Tonight's official Idol theme was "the Songs of Neil Diamond." Its unofficial theme was "frenetic pacing." For whatever reason the Idol producers thought they could cram 10 songs, judges comments, Ryan Seacrest's vamping for the camera, and all their product placements into the approximately twenty-seven minutes out of the hour of airtime not already given over to showing commercials. It got a little frantic.
And that's a shame because Neil Diamond has some damned good material which would enable the contestants to show almost any facet of performance they wanted to. Or rather they would without the 90 second per performance caveat. Some handled it better than others. The judges were not among those who handled it well.
Neil's coaching, what was shown of it anyway, was pretty bland. He liked everyone equally apparently, making Santa Claus look harsh by judging between naughty and nice. I'm suddenly sentimental for last season's Queen week when Brian May sneeringly forbade a contestant from doing something stupid with a particular arrangement. We need more mentors with some spirit to them. I know, I know, they're really only there to sell their own records. But come ON! Give us some red meat from time to time.
The recaps this week are going to take the contestants in order, but I'm combining comments about both of their performances. I'm not going to let myself get as fouled up as Paula Abdul did trying to react one performance at a time. So let's get to the recaps...
Jason Castro lead us off tonight, and screw what the judges had to say, his first performance of "Forever in Blue Jeans," was pretty good. It wasn't a "must download on iTunes" moment. But it definitely captured that spirit from way back when he sang "What A Day For A Daydream" weeks ago. Charming. Infectious. You wanted to hear more. The second song, “September Morn,” didn't really work though. It was slow. It was dull. It felt like there was a moment he should have stepped it up and poured some energy into it that was simply... missed. His final impression was of a fairly weak night. But really... go back to that first song and you'll see he wasn't as far off as the out-of-sorts judging panel implied.
David Cook followed, singing "I’m Alive," for his first. It was a fairly expected alt-rock arrangement, and fairly upbeat for the often brooding rocker. If you were expecting another huge eye opener from DC on this one, you didn't get it here. But you also didn't get a let down. However his next performance of “All I Ever Really Need is You,” was a bit of an eye opener. Not his best of the season, but that's setting the bar awfully high. It was once again far and away the best of the night. It will once again be an iTunes download hit (DC is
owning the other contestants when it comes to iTunes downloads this season, for the record). What was so special about this one? You almost had to hear it in the Idol context. He took about 90 seconds of a very stylized Neil Diamond song and turned it into something that would likely be a hit on the radio right now. And, being David Cook, this is not the first time we've heard him do this. Paula Abdul made her most (only?!) lucid comment of the night when she told David she thought she was looking at the next American Idol when she looked at him.
Brooke White went next. Her first song was "I'm a Believer," which is better known by the Monkeys version than Neil's own. And it surely won't be known for Brooke White's version after tonight because it was awful. It was just barely this side of her dry-heave of a performance of "Here Comes The Sun." She lacked only the awkward stage moves. It was truly awful. Not only that, I have no idea what lead her to think this was her kind of song to begin with. Her next choice, “I Am…I Said,” suited her so much better the judges seemed to be fooled into thinking it was great. It wasn't. It was just so far ahead of the first it was jarring. Brooke belongs behind a piano, as she was in the second performance. Behind a guitar, as in the first performance, she looks like a cheesy child's party performer. She does best singing introspective songs as in the second performance, rather than cheery pop like the first performance which make her look like someone dared her to hit the karaoke bar. But that second performance was not Brooke at her best. It was just her as the
kind of performer she ought to be. I found it boring and disjointed, and the advice Neil himself gave about changing the lyric about being from New York to being from Brooke's actual home - Arizona - didn't work at all.
David Archuleta had the next spot, statring out with what I expected to be a great selection in "Sweet Caroline." Only one problem... it was almost entirely the chorus of the song alone, belted out in David A.'s bubble-gum tenor complete with boy-band stylizations. Yuck. I was hoping to see him carry through the story of a song well suited to his voice. But there was no story telling even attempted in the arrangement. It was a showy diva arrangement which forgot the words are supposed to be telling you something more than "look at me hit these notes!" The second song surprised me only by its needless flashback to Kristy Lee's choice of "God Bless the USA" when she was trying to avoid being kicked off the show. He sang "America," and sang it well enough. Everything Simon Cowell said about it was right. And he said nothing about it being a good performance, just that it was a clever choice of song that his fans would love. I'm starting to become annoyed with the notion that he's likely to win now because he's starting to look outclassed by everyone else remaining, and yet that same vibe that kept the far less talented Sanjaya afloat so long last year looks likely to hand him the title regardless this year. So let's move on.
