Wednesday, March 21, 2007

American Idol 3/20

I really enjoyed the theme this week: British Invasion. Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, and Lulu were there helping the guys and gals get their 60s on. The good news is, nobody was horrible. On the flip side, that means Sanjaya could stay another week, as his performance was on caliber with a couple of other bottom-of-the-heap contestants.

Haley Scarnato - "Tell Him"
For me, this song wasn't that great for her. She was definitely trying to appeal to the audience, though, strutting around, wearing teeny shorts and a top with no back. She looked like she was going to go straight to the clubs after the show. I thought it was a great example of how she's just not as good as the other ladies she's up against.

Chris Richardson - "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying"
I like watching Chris sing. He seems genuinely serious about the competition and really trying to improve each week. He took Peter's advice to let the melody through, and I think it worked. It seems like he has to really stretch not to run it up and down on each line, but he managed to hold it to just a few times in this one. He has a great voice and stayed on key, which is more than I can say about half the people here.

Stephanie Edwards - "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"
This week, I thought Stephanie's performance just sounded like a bad Beyonce ripoff. Beyonce has that vibrato voice that makes her sound almost off key, and Stephanie sounded like that only she actually sounded off key to me (I refuse to say "pitchy"). Very iffy showing from someone who is outshined by two other women who sing the same kind of music.

Blake Lewis - "Time of the Season"
I'm just not really into the whole Blake gimmick. I understand he likes to beatbox, but it seems like if he wanted to modernize a song from the 60s, he would have picked one with a more universal message. A song about the Summer of Love isn't really something that translates well to modern day (though it is spring break time). I will give him this: it's not far off from the original "ch, ah!" in the song to the beatboxing he did, so it was a reasonable adaptation.

LaKisha Jones - "Diamonds Are Forever"
Wow. Okay, Lulu had suggested that LaKisha do another song over this one, and I really would have liked to see how she did that one. I thought she looked great, with the dress and diamonds and everything, but she honestly scared me a little. She sounded like an angry woman with vengeance on her mind, who is going to hole up in a little house with her diamonds. Plus, the song is a little creepy. Who wants to "caress and undress" their jewelry? She won't go home, but this performance just didn't do much for me.

Phil Stacey - "Tobacco Road"
I didn't like his arrangement of this song. It might have worked with the whole rock thing, had he not sped up the tempo so much. When he got to the part where he sings the title of the song, he had to slow it down so much, it sounded like two different songs glued together. Phil was in the bottom three last week, so he really should have put together something better than this.


Jordin Sparks - "I (Who Have Nothing)"
Jordin keeps climbing the charts with me every week. She's truly talented, and innocent enough to be likable. The judges are right, she does have an incredible amount of control with her voice. That first, quiet "I love you" in this performance just blew me away. She knows what to sing, and what to avoid oversinging. My favorite song of the night.

Sanjaya Malakar - "You Really Got Me"
I think this guy knows he's not going to win, so he's going to go out there and have fun. The great thing is, he turned in one of his best performances that way. His best is still not good enough to win, but it was nice to hear the judges being nice to him.


Gina Glocksen - "Paint It Black"
Saw this one coming. I'm worried that Gina is going to get pigeonholed into this goth/rocker role on the show, and not feel like she can do anything else. Come on, girl. You don't have to be Amy Lee every week. I like this song, but there was nothing spectacular about her version of it.

Chris Sligh - "She's Not There"
I still like Chris, but this wasn't my favorite from him. I think he lost a little bit of the vocal from wandering around the audience. I do like this song a lot, though, and I think he should be safe. I am a little tired of hearing about the Fro Patrol, but I guess that comes with the territory.


Melinda Doolittle - "As Long As He Needs Me"
Melinda likes the showtunes, huh? I actually liked Jordin's performance better, but still a very solid performance from the front runner.

Bottom Three: Haley, Phil, Sanjaya
Going Home: Haley

I have a sneaking suspicion Stephanie might knock one of these guys out of the bottom three, but I don't feel confident enough about it to predict that. We'll see.

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