Mandisa was just the start of the inch-thick makeup trend for the women.
In any case, she did a decent enough job with the song, and everyone will remember the last thirty seconds when the power came in, so she’s safe.
Paula called her a “thoroughbred.” Randy sounded hoarse. What an odd start to the night.
Bucky Covington sang “Oh Boy,” a song with roughly five notes in it. It would be a cinch to whip through the song in a round of GUITAR HERO. It was a boring repetitive song, and Bucky was a boring, repetitive singer. He paced back and forth on the stage, occasionally bending his knees to look interesting. He swapped the microphone from hand to hand a bunch of times. In my notes, I wrote “high school talent show performance.” Obviously, Simon is rubbing off on me.
Randy and Paula were quickly exposed as frauds, too, when they tried to champion the performance and then backed away from the praise as soon as Simon pointed out how bad Bucky was. Ryan asked the judges what Bucky could do better next week, and all of a sudden, Randy and Paula were rushing to sound like they found the performance disappointing or weak.
The judges are getting weirder and weirder. Paula had a strong showing during the auditions, but is crumbling in the live shows now. Pity. Can’t we get a vocal coach on the show to act as a judge?
Paris Bennett did “Fever,” which could easily have been the equal of Fantasia’s original “Summertime” performance. She went for it, and got about 90% there. It’s not really fair to compare her to one of the Top Ten performances of all time on IDOL, though. On its own, Paris’ performance was strong, memorable, and powerful. She played around enough with the song to make it her own, which just started another trend for the episode.
Chris Daughtry redid Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line.” (I didn’t think we’d get “Ring of Fire,” but I hoped for it.) Yes, he wore all black, and then reinterpreted the song as something sounding like alternative rock. It worked well. He missed a couple of notes (flat), and he admitted at the end to “turning around” a couple of lyrics, but I didn’t notice that. This is the first real example we’ve had this season of a contestant going the ROCKSTAR: INXS route of remaking a song in their own image. It worked, and he’ll be rewarded for it. This is what IDOL needs more of - not just good singers, but ones who know a little about music.
(I’m seeing rumors on-line already that another band did this version of the song, and that it isn’t original to Chris. I’ll keep hunting that down. . .)
So - not his best vocal, but a great performance.
Katharine McPhee had the best vocal of the night with “Come Rain or Come Shine.” It’s a tricky song that ranges all over the place, but she hit every note. No other contestant can claim that last night. Her only weakness is in her performance. She worked towards pulling off something a little sultrier than usual, but her walk was unconvincing. She paced across the stage constantly looking down to check her step, instead of strutting like a confident siren.
The makeup people, prone to an abundance of the latest product, worked wonders with Katharine. It might have been a little heavier than her usual, but it wasn’t obnoxious like it was for Kelly Pickler. It’s the best she’s looked so far. It helps that she wasn’t wearing a maternity gown for a change, too.
The oddest moment of her performance, though, might have been the interview with Ryan afterwards, where she attempted to prove that the double-sided tape was keeping her safely in her dress. Ryan told her to wait for the break. Smart man.
Taylor Hicks was the biggest disappointment of the night, if only because we’ve come to expect so much from him. I never realized before how simple and repetitive a song “Not Fade Away” is. Sure, it has a nice sax solo in it and an easy beat to get into, but it’s not a good IDOL song. Like Bucky’s, it ran the musical gamut from A to B. (Yes, that’s a Dorothy Parker paraphrase there.)
His saving grace is that he’s memorable and interesting on stage. Though he sang the same three lines for three minutes, he also kept things interesting with his dancing and stage presence.
I think there was also a problem with this song — and a couple of others — where the music was mixed in too loudly with the vocals. That made it tough to hear the singer clearly at all times.
It launched Paula into a near giggle fit, though, so maybe I’m completely wrong. Or maybe she’s upped the dose of whatever she’s taking. . .
