American Idol 2006--Live Thread (Part II)

FOX ^ | 3-25-06

[silent_jonny]

still for Tammy

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

And the West Coast Wrapup ....

It seems we have reached that point in the competition when it is no longer quite so fun (at least for me) to critique the singers, simply because we've gotten rid of everyone I really enjoy putting the shiv to. All the truly bad singers that I felt I could vent my spleen upon without retribution have gone, not to return until the beginning of next season. (Ah, me!) We're left with a small cadre of exceptionally decent young singers, whose screwups now are no longer because they are fundamentally bad singers, but just the result of ordinary week-to-week bobbles. That said ....

Elliott: Not his best performances by a long shot. Elliott was simply not in good voice tonight. My guess is that this is the result of long hours and too much rehearsal. (As was commented upon, Chris also was not in his best voice tonight, but as a rocker, it mattered less to him.) I hope that "I want to go home" will not be realized literally, but fear that it may be.

Paris: Her songs tonight were well-performed, but I could not get excited about them. Her voice in those songs sounded like a dozen other singers' voices. I agree with someone else on this thread who called Paris a chameleon. I do think that has prevented her from connecting with the public ... after watching this talented young woman, I am always left with the question, who *is* she, anyway? What does she actually enjoy singing? What songs move *her*? Her many hairdos and the different characters she portrays with her costumes leave me unable to penetrate to the "real" Paris ... so I fall back on her speaking voice and then recoil, unable to listen to her sparrowish chirping without cringing. I don't know who she is, which makes me wonder if she knows. (Probably not, at 17! Goodness knows I had no idea who I was at that age, either. But it makes it hard to get to know the "real" Paris.)

Chris: Very good performances tonight, though they didn't give me the chills that his Johnny Cash song did. I think Chris will be hard to knock off the podium.

McPhee: Will having big gazongas and pretty hair make up for bad singing? Tune in tomorrow to find out ....
(Well, actually, the second song was not bad, except that I was totally distracted by her knee-walking routine. I have to admit that for me, it heightened her resemblance to Monica Lewinsky.)

Taylor: I was giggling through his entire first song, so can't really judge it. (That song has *memories* for me ... it was the only halfway decent song on the jukebox in my high school cafeteria, and as a result got played at least six times during every lunch period. Lordy, the memories that brought back! LOL!) As for his second song, I rolled my eyes at the thought of him doing Beatles, but I actually really enjoyed it. I thought it was an excellent and sensitive performance. Good on you, Tay-tay. :)

Who goes home tomorrow? Well, it won't be either Chris or Taylor, and that's all I'm certain of. Before this evening, I would have included McPhee in that safe group, but that first song was really not her best work. She was never *exactly* flat, but there were so many notes where I found myself gesturing to the screen: "Get up! Up! On top of the note! ... ah, finally, there ya go." And that's a crappy song to begin with. Bad songs can be the kiss of death.

So I'll say the one to go away will either be McPhee (for reasons aforesaid), Elliott (just not his best work, and you have to be on top of your game at this point), or Paris (for season-long failure to connect with her audience). Should be interesting!

[Texas2step]

Styx isn't my idea of good rock and roll from that era.

Styx helped define that era. Styx, Cheap Trick, Boston, Aerosmith, Def Leopard. The best "rock" music ever produced. IMHO. ;-)

Perfect song for Chris and he nailed it. Awesome.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

OMG, Jonny, I haven't laughed that hard in a week!!! The Silly Putty version of The Scar ... ROFLMAO!! Ah, jeez. (Wiping eyes ....) Warn a lady first, willya? If I'd been eating chips, somebody would have to give me a Heimlich right now! :)

And I hope your allergies are better in the morning! I used to have rotten allergies so I really understand. (I was sick for a solid month every spring ... one year I even got pneumonia from it!) Chicken soup with lots of garlic works well for the post-nasal drip thing. Good luck with that.

[Netizen]

What does 3rd get? Anything?

[Netizen]

Text messaging is the wild card here. I think that Paris is likely gone and if McPhee rolls another turkey next week she is finished.

Exactly! On both counts. We've thought of getting disposable phones, just to have for emergencies. But, if they are only good for a month, what's the point? lol

[Netizen]

5th-Paris. Didn't like either song. Thought Paris performed them decently, but that wasn't enough to overcome the songs themselves. Taking Katharine's weak night into account, Paris blew a real chance to last another round because of her song choices.

I think so, too. I like Paris, and she has a nice voice... On certain songs. I didn't like the songs at all last night.

