We’re almost there. Just another week. Just one more week of these writeups. My fingers are starting to feel the burn, but I can’t give up now. Do you see the contestants giving up? Heck, no! Although, honestly, a couple of them sounded a little worn out in their speaking voices, and I think it’s starting to affect some of their singing voices in very minor ways. AMERICAN IDOL is a marathon, and making it through that last week is the ultimate accomplishment. If you can do that with your voice intact, you’re a winner. Even Kelly Clarkson had lost her voice at the end of the much-shorter Season One competition.
The judges were as colorful (read: annoying) as ever. Ryan still refuses to shave more than once every third day, not that he has time in his schedule. And the audience continued to boo every negative comment. Onto the singers:
Elliott Yamin started with Clive’s pick, “Open Arms.” I didn’t like the sound of the screeching guitar through it, and Elliot came off sounding tired and just a bit scratchier than usual. He backfilled too much. I thought he was starting off softly so that he could ramp it up near the end and have a deafening crescendo. That didn’t happen.
His second song was picked for him by Paula, who can only ever discuss Elliott’s “love” and “funky white boy status.” “What You Won’t Do For Love” was a much better song selection for him, although it did seem a little more close to the original than other singers were doing last night. It was also during this song that I realized Elliott’s true calling: He needs to be the lead singer for a Maroon 5 knockoff tribute band. If he can add a slightly more nasal tone to his voce, he is Adam Levine.
The third song he chose for himself was “I Believe To My Soul,” which was an upbeat 70s funk thing, but otherwise followed a similar pattern to his second song.
I think Elliott is done this week — he didn’t crash and burn, and he didn’t shine. He didn’t have “the moment” he needed this week to save himself, like he did last week. He’s not going to inspire anyone outside of his existing fanbase to vote for him.
Moving on to Katharine McPhee now: Clive chose “I Believe I Can Fly” for her, which seemed like a good choice to me, though I loathe than song on many levels. For starters, I don’t ever want to be reminded of the existence of R. Kelly. Second, it used to play ad nauseum at the CVS I was working in during my college days. I used to do a pretty stellar impression of some of the sillier parts of the song, back in the day. In any case –
The song had a weird arrangement, which made it difficult to follow in some parts, helped not much by Katharine’s natural tendency to sing all around the melody. The judges jumped all over her for that again, though they didn’t seem to mind it as much when she did it in the second song. She emoted through the song well, and showed a lot more power than I thought she’d be able to at this stage of the competition.
It was her second song, chosen by Simon, that was the highlight of the season. He picked “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” She should make it to the finals based on the votes she’ll get from that performance. It was spectacular. I got chills twice. She even started out a capella, which nobody had tried yet this season. Not since Kimberly Locke sang the song a dozen times on the show has anyone done it such justice. It was, indeed, as Simon pointed out, “her moment” and the best performance of the year so far. When we look back at this season, it’ll stand out along with Chris’ “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman,” and a couple of others I can’t think of off the top of my head right now. We’ll have to come up with that list after the season is done, don’tcha think?
Her third song was “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues.” I think McPhee is an old-school IDOL fangirl who missed not having a Big Band night this season, so she created one for herself, trying desperately to stay away from the Whitney/Celine/Mariah/XTina comparisons the judges love to shoot her down (wrongly) with. And if they hated her for singing around the melody in the past, you just know the judges cringed their way through this song. My notes have one phrase on them for this song: “Vocal gymnastics.” It was a perfect Mariah Carey impression: Every note in her range was hit in this song. It’s an upbeat little number, but since I didn’t recognize the song, I have no idea if she did it justice.
She also did a little strut dance in the beginning that I doubt anyone believed.
She should be safe this week, though. She didn’t screw anything up, and she’s got an amazing voice. If she learned to stop going off the melody so much, she’ll be stellar. (And if she corrects for that next week, the judges will whine that she didn’t make the song her own. UGH)
The only thing she needs to worry about is the Chris Daughtry fans holding it against her that she pushed through in lieu of him. But, then, all those people said last week they’d never watch IDOL again. And since there are no negative votes in this competition, they’d have to vote for two other people to punish the one they loathe. I don’t know where Chris’ votes are going this week, but I suspect more would go to Taylor, who’s already so far in the lead in this competition that it doesn’t matter for Katharine.
Taylor Hicks kept chanting “Soul Patrol” all night. Clive gave him Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” to start, which Hicks was prodded to point out was the first Springsteen tune used on IDOL. Clive had to call Bruce personally to get permission. To me, it was a bit of an odd choice. Yes, Taylor’s voice is comparable to Bruce’s in many ways, except I can actually understand what Taylor is singing, and he doesn’t sound just like a third-rate Dylan impersonator. (Yes, I’m that one person in NJ who doesn’t worship “The Boss.”)
While Hicks had a good performance and didn’t miss notes or anything, it just seemed off to me a little bit. Maybe his voice needed to go a note lower or something, I don’t know. But it didn’t sound right. Maybe I associate the song too closely with Bruce’s voice? I know it’s the first time I ever listened to the lyrics, though. . .
Taylor did a cute thing, though, in letting Paula assume the Courtney Cox role from the video. Too bad they couldn’t sneak Cox in there as a celebrity in the audience. THAT would have been hilarious. Instead, we got Rosanne (she’s a blonde now, you know), Leeza Gibbons, and some kid from “High School Musical.”
Randy picked “You Are So Beautiful” for his second song, which is one a lot of people have been waiting to hear Taylor sing. I think it was a favorite for “Love Songs” week, as a matter of fact. It was Taylor’s best vocal of the night, in a very weird way. It was a very soft rendition of the song, much flatter than the original cover’s range. Taylor stood up there in his suit and practically made love to the mic for two or three minutes. He emoted. They’re learning all about that on the show this season, it seems.
All he needed to complete the song was to sit on the floor while singing it, but McPhee has the trademark on that particular move.
Finally, Taylor chose “Try A Little Tenderness.” What started out soft and gentle ended in a manic fit. Gleeful insanity rocked the stage. It was a classic Taylor performance. I was laughing out loud when he was done. Based on songs 2 and 3, he’s safe this week.
Elliott’s a goner, though DialIdol seems to think it’s razor close between Elliott and Katharine. If Katharine goes this week after Chris’ departure last week, then the whole season has been a waste. I’ll be grumpy along with all the women who are still swooning from last week’s loss.
