American Idol 2012

It's "Fortunate Son," schiez.

 

Sorry. Like I said, a lot of songs this week I knew but didn't know the titles. I usually double-check Wikipedia to make sure I got all the titles right if I'm not sure but I didn't want to get spoiled with the results before watching the show.

Also, it sucked.

 

What sucks is that Skylar is a far better performer than Lauren Elaina, who made the top two last year. It's just that there was no Joshua or Jessica in last year's competition. (Well, there was a Jessica, but Pia Toscano got bounced early. I guess you could compare Joshua to Jacob Lusk, but Joshua's far more commercial and not as polarizingly outspoken).

 

Holy mother of god. I just rewound Joshua's second performance and watched it again. It's even better the second time.

 

And Phillip Phillips is still going to win.

 

You know, I've not been invested in this season. I could pick the final four out of a lineup, but I couldn't really tell you anything about their voices or their strengths or weaknesses. I've actually deleted the past two weeks without watching them. Just happen to be home tonight and my TV has to be on this channel since it's recording.

But now, that reality pisses me off. It hadn't before, because again, I didn't care about them. But holy fuck can that kid blow.

 

The last two performances of the night, by Joshua and Jessica, might have been the two best of the season by anyone.

 

For reals.

 

I never really got when folks said Jessica Sanchez was a boring singer.

If anybody still feels that way after that final song tonight, I'm at a total loss.

Yes, Ledet was goosebump-worthy, too.

And I'll tell you all right now. Philip Phillips very well might win this. But if he does win this, it won't be a victory for music. It'll simply show the demographics of the voting public.

 

My enthusiasm for this show is waning but, hey, it’s the Final Four and we’re so close to the finale that I may as well power through.
So, in the immortal words of Ryan Seacreast … here … we go …

First things first, I forgot how much I liked the new Carrie Underwood song so kudos to Idol for reminding me to download it. Now, as for the show itself …

Phillip Phillips “Have you ever seen the rain?”—It’s nice to see that someone told P2 that he looked like a miserable grump last week. This was a nice improvement over last week’s kind of “mailed in” performances but it is still the efforts of a man who probably thought he’d be long gone from this show by now. The song itself was a safe, boring and vanilla choice and because Phillip didn’t even bother to tweek it in any way that he has this season, this sounded like the musical equivalent of a game of Madden in which you simulated to get to the playoffs. There was a brief moment where it ALMOST looked like P2 was going to let loose and have fun but then it was gone, in an instant. Shame. If Phillip had even a smidgen of the showmanship Casey Abrams showed last year, he could be something special. Instead, this is forgettable at best and mediocre at worst. 3/10.

Hollie Cavanagh “Faithfully”—Nice video package finally reminded me why I was rooting for Hollie in the first place. Great song selection, great look but, sadly, poor execution. I wanted to root for her here. I really did and I was talking myself into liking it right up until the end. Sadly, I just can’t endorse this. How can you take a song from Journey, one of the most over-the-top cheesy bands ever, and make it sound like a commerical voiceover listing the sideeffects of a new baldness medication? Don’t get me wrong. It was beautiful and she nailed the high notes here perfectly but that was so, so, so dull. I guess if we’re grading this on technical measures, she nailed this but, man, I had no interest in this whatsoever. 4/10.

Sidenote: Good to know Jason Derulo is still accepting lyric submissions for his “hit song”. It’s not like you need to have a fully-written track to know it’s a “hit” nowadays or anything.

Back to the show…

Joshua Ledet “You Raise Me Up”—Interesting song choice. Not surprised Joshua went with this. This is pretty much a Joshua Ledet-type song and the addition of the choir was Idol’s way of literally hammering that point home. I wouldn’t be surprised if the show’s coronation of this guy as the next superstar turns a lot of people off to him. And this performance? Nothