American Idol 2012

So, before I go on with my review, let me just say that when IJAG posted the set list earlier today, Rhody and I spent a half hour talking Idol and made a bet that we could guess who was going to sing what. The winner gets lunch next week.

Hollie Cavanagh “Rolling in the Deep”—First off, damn it, I thought we had a moratorium on Adele songs this season? Or was that just something I wished for? And while I thought Skylar would be the one to sing this, Hollie doing it is not a surprise. She just had to pick the done-to-death track. She had to pick the one song that would bore me. If I never, ever heard Adele sing this and never, ever heard Haley Reinhart sing this in a unique way last season, I might have liked this but I don’t think she really added anything to this. Just another lame attempt at channeling Adele. Just another forgettable performance by someone who used to be my favorite. 4/10.

Colton Dixon “Bad Romance”—Shit. I thought for sure he was singing Born this Way. Still. I kind of liked this. I’ve been dogging Colton and Phillip for doing the same thing week after week and, if nothing else, this was closer to the Colton I’d like to see post-Idol, the rocker-version of him. I liked that he changed the song up and made it his own. He wasn’t going to match Gaga’s fun and flare but he made this entertaining and, better yet, didn’t have to behind a damn piano. Only problem I had with this was everytime they focused on his face, he looked like a fish that was just taken off of a hook. Good step forward for him though. 6/10.

Elise Testone “No One”—God I love Elise’s voice and her song choice here was spot-on. Not only did she look absolutely stunning but she looked, for really the first time this season, like a real spot-on artist. She looked like someone who would be singing on the Idol song with a real record. Her notes were flawless. She broke it up terrifically and she brought her growl in only when needed. Absolutely great effort. 8/10.

Phillip Phillips “U got it bad”—Finally, I get one right. I had a feeling P2 was going to do this and, man, did it deliver for me. I especially love the way he started the second verse. That was the Phillip I wanted to hear, less a DMB rip off than a DMB soundalike. Loved the way he brought his guitar in it and, for the first time, it didn’t seem like a crutch, which was nice. Just a nice, pleasant song to listen to and a strong performance that maybe, just maybe, will turn me on P-squared. 8/10.

Jessica Sanchez “Fallin’”—Another overdone Idol song. And this is coming from someone who has only been watching for a season and a half. Now, I admit I’m a little biased here because this is my wife’s go-to karaoke song and she is stunningly good at it but Jessica’s version of this kind of fell flat for me. And it’s not really her fault, it’s the problem a lot of Idol singers have when they have limited time to try to perform their track. The build-up to the best note of the song (“I … I … I!!!!”) was completely cut and the rest of the song just seemed rush. Liked her attempt to put some passion and growl in here but it was a bit too little, too late. 5/10.

Skylar Laine “Born this way”—I thought for sure Colton was going to sing this like a whiny bitch but it was interesting to see Skylar take it on instead. Didn’t make sense to me until she hit the chorus. Definitely a country version of it. Don’t know if I like it, per se, and it pales compared to what she’s done lately but she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And I really hated the ending of this. That pause before the final line really took away from the impact of the words and killed it for me. 4/10.

Joshua Ledet “I believe”—I’m not a huge fan of this song but I do like Joshua. Still, this was Joshua being predictable as usual and boring as usual. I love his voice and love his emotion but he just picks the dullest, most boring songs available. It’s like he’s trying to get booted Pia style. 3/10.

Hollie Cavanagh “Son of a preacher man’—Hollie is a goner this week. They put her on first. They mentioned soccer. America hates both. She’s done. I especially love the look back on Soul Train and the impact of soul music followed by … the whitest white girl left on the show. This was kind of fun but still not very good. It was Hollie singing words on a piece of paper and following a rhythm. I didn’t believe a worse she said and she failed to even connect with the song a little bit. I’ll give her credit in that, like Randy said, she finished it kind of strong but still, not very good. Not very good at all. 3/10.

Colton Dixon “September”—Ah, shit. Behind the piano again. Damn it. That was my initial reaction. Then I heard what he did with this track and it was just about perfect. I enjoyed the take on this silly-sounding, dated song and, stripped down, it’s actually a beautifully written piece of music. I would have never noticed that if he didn’t Coltonize it. Was it a bit too close to what Colton’s been doing all season? Yes. But I really, really liked this. Can understand why the judges hated it though. 7/10.

