Bogus Gold

Kris Allen won the traditional coin toss last week, and he wisely chose to go second. That means we'll be hearing from Adam first.

Adam Lambert's first song is his personal "best of the season" selection. He's chosen to do "Mad World," which was certainly my favorite of his and a real season highlight when he performed it on "final 8" week. The notes start to build and does this guy have a thing for theatrical prensentation or what? When he goes on solo tours I have this stage show vision like Alice Cooper meets David Bowie meets Clay Aiken. Anyway we've got a thick dry-ice kind of fog hugging the stage while he rises lit in shadowy blue fashion, already having started the tender almost-fragile vocals. There's a definite Twilight kind of thing going on with this performance, though that's just through the visuals. The vocals are as haunting and delicate as when he first performed this. Just like the first time he has the audience hanging on his every note... every nuance. Even simple changes in volume or rises in pitch which hint at the power he's holding back draw screams and applause from the otherwise hushed audience. Ladies and gentlemen... THAT is Glambert at his finest. If you didn't like that, you're probably already rooting for the other guy. The judges were all fawning save for Simon who apparently isn't that into vampires.

Kris Allen's first song reached back to his interesting version of "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," from final nine week. I was kind of hoping to hear him do Kanye's "Heartless" again, but on second thought this was a smarter choice. That one was only done a week ago and would sound too repetitive this close afterward. Also he's doing this one on piano, and I'll bet he's picked the guitar for a later arrangement, so another nice strategic decision there. I really liked this one the first time he did it, and if anything he's gotten better in the interim. One of the things that has turned Kris from window dressing into serious competitor is that he has some serious skill interpreting a song. And in that element he was just flawless tonight. Show me another singer who can make a few bars of nothing but "I know, I know, I know" seem compelling. He told the story... he made it feel intimate... every subtle vocal choice he made seemed to fit right into his overall plan. Not a note missed or a dull moment from start to finish. The judges were once again blown away.

When Seacrest prompted, Simon gave the nod for the first performance round to Kris. But to me they were running dead even. Each one showed exactly what's great about him in a two minute vignette. I saw no separation at all at this point.

Adam Lambert's next song struck me as a little unusual. Simon Fuller picked Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," a seminal soul anthem about the civil rights movement. Some kind of subtle nod to his "lifestyle choice" with a societal message in there? It wasn't Adam's choice if so. But the interesting thing here musically is that I don't think we've heard Adam truly do soul singing this year. Hints of it have been tossed in here or there. But unless this is a total reinterpretation there's no escaping the soul in this song. And... he has no intention of ignoring the soul here. If anything he grabs the opportunity to show yet another musical side to himself early in the song, once again keeping admirable restraint while letting his phrasing and emotion provide the power. And then toward the middle - in a style fitting right in with soul music - he picks it up into his power zone. And yet all that subtle phrasing is still in there, and the decibels are blaring and the notes go higher and higher, and I've got gooseflesh on my arms... in the good way. When the song is over one is tempted to just say, "wow." Unless you're a judge, then you have to babble to yourself mostly nonsensically. Which they did, but they all loved this performance, with Kara calling it his best of the season. I don't often agree with Kara, but it just might have been.

Kris Allen's pick from Simon Fuller was the slightly later but still very socially concious soul hit "What's Going On," by Marvin Gaye. I think we're getting the idea of what's on Fuller's iPod. Anyway it's not a bad choice at all for Kris, and I'm eager to hear what he's going to do with it. We've got the accoustic guitar arrangement with a few accompanyists seated around him on the stage. For some strange reason the guitar almost has a Doobie Brother's vibe going, though the rest of the song is very Kris from the start, He's got quite a groove going, and I almost feel the urge to dance (yet another reason you can be thankful this isn't a video blog). He starts to lose me a bit when he breaks the arrangement into pure rhythm while the music goes quiet to deliver ... some kind of dated lyrics. Ah well. He's back into the groove after that. I'm not quite getting his interpretation here quite as much as his last song, but it sounds really nice all the same. That said the judges comments are kind of stupid about it. I think the biggest problem with this was that it followed both his own flawless first song and Adam's flawless second song, and it just suffers a bit from comparison.

Simon called the second round for Adam, and this time I have to agree.

