this theme. The songs are jazz standards,
almost all of which have aged well. They can be arranged to suit a ton of different styles, but many lend themselves to being sung simply and sincerely. I also like that we're trying this particular theme with this particular set of Idolateers, because it will challenge every one of them in different ways. No one has the excuse of being a theme casualty this week. Anyone
be able to make this theme work for them.
I am, however, dreading the judges comments this week. Listening to Randy regale us with tales of how he played with Sammy Davis Jr. back in the day, or Kara wondering why Allison picked such an old song, or Paula... alright, that one's pretty much always dreaded. And of course, Simon is going to goof around terribly if the other judges get too far off base, which they will, possibly depriving us of the only decent commentary.
Anyway, the Rat Pack were fabulous fun. The birth of cool, ring-a-ding-ding and all that. It will be hard to capture the "cool" if they try to push up the contestants to two songs apiece tonight, so I hope previous rumors to that effect are wrong. Let them give a full three minutes on one song instead of 90 seconds of two, please. That will mercifully cut the judgey babble in half also, and I don't think America would protest that a bit.
Just my opinion of course. And as the Rat Pack joke goes: As the fly said as he was walking across the mirror... that's one way of looking at it. Let's see how it went down...
Kris Allen leads us off with "The Way You Look Tonight," (which will never be better than Frank Sinatra's version but I'll give him a pass and take it for what it is). I kind of like the way Kris has adapted his acoustic-poppy style to this genre. It's catchy. You can snap your fingers to it. Just kidding. He's actually going very ballady here, which is an interesting change up from his recent performances. You know what? He works it out pretty nicely. Nicely indeed. Oh, and then he picks up the tempo, but it's hardly acoustic... it's big band all the way. And he handles it seemlessly. Dude is auditioning for Tommy Dorsey all of a sudden. And you know what? He gets the part. This was well put together. Just enough of Allen's personality delivered alongside a vocal that was dangerously traditional, given Kris' previous strengths.
Allison Iraheta has the next spot, choosing "Someone to Watch Over Me." Most of America, myself included, thought the rocker girl might struggle with this theme. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought this was really a huge opportunity for her. She has a fantastic voice, and broken out of the rocker genre maybe some more people would notice. And as this begins... well it's right in that opportunistic wheelhouse. She sounds fantastic. All that rocky-gritty edge is channeled into raw emotion in the delivery of this. And it sounds sensational. She's all grown up in her vocals regardless of her actual age. It doesn't sound affected or immitative at all... this is what you call making a song your own. Terrific.
Matt Giraud next sings “My Funny Valentine,” recalling either Contantine Maroulis, or Melinda Doolittle, which bodes ill for Matt. I don't think his personality compares to the former, and his voice isn't in the ballpark of the latter. He starts and is... actually a little weak and wandery. He finds his groove eventually, but that pitch just wants to wander at times even then. He makes some ambitious choices to style it into something more familiar to him, and those actually work better this week. But those notes remain frustratingly one hair past his reach at times. And compared to the prior two performances, the emotion and passion just aren't delivered at the same level. Simon Cowell can say the opposite all night. Watch the votes tomorrow.
Danny Gokey gets the penultimate performance of the night with “Come Rain Come Shine.” I've been sour on Danny in recent weeks as he's been boring me, and I'm hoping he finally picks it up this evening. There's some solo trombonist leading him in, which is kind of weird but not his fault. And then... Hmm... Hmmmmmmm... I like this version of Danny. No I LIKE this version of Danny Gokey. Tonight there's some extra level of fire to his emotion, and intimacy to his phrasing. This doesn't sound like the pre-packaged vocals he's been mailing in the past few weeks. This sounds GOOD. He's unexpectedly using his Power Soul for good, rather than giving into the Dark Side. Best he has sounded in... maybe forever.
Adam Lambert gets the night's pimp slot to deliver "Feeling Good." The only danger to Adam tonight is that he might choose to dash our expectations TOO much, to surprise us. But as the performance opens with Adam descending a red lit staircase in a dazzling white suit, that fear goes out the window. It's like the opening number of the Lambert Show at the Sands. Lord does this guy have the theatrical presense down pat. Honestly the vocal, for him, is just okay. It would be stunning to hear Giraud deliver something like this, but for Adam he shows us nothing new. Still... the stage presense alone commands like almost no others tonight. And the vocals, while not his top, are nothing to sneeze at. Solid for Adam, which this was, would be a breakout performance for any other contestant.
And so we come to the summary. The judges comments were better than I feared, though Simon's were oddly awful (He loved Giraud?! He thought Allison and Kris were lacking in desire?! ). Still, not worth much mention, so I mostly skipped it above.
Matt Giraud is going home, folks. Sorry I didn't go through the proper rigamarole before dropping that bomb, but it's true. He sang nicely for a top ten performance, but not nicely enough to make the top four. And I just can't believe the nation which made him the bottom vote getter two weeks ago was so enamoured of that performance they're voting for him in droves.
As for the rest... Tops of the night to.... Danny Gokey. I know! I didn't expect it either.
Adam, Allison, and Kris were all so good I don't even want to order them. Allison is likeliest to join Matt at the bottom, but that's due to performance-independent popularity.
So that's my call... Matt Giraud goes home. Allison joins him at the bottom two. Let's see Dial Idol put that kind of precision on the line.
Ha!
UPDATE: The Results
The results show entertainment in brief...
Nice medley of “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and “I Got Rhythm,” not lip-synched for a change, by the Idolateers. Natalie Cole is still trading on her daddy's name even though she's not close to his league as a singer. Taylor Hicks and the Soul Patrol are sounding fine, but he still moves like he has some kind of spastic disorder. Jamie Foxx sings like an early version Cylon, which is the sound America is demanding at the moment apparently. And now for the results...
They jerk us around a bit by doing to "come down to the left side" "come down to the right side" thing. We find, stunningly, that Gokey and Iraheta are safe. Adam, Kris, and Matt are the bottom three. Okay... I can see it. And freakin' yay for Allison hanging around. Love her. Plus even I thought Gokey was stellar last night.
So we get jerked around a bit more before Kris is sent to saftey, and here I make careful note that they did
not say Adam and Matt were the bottom two vote getters. Only that one of them is going home, and Kris is safe. That
could mean Kris and Matt got the least votes, but it's way more dramatic if they make it look like season front-runner Adam is in danger.
Anyway we discover that...
Matt Giraud is going home. Which wasn't all that big a surprise to me, as I called it last night. Nor to Dial Idol, who smartly saw him placing somewhere from first to last place. And they were
right about that! So they get one of these:
And I get another one of these:
Next week the theme is Rock. The mentor is Slash. We have the right final four. And Adam could get very, very frightening indeed. Should be awesome. See you then.
almost all of which have aged well. They can be arranged to suit a ton of different styles, but many lend themselves to being sung simply and sincerely. I also like that we're trying this particular theme with this particular set of Idolateers, because it will challenge every one of them in different ways. No one has the excuse of being a theme casualty this week. Anyone should be able to make this theme work for them. 