I think, that if she wants to continue as a singer she needs to get that speech coach that Wolfstar mentioned, then get a good vocal coach, and I think she that vocal coach, mommy and Granny all need to view and critique every performance together. The reason I say granny and mom should be there is because with them being in the business, a vocal coach may say one thing and the women might say another. That would leave Paris just as confused as she already is about her singing.

After the mom and granny hear what the coach says, they can leave Paris and the coach alone. jmo

[Netizen]

Paris is 3-4 years too young for this. If was 20-21 she would likely own this competition talent wise. The knock on her is that she cannot seem to define herself. Well, she actually does great with classic American songs. When her voice gets a little older....look out.

She won't be able to do AI again, so if she decides to be a singer, she have to rely on that family help.

[Netizen]

Well, here's th dial idol, final numbers.

table id="tablesinglepredict2" style="border: medium none rgb(230,242,255); border-collapse: collapse;" border="1" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="95%">

DialIdol
Rank

Idol

DialIdol Score

Margin Of Error

Actual Rank

1

Taylor Hicks

33.232

1.626

-

2-4

(B3)

Chris Daughtry

27.774

1.692

-

2-4

(B3)

Elliott Yamin

27.643

1.693

-

2-5

(B3)

Katharine McPhee

24.583

1.729

-

4-5

(B3)

Paris Bennett

23.375

1.742

Looks like Paris goes home, BUT, BUT, last week, the last place person on dial idol didn't go home. Are their numbers more accurate this week? And virtually a tie between Chris and Elliot.

[EmilyGeiger]

the "Bueller ... Bueller Edition"--


I'll have to get that! When it first came out on video, I would rent it just about every other week just to watch it again. Havent seen it in years.

[EmilyGeiger]

Ace managed to worm his way into the Correspondents Dinner....



It's gotta be the scar! It's possessed.

[EmilyGeiger]

We voted for 2 hrs for Elliot..only got through 5 or 6 times. Didn't get through once for Taylor.

[kevkrom]

I'd better get this in before thread #2 is locked. :)

Before I get into it, did everyone else hear audio problems during the show, or was it just either DirecTV or my local FOX affiliate? It didn't really affect much, but the sound dropped out a few times.

Ok, on to the review and rankings. I'm going to review each performance separately, and then do overalls for the night this week.

First Number (From The Year You Were Born):

1. Elliott - Great way to start the show. I thought he sang well, looked good, and showed a lot of energy and personality. I really like that he seems to be improving week to week.
2. Taylor - A toss-up at #2 and #3, I'll give Taylor the edge because it was more fun to watch. I'll risk drawing some ire of the Taylor fans and say that I don't think he's got a great voice, but I do thing he's a very good singer, if you get what I mean. Numbers like this are where Taylor excels.
3. Chris - No real complaints about this, except that I could probably walk into any bar or club on a Friday night and hear the house band do at least as good of a cover of "Renegade" as this. Solid, but not special.
4. Paris - Once again, she picks a song that's "too old" for her, this time based on the lyrics. This song is too "sexy" for a 17 year old, it's like she's a girl dressing up to pretend she's older. Paris' problem isn't the technical side of things, it's that she's picking songs she likes rather than songs that suit her.
5. Katharine - This has to be Kat's worst performance to date. She spent the first third of the song trying to find the key, and even then, she had a pretty loose grip on it. A pity, because I kind of like what she did on the arrangement side toward the end, but the execution was awful. Good thing for her she got a second chance tonight.

Second Number (Current Billboard Hits, Any Chart)

1. Katharine - This number was as good as the first one was bad. Excellent technical execution (no pitch problems I could hear, and good diction through a song with a pretty rapid pace) was paired with fun, energy, and nice style. Kat needs to remember to do a number like this every night from here on out, especially as they get to do multiple numbers per night.
2. Chris - I really don't care for this style of music, but I think Chris sold it well.
3. Elliott - Well-performed, pleasant, but a little forgettable. There wasn't much "star" quality to the performance, although it was nice to hear. It was a good song to pad out an album, not to showcase Elliott.
4. Paris - See previous comments about Paris. I should just make a keyboard macro (though I probably won't need it after this week).
5. Taylor - I had several problems with this. 1) Taylor doesn't seem to deliver good performances on slower songs on this stage, and this was no exception. 2) There were technical issues uncommon for Taylor (pitch, swallowing words, etc.) 3) This choice really felt like an "end-run" around the theme, though considering what the producers did to Taylor last week, I guess this can be just called payback. Note that despite this #5 ranking, this was still much better than Kat's first number.