Syesha "Broadway" Mercado closed us out, and hasn't she seemed to both find herself and loosen up since resolving herself to the notion that being Broadway isn't all bad? She is finally the loose and fun performer we've been waiting for since we caught the barest glimmer of her personality in the Hollywood rounds. Umm.. that said, Broadway can't win this thing any better than her version of a diva can. Still, she lead off with a really gorgeous version of “Hello Again.” It was a very theatrically driven performance, because she's apparently come to terms that this is okay to do. And she does it very well. Still... the best of the girls of the night. Her second song was “Thank the Lord for the Night Time,” and in my opinion it was another arrangement casualty. She sang it and performed it alright. But it delivered very little punch and seemed almost cheesy much of the time. Overall a solid but not stellar night for Syesha. Simon warned her she might be vulnerable tonight, but couldn't quite articulate why. Let me fill in: Because to the extent you've realized you're a Broadway performer, you're unlikely to hang around in a field of potential pop stars. That's all. Best of luck though. Successful Broadway performers live WAY better than failed Whitney Houston imitators, so I'm entirely supportive of the change in direction.
Summing up the night, the judges were ridiculously unprepared. Paula actually tried to review the second round of performances in one case before the second round had happened.
The performances left a lot to be desired in most cases. Once again David Cook stole the highlight reel. Syesha is finding herself - but also finding she's probably not the Idol no matter how talented she might be. Jason and Brooke are struggling to perfect performances which seem to come to them both as far more spontaneous and impulsive things. And David Archuleta is actually beginning to show his youth and inexperience, regardless of his popularity.
Who's in trouble this week? Gosh... anyone who's name isn't David obviously. But I'm thinking Brooke and Syesha hit the bottom two (though Jason
should take Syesha's place based on performance alone). And the one going home?
I have to think Syesha leaves us this week. She's finally found her identity. It's just that it belongs on a Broadway stage, not that of a pop singer. Not a bad note upon which to leave the show for her though.
UPDATE: THE RESULTS
The obvious: The Davids were safe again. Also Jason Castro truly has built a nice little fan base of his own, leaving both remaining girls vulnerable.
The less than obvious: Does anyone know which specific rumor about Paula Abdul Ryan Seacrest cryptically alluded to in order to dispel? I mean, it's not like there aren't a lot to choose from. I'm guessing it have been something like "she was drugged or drunk and is being kicked off the show for it," based on the way Seacrest spoke about it.
The padding: Natasha Beddingfield and Neil Diamond both sounded pretty great. Not so surprising in the case of the former. Quite a statement of longevity in the case of the latter. Though the Ford pimp-mercial kind of sucked this week.
The result: Sayesha lives for another week, as Brooke White heads home. It was really a coin toss between them anyway, and the odds are now excellent we'll be down to an all male top three. Though apparently Sayesha's personal Broadway revival is catching on more quickly than I suspect.
Bye, bye Brooke. I'm now convinced you're not a scary psycho bottling up negative emotions to spring out in a murderous passion. But I'm also convinced you kind of maxed out how good you can be at this stage of your career. But you're pretty and you're popular. You'll do fine.
Next week the theme is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That should be a fun one. 'Til then.
As far as Archuleta goes, he definitely is this years Sanjaya, but the judges are definitely partially to blame. Calling the first song "The Bomb", when even I heard the pitchiness of it. I thought Sweet Caroline would have been a home-run for Brooke. Putting her Carly Simon take on it.
I too, have to admit, no idea Neil wrote I'm a believer, I was thoroughly addicted to the Monkees and even so, loved the Smash Mouth version.
If Jason makes it through. I hope that he can get it into gear, I'd love to see Jason/David Cook in the finals.
Well I think Archuleta is miles above Sanjaya's talent. He just captures that Sanjaya "tween" demographic this year. Though frankly I think Jason is making an impressive stab into it himself, and I know you prefer him vastly.
I'm just kind of bored and tired of Archuleta's overly vocally stylized act by now. Unlike the remaining contestants I know almost exactly what I'm going to hear from him because it varies so very little song to song. He's got a great voice. He needs to learn to use it as a pro rather than as a cute prodigy. That interpretive quality is something Clay Aiken blew people away with way back in season two, and their vocal styles are somewhat similar.
Jason, has shown us diversity, and I liked his answer when questioned by Ryan last night. His honesty and charisma come through on the stage. And yes, he probably is too getting the tween votes. We'll see what happens. In my perfect world, the final two are Cook vs. Castro; And even with my partiallity, I believe those two have shown us the most talent of the remaining 4.
How about this for a theme week: Grateful dead, with Mento Phil Lesh :) :)