You sing a sad song just to turn it around
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INCLUDES COMMENTARY CONCERNING THIS WEEK'S EPISODES OF AMERICAN IDOL. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THEM STOP READING RIGHT NOW!
OK now that the people who DVR and Tivo and watch these things late have been warned, here we go.
So far, this has been the most unimpressive bunch of performances from a very talented field. When the bottom 3 were announced, I'll be honest, I expected to see Lisa and Ace in the bottom 3. I thought the third would be either Bucky or Kellie and my reasoning for those two is this: Bucky has shown in the past that he does 1 genre of music and 1 genre only. And this week he had the opportunity to sing from his comfort zone and he did and it wasn't great. It wasn't awful (I thought he sounded appropriately sultry and sexy a la Tim McGraw) but it wasn't great. And if you can't be great singing what you're most comfortable with, greatness might be a few more voice lessons and performance classes away. And Kellie is sort of the same. I see both Bucky and Kellie as one trick ponies ... while I think that if they ended up cutting country records they'd probably both sell right now they're showing that they don't have a whole lot of versatility. You might argue "Well, Chris is showing that he doesn't have much versatility either," which is what Simon said he wanted to see from Chris this week, is showing that he has a different side. The difference is that when Chris does his thing he's GREAT and when Bucky and Kellie do their thing, it's just okay. And "just okay" isn't enough to make you an American Idol. No, I haven't started voting yet.
Other odds and ends about the show:
** I thought Mandisa was good. I didn't think she was great. Here's the problem with the Chrises and Mandisas of the competition: they're so good and so consistently good that in order for them to be great week in and week out they actually have to do something different and something spectacular. Case in point, Chris' performance last week of the Live version of "Walk the Line" was a great example of taking something that could have been good, and making it his own and thus giving it the potential to be great. But as far as Mandisa's performance this past week, I was a little confused by Simon's comment that the song was "indulgent." What does he mean when he says that? Is it because he doesn't want Mandisa singing "God" songs on American Idol? Is it because he doesn't like gospel music? Is it because he thought she could have been more daring? I had thought that the reason they picked "21st century" as the theme this week was because they wanted to see what kind of records these performers would be making if they made it ... and I think that if she does make it Mandisa will bring a very diva-esque flavor to contemporary Christian music that doesn't necessarily exist right now. She performed the song well. So I'm confused by Simon's comment.
** A lot of the stuff I've read online, and also a couple of the comments from the judges, called Bucky's performance inarticulate, or they couldn't understand what he was singing, or he was muffled or something. As an amateur sound tech, I have this sneaking suspicion that maybe ... just maybe ... the sound techs running the show were a little off on the mix on Bucky's performance. He sounded great - very Tim McGraw - at the beginning and as he progressed the background band got louder ... and louder ... and louder ... until you couldn't hear the words anymore. He may still have been inarticulate ... but in my opinion, the sound production people (who have to be INSANELY busy for a show like this) dropped the ball on Bucky's performance this week.
** It's nice to see that at least so far the American Idol contestants still have feelings. I always worry in reality shows when people get ruthless, when they achieve the "I'm going to win, I don't give a hooey about my competitors" attitude, they, in my opinion, no longer deserve to win. So far these talented performers seem to have spent enough time with each other that they are at least somewhat friends. They get excited. They get nervous. And if you're Paris, they cry. When the names are announced, they share the same shock, excitement, and even expectation that we do at home. You can't tell me that somewhere, in the back of her mind, Lisa didn't at least thinking about the possibility that she might go home. She'd been in the bottom 3 for 3 weeks running. And I was impressed - she smiled and laughed and sang like a champ. I think that if she keeps up with this we'll see her debut album hit the shelves before TOO long.
So you had a bad day. Stay tuned ... we'll see you next week for more American Idol.