Rankings for the night:

1. Elliott - Two solid performances, including the best of the night. He has the best voice of any of the contestants, and he's improving on the performance aspects every week. If he can survive a late start building a fan base, he may make a dark horse run at winning this competition. He is the only contestant showing improvement at this point.
2. Chris - Two good performances, just not quite up to "star" quality.
3. Taylor - One good performance, one iffy one. Still enough for a decent night.
4. Katharine - The second best performance of the night wasn't enough to save her from the worst of the night.
5. Paris - "One of these things is not like the others..." She performs well (though at a single speed), but she always comes off as a copy of something else and not an artist in her own right.

Overall rankings:

1. Elliott Yamin (NC)
2. Chris Daughtry (NC)
3. Katharine McPhee (NC)
4. Taylor Hicks (+1)
5. Paris Bennett (-1)

Paris will be going home, but I'm not sure who will join her in the bottom two. Kat should be there based solely on tonight, but she has all of Kellie's fans, and voters may forget her first number in favor of the second.

[commish]

After going back and rewatching last nights performances, I started thinking about each performers strengthsa and weaknesses and who benefits from two songs a night and who doesn’t.

Taylor - I think he benefits the most from 2 performances. His forte is entertainment, and with 2 performances he is sure to entertain on at least one of them. I really think 2 performances a night will put him in the finals.

Chris - He should make the finals, but last night showed a problem he faces — someone on another board PREDICTED this over a month ago, they said because Chris sings from his throat that his voice would give out. That is his biggest worry and hurdle — His voice. He should win this hands down to be honest (Even though I like Tay and E better) if his voice continues to degrade he may not even make the final.

Elliot - Gets to showcase his voice, but it also shows his limitations glaringly — and that is he is just not seasoned enough as an entertainer. I love Elliot, but he even put me to sleep last night with “Home”

Katherine - 2 songs is terrible for her — it brings her maddening inconsistancy right to the front. The girl has a fantastic voice, but she is up and down. Amazing one week, terrible the next. Now we get to see that in one night.

Paris - P is probably the most consistant pure singer in the competition, but 2 songs just shows that she is just not quite ready to burst out. Paris will be a superstar, but that will be in 3-5 years, right now she is just a sweet kid with an awesome voice.

[floridaobserver]

Taylor cheated! Why was he allowed to sing an old Beatles song while all the others had to sing contemporary hits?


This gets me angry!

[commish]

Taylor cheated! Why was he allowed to sing an old Beatles song while all the others had to sing contemporary hits?

Excuse me? The theme was Current TOP 10 BILLBOARD!! so, let's see what we can find. Oh look, my my my what is this little ole thing sitting at #5 on the Adult Contemporary list. Why I do believe it is an album.

And What is the name of the #5 Album on the BILLBOARD ADULT CONTEMPORARY chart? LEt's say it together childern --- THE BEATLES "1".

NOw children let's explore our new discovery. OH my, what is this at track 24 -- why it's a song children. Can you guess the name of the song?

What's that? I didn't here you? SOMETHING? Why yes children you are correct -- the name of the song ON A CURRENT BILLBOARD TOP 10 ALBUM is "SOMETHING"

NOw, let's say it together -- this week's theme is BILLBOARD TOP 10!!!!

Very good children. I knew you could do it.

[floridaobserver]

You are telling me a 35 year old song is on the Top Ten in 2006? That makes no sense. What else is on the Top Ten, Strangers in the Night, and Louie Louie?

[commish]

THe album is on the charts, so the song was within the rules of the theme.

That said, I do agree that Taylor played the system for everything it was worth. BUT, it was within the rules for the night, and this whole competition is about song choice song choice song choice -- and Taylor did his research and found a gem.

[over3Owithabrain]

That said, I do agree that Taylor played the system for everything it was worth. BUT, it was within the rules for the night, and this whole competition is about song choice song choice song choice -- and Taylor did his research and found a gem.

Plus it was sweet payback for AI pulling "Tenderness" last week because it wasn't a love song. Tay-Tay staged a litte rebellion last night and scored big.

[silent_jonny]

Morning, Hetty :)

We're left with a small cadre of exceptionally decent young singers, whose screwups now are no longer because they are fundamentally bad singers, but just the result of ordinary week-to-week bobbles.

I agree.

(Elliot) I hope that "I want to go home" will not be realized literally, but fear that it may be.

Me too. Two bad song choices from him--even though I kinda sorta liked the first one (that's not much of an endorsement, is it :-/)

I was totally distracted by her knee-walking routine. I have to admit that for me, it heightened her resemblance to Monica Lewinsky

Uh ... no comment ;)

[silent_jonny]

OMG, Jonny, I haven't laughed that hard in a week!!!

My job here is done!

Here, have an Ace's Scar on the house :)