Elise Testone “Let’s get it on”—Damn it. This woman is smoking hot and incredibly sexy. And I swear it’s not just the song choice this week though that certainly helps. I loved her take on this. She found a way to take a classic track that over the years has kind of become a parody in and of itself and made it something unique and wonderful. I loved when she stopped singing parts of it and kind of flirted the lyrics instead. The growl was fun too. I enjoyed that. A good effort. Not quite as good as her first effort tonight but a solid 5/10.

Phillip Phillips “In the midnight hour”—I was really hoping Phillip was going to sing “Let’s get it on”. Sadly disappointed. I actually had to restart this one because I wasn’t paying attention. It was kind of boring actually. My first problem was his shit-eating grin throughout the whole first verse. It was like someone was in his ear demanding he smile at all times and it looked ridiculous. After that, I had a major problem with the fact that he was kind of drowned out by the band behind him. A little too much going on. This was just painful to watch and, for the first time, I think I finally understand why Colton seems to have an edge on P2 for the spot as favorite. I’ll give Phillip this, though, his last big note was really, really strong. Overall, though, a 4/10 at best.

Jessica Sanchez “Try a little tenderness”—You know, for the first time tonight, Jessica looks truly rattled. She looks like that vote last week got to her. I’ll give her this much, though. If she’s going down, she’s going down swinging. What she did with her voice here was awesome. I loved her anger and yelling the final words and she basically went up and down the entire vocal scale from start to finish. This was an amazing technical effort. Bored the shit out of me though. I’ll give her a 6/10 because, let’s face it, what’s going to do this girl in is entertainment value and these songs choices aren’t doing her any favors.

Skylar Laine “Heard it through the grapevine”—Did Skylar get a fake-tan in between songs? She looked half-black in the beginning of this song. As for her performance, I think this was another case of someone trying to take a well-known song, disregarding the entire thing that made it a classic and just singing the lyrics in their own style regardless of how it sounds. Sometimes it works. This time it didn’t. Frankly, this sucked. I still love her voice but this was just not good. At all. Nothing redeeming here. At all. It was actually kind of painful to listen to. 2/10.

Joshua Ledet “A change is gonna come”—I love the setup to this song. “An emotional civil rights anthem by Joshua” followed by a clip of him in the back smiling and playing with a toy. Really? Still, when Josh finally came out, he looked like a freaking star. Best style upgrade I’ve seen all season long. As for the performance? Not quite sure why the judges stood up for it. It was solid. Very powerful stuff but, still, not that exciting to watch. We know Joshua is gifted vocally but, apart from last week, he’s never really entertaining or fun. Of course, he almost got the boot last week so what do I know? A strong 7/10 but he’s still not reaching his true potential.

My Rankings:
1. Colton Dixon
2. Elise Testone
3. Phillip Phillips
4. Jessica Sanchez
5. Joshua Ledet
6. Hollie Cavanagh
7. Skylar Laine

My prediction: Given the No. 1 spot and her past history, I’m going to once again say Hollie is gone. I think in this field she’s the weakest link left. I’ll put her, Elise and Skylar in the bottom three. From here, I think we lose Hollie this week, Elise next week, Jessica in the bottom five, Joshua in the final four, Phillip in the round of three and see a final of Colton beating Skylar and disappointing all of us in the process.

Oh and for those who care, I beat out Rhody 5-3 in picking the right artist/song combo. Yes. We both sucked.

 

Easiest theoretical money I ever won.

I'm starting to think Colton's going to win this thing, which is a shame. He's talented and all, but when I hear him sing, I feel absolutely nothing.

I thought they were too hard on Elise with her second song. She was much better than they gave her credit for being. But it's not like she's going to win, so who cares at this point?

And seriously, when is someone going to put out a YouTube mash-up of Phillip Phillips and Dave Matthews? The judges praise him for being an original performer, but his dancing, growling and facial contortions are cribbed directly from Dave Matthews (with a little Joe Cocker thrown in). Very entertaining performer, but let's call a spade a spade for once.

Joshua and Skylar were good. Not great, but good enough. They're safe.

And schiez, Skylar's a product of the music system that defines "country" as "pop with a steel guitar and/or fiddle accompaniment." It is what it is.

Elise goes home in a close vote with Hollie. Jessica also in the bottom 3 (she deserves it this week).

 

Well, I was wrong about that one. Colton's gone. I'll be damned.

 

Uh, so what happens to the show if a white guy doesn't win this year? Do they cancel season 12?

 

My mom is certainly pissed. No less than seven irate texts have come my way.

I am surprised it wasn't one of the blondes.