Adam Lambert has to take on the "championship" song "No Boundaries" next. Let's see what kind of schmaltz Ms. DioGuardi is cranking out these days... For some reason I am reminded strongly of the 80's band Night Ranger listening to this. Adam is trying to give it this big, dramatic stadium rock sound and... the song is not cooperating. Frankly it's kind of dull. Lambert is wrenching emotion out of notes and verses that just don't contain that much power. Honestly there's nothing glaringly wrong about this performance so much as... I don't want to hear this song. At least last year's "Magic Rainbows" had a kind of catchy refrain. Once more this thing strikes me as one of the "serious" attempts by one of the big 80's hair bands. And while Adam's voice is up to the task, wouldn't we rather hear him sing something else? Meh. It's kind of amusing that all the judges seem to agree, but don't want to openly say they hated the song since Kara is sitting right there.

Kris Allen gets the thankless task of getting to perform... that... once again. Right after everyone just heard it and decided it sucked. Oh well. The arrangement is a little different now. Not quite so 80's sounding. Kris starts it more understated, as is true to his strength. It's not sounding so bad on him at first. And then we hit the refrain and I realize what's wrong with this song. The refrain demands full power far too long and it does. not. shut. up. Seriously, it's not so much a proper refrain as a run-on sentence. And then it demands some riffs and arias and then more power and we're right back to the refrain. Jebus. Listening to Kris try to push his voice into places it shouldn't have to go is making me more impressed with Adam by proxy because he didn't make this monster sound that difficult. And Kris is really laboring to keep hitting the notes by the end. He doesn't really screw it up pitch wise, but the strain is painfully evident. The judges are growing less patient with the song now, apparently not caring quite so much if they bruise Kara's feelings. Even Kara suggests it was in too high a key for him. Bah.

Round three is best forgotten. We'll call it a draw. Adam had it on power and vocal skill, but in the early less-shouty moments Kris was definitely making it sound more interesting.

So then... the judges give their parting remarks and just about hand Kris the consolation prize. Umm... guys? It wasn't THAT clear a difference between them. Kris had some pretty excellent moments tonight that took a back seat to no one. Adam was terrific, but not perfect. I think this thing could be closer than they seem to expect.

That said if I had to make a call it would be...

Adam Lambert to win.

I've personally been a fan of his all season. He delivered big in the biggest moment. I think his "Change Is Gonna Come" was the highlight of the night from either contestant. And his "Mad World" was the equal of Kris' best of the night, "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone." I don't think anyone is going to be changing their mind on the basis of that last song, so there you have it.

Let's see what America says to that tomorrow night in what promises to be a pretty BIG finale.

UPDATE: The Results

And your Season Eight American Idol is...

KRIS ALLEN

In what will be billed as the biggest shocker in Idol history (but actually wasn't quite so shocking, as many of us were calling for it to be really close even when we predicted Adam to win), Kris Allen fulfilled his role as one of the greatest "dark horses" in Idol history. He joins Kelly Clarkson and David Cook as contestants no one saw emerging when the finals began, but rose to overcome all the expected front runners. It's really a great story, and one of the elements that makes Idol as compelling as it is.

Still it feels a little more shocking this time. By the finale both David Cook and Kelly Clarkson had already seized front-runner status, and were expected to win by the time of their finale. It wasn't until Kris Allen's name was called last night that it finally sank in that he had, indeed, become the favorite.

I think it's underselling what Kris accomplished to try to spin this as some "Gokey voters ruined Idol" thing, as I've seen others do. Last week, with Danny Gokey still in the competition, we learned only 1 million votes separated the top two vote getters. They did not say Adam was the top vote getter and Kris number two. It very well could have been the opposite. Kris was performing brilliantly, even if his style didn't have the dazzle of Adam Lambert. I have no problem believing he won those fans over by his performances, rather than needing some kind of "Christian identity" voter block to carry him.

And so, much like last year, both of the top two are shoo ins to have popular first albums. After that it's up to their own career choices to see where things go from there. I've got a feeling we'll be hearing both their names for a long time to come, and I think that would have been true whichever finalist won.

It's been a great season of Idol this year, despite some of the more annoying producer inspired changes. I'd rank it right up there with the best. And now we go into that long, slow period in between Idol.

Happy trails... see you again for Season Nine.