Lisa Tucker sang “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” well. It felt like a younger song for her, and if you saw her from the waist up you’d almost think she were living in the 80s. I’ll never think those pants look good, though. Never.
It was a strong arrangement of the song, again, tailored to her ability and to keep the audience interested. She has an amazing voice, but I’m not sure it showed through that well with the song, which had (according to Manilow) four key changes in it.
I’m worried about Lisa. My entire Top 12 Order of Elimination predictions should be forgotten right now. They’re all wrong, I’m sure of it. Lisa’s never going to make the final four, let along the top two. I’m not sure what’s going on with her, but she’s just not standing out enough. The judges noticed it, and she darn near cried after the song. She kept it together long enough to get off stage, though.
Don’t worry about her, though. She’s got a great Broadway voice. She’ll be OK after IDOL.
Kevin Covais semi-butchered “When I Fall In Love.” There were some exceptional groaner notes in there, the kind that made me say “Ouch” out loud a few times during the performance. It wasn’t all bad. In fact, a few lines were very strong. But he definitely missed the most notes of all the contestants last night. It doesn’t help that he looks awkward on stage, either, but the grandmothers and the nine year olds will keep voting for him en masse. He’s going to go much further than he deserves to go.
Even Barry realizes this. While he had gushing praise for most of the contestants, of Kevin he could only say, “very cute.”
Shouldn’t Kevin be referring to him as “Mr. Manilow,” and not “Barry?”
The camera honed in on Jasmine Trias in the audience after the performance. She still has the flower behind her ear.
Elliott Yamin is tough to watch. He sang “Teach Me Tonight,” a song I didn’t really know. I yawned most of the way through it, but the judges loved it. I’ll just leave this one to them, and claim ignorance. I did get a laugh, though, when he admitted that he didn’t like Manilow’s music.
And, hey! There’s Lindsey Cardinale in the audience!
Kelly Pickler does a countrified Patsy Cline song, “Walkin’ After Midnight.” I’m too distracted by the three inches of makeup on her face to notice she was singing at first. How can she move her mouth and cheeks with all that stuff on there?
She does a good job (100 times better than last week), though I think she lost the part of the performance where she “feels” the song. That’s something Barry harped on all the contestants about last night, and for good reason.
Kelly wins the award for most gratuitous gesturing with the word “you” in a song.
Simon called the performance “ballsy” and “sexy,” two words probably never used to describe Pickler before last night.
Ace Young ends the show with a Boy Band performance of “In The Still Of The Night.” I give him full credit for playing around with the song, giving it either a “jazzier” or more “urban” flavor, depending on who you ask. To me, though, it finally defines what type of singer he is — the type I won’t ever enjoy. I don’t like Justin Timberlake’s music. I’m not going to like Ace’s. It’s a matter of personal taste, though. He sings this one well enough to continue on.
He also worked his arm muscles out for this song, constantly keeping them stretched out to adopt a more Christ-like pose.
And where was his cap this week?
So, how do they all rank? From best to worst:
* Katharine wins the night again, for best vocal.
* Chris and Paris are close behind, though I might let Paris edge out Chris, just because she hit more notes.
* Kelly, Ace, and Mandisa are next.
* Elliott and Lisa go next for me, though I know many will disagree on Elliott.
* That puts Kevin, Bucky, and Taylor in the bottom three this week for me. I don’t think for a second that America will vote that way, but things are so close this week that almost anything could happen. I get the feeling that no matter who leaves tonight, there will be a vocal portion of AI fandom whining and crying and just generally being ticked off.
Who will be in the bottom three? Bucky, Lisa, and Taylor. I know I said last week’s bottom three showing would mean extra votes to save her this week, but I think Lisa got lost in the middle again this week and won’t get enough votes to completely save her. Taylor will be the first declared safe. Bucky will be voted off this week, because Lisa got the extra bump of votes from last week’s Bottom Three appearance.
I think I’ll just predict Bucky’s departure every week from here on out until I get it right.
So, what did you think?