 

I don't know that we'll find out. This pretty much clears the way for Phil-Phil.

 

Holy crap. I am legit shocked right now. Wow. Did not see that coming.

Can't say I'm bummed out as Colton was kind of a one-trick pony but I'm surprised as hell. I especially thought he was safe after that beautiful performance of September last night.

So, my guess is Skylar has to be PUMPED about this. Colton was her biggest challenge in the white people vote. But there's still time for P2 to do his thing and sneak in.

Very surprising tonight.

 

Shows what happens when you mess with an E,W&F song. It's not emo dude. It's funk. See ya.

 

Yeah, surprised but not displeased. The further he got, the more annoying and overconfident Colton seemed to get. And they picked the right week to get his sister on stage. And I hate her more. When they asked, "Are you getting ready for next year," she said she didn't know if she'd audition. Yeah, because it might screw up your prime schedule at Starbucks.

The more I think about this, it's Phillip's to lose, really. And we should have all known months ago. It's always a cute white guy with a guitar. But Skylar and Jessica should be in the final three. Mark that down before I change my mind. If I say anything else, point it out.

 

I freaking LOVE Queen, so tonight could either be great or a disaster. There is no in-between (though almost certainly the latter).

First round:

Jessica's "Bohemian Rhapsody" was fine on the slow parts, but she really struggled with the fast section as the judges pointed out. Really tough song, and you've got to admire her ambition.

I don't really care for "The Show Must Go On," but Skylar did fine with it ... I guess. I kinda tuned out, to be honest.

The way Joshua put the black preacher "-ah" (think Arsenio Hall in "Coming to America") on the end of every syllable in "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" annoyed me. The judges loved it, so again, I might just be too biased as a Queen fan.

You had to figure Elise was best suited for tonight's theme among the remaining contestants, and I thought she knocked "I Want It All" out of the park. Still probably not enough to save her, though.

I thought Phillip's head was going to explode during the first part of "Fat Bottomed Girls" and it seemed like he really ran out of gas toward the end. Still, he'll sail into the finals now that Colton is gone.

Queen's "The Game" was the first rock n' roll album I owned of my own volition, so I love "Save Me." Hollie did very well with it ... until the end. The big note was ba-rutal.

Second round:

"Dance With My Father" is one of those songs, like "Hallelujah" or anything by Adele or Carrie Underwood, that should be banned from American Idol in the future. It's been done to death. Jessica did it fine. I still hate it.

For Skylar, the guitar is as useless a prop as it is for Paul Stanley. Also, LA-based steel guitar players must love American Idol — it's the only time they can get work. That said, Skylar's a great singer and a great performer. But I just hate her genre of music. They also never said the name of the song or who sings it (or maybe they did. I was fast-forwarding a lot).

Joshua did another song I don't know (and that they didn't introduce by name or original artist). The guy's a great singer, though, and might be able to squeeze his way past Jessica and Skylar into the finals.

Elise also did a song I didn't know, and I actually agree with Randy's assessment. All the scatting she did seemed affected. She was good, but definitely lost some momentum from the first half of the show.

I would have listened closer to Phillip's second performance, but I was distracted by the giant saxo-mo-phone the girl on the right was playing. Song was kind of all over the place, but there's no point in analyzing him anymore because he's obviously safe (though I'm glad he finally embraced his DMB clone-ness).

Hollie did fine with her second song, but she still suffers from the fact that she and Jessica have the same style and Jessica does everything better. She might survive another week, but has NO CHANCE to make the top 4.

Who goes home? On merit, it should be Hollie. But it will still probably be Elise.

 

That's the first time I've watched Idol since Simon Cowell left. While the talent was about the same, the entertainment value of the show has dropped way off.

Can't believe I heard Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix on there. It was done extremely poorly, but it's such an oddball choice, I don't think the judges were familiar with it, aside from Steven Tyler, so they didn't know any better.

 

Jessica Sanchez “Bohemian Rhapsody”—OK, first off, there’s absolutely NO WAY Jessica ever heard of Queen, let alone a Queen song, before preparing for this week. All I could think during the preshow get together was that Jessica was probably like “Who are these drifters and when does the Queen get here?” So when I heard she was singing this, I was a little worried. Not as worried as when I saw the three Jessica heads in the background. CREEPY. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, she went up-tempo and basically took a dump on what is one of the greatest songs of my childhood. I thought this song was going to be nailed tonight. The only nail was the one inside Jessica’s coffin on this show. 2/10.

Skylar Laine “The Show Must Go On”—I wasn’t too familiar with this song as I really only know the most well-known Queen songs but I thought this was a good effort by Skylar. She looked comfortable with the song and used the power of her voice perfectly. This was a strong effort by a true dark horse in this race. 7/10.

Joshua Ledet “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”— I don’t know if I liked this or not. I love Joshua’s voice and have since the start of this season but I don’t know if this song was really the best one he could have chosen. Vocally, he was perfect and the performance was strong but it just didn’t really work with the song. For me, of course. Clearly the judges loved it because, well, they love him. I guess it was just a case of someone changing a song up a little too much for me to like it. 5/10.

Elise Testone “I want it all”—Elise is quickly becoming my favorite performer on this show. Last week’s rendition of “No One” has been on constant repeat on my iTunes since Friday. This? This wasn’t as good as that but it was terrific. I like Elise because she’s a true underdog here. She might be the most talented all-around performer left on the show but it’s clearly a young man’s game and that’s why she’s probably not going to make the finale. But efforts like this show she belongs there. She brings a passion to her music that no one else here has. She sings it like she wrote it herself and is thinking about the source of her inspiration. Strong, strong effort from a strong, strong performer. 7/10.

Phil Phillips “Fat-Bottomed Girls”—Why would they include this in the medley if P2 was going to sing it individually? Seems like a pretty dumb decision. Watching Phillip sing this, I can’t help buy marvel at how awful he looks on stage. He looks like a shy kid who doesn’t know where to put his hands and it’s painfully awkward to watch. I think Phillip would have been better served going with a different queen song because this, coupled with his appearance, might have put him in the bottom three. 5/10.

Hollie Cavanagh “Save Me”—Leave it to Hollie to find the Queen song that sounds most like Celine Dion. That being said, she looked stunningly beautiful tonight and the song was perfect for her. A lot of notes for her to crush with that amazing voice of her, a lot of chances for her to go from low to incredibly high and, of course, it was boring as shit. Hollie has got a great career ahead of her but it’s not going to be as a stage performer because she is so, so dull. 5/10.

Jessica Sanchez “Dance with my father”—Now this is the type of song that Jessica should be singing. A truly understated classic and she did this beautifully. So soft, so emotional. Yes, she’s 16 but on this, she seemed so much older. This song also really showed off her vocals, not that we needed more examples here but, man, this was so so good. 8/10.

Skylar Laine “Tattoos on this town”— This was another strong Skylar effort but, really, at this point whenever she does country it’s all going to blend together. I get that she’s courting a particular group of voters and this no doubt made them happy but until that final note, this did nothing for me. I won’t knock it as I get why she did what she did. Just wish she would show more range because that’s where she’s at her best. 4/10.

Joshua Ledet “Ready for Love”—I have never heard this song before in my life but this seemed perfect for Joshua. I really, really wish this would have led to a big, crescendo moment because that could have taken this to a new level. I do wonder about the mainstream appeal of this song and I wouldn’t be surprised if this bites him in the butt and that’s a shame because this was good and showed off a very, very talented singer. 7/10

Elise Testone “Bold as Love”—Hendrix? Really? Holy crap. I can’t believe Elise went with this. I’m actually amazed and would love to see her thought process here. This was a fun effort but, like Joshua, I wonder if she forgot that this show is determined by 12 year old girls. I think this effort, while good, just sent Elise home. Kudos to Steven Tyler for talking truth. 4/10

Phil Phillips “The Stone”—Well, he finally did it. He finally embraced it. He just said ‘Hey, to hell with it. Why bother being creative?’ I hate Dave Matthews Band so, so much. So much. And, because of that, I had a hard time enjoying this. But, putting my bias aside, I can say that I think this was solid. It was good for what Phillip wanted it for and while I hate it and question why he would try this in this spot here, it’s not like it was awful. Just completely forgettable. 5/10.

Hollie Cavanagh “The Climb”—Hollie just punched her ticket to the final five. Popular song, well known, good version of it. She’s sticking around because, like J Lo said, it’s all about song choice, my friends and as long as she didn’t poop herself here, she was going to be fine. And she did pretty solid. I liked this but, then again, I like this song. Was it Hollie’s best? No. But it was her best lately and, at this stage of the game, that’s all that matters. 7/10

My rankings:
Hollie Cavanagh
Joshua Ledet
Skylar Laine
Elise Testone
Jessica Sanchez
Phil Phillips

My predicition: Elise, Joshua and Jessica are in the bottom three. Elise is going home. Sad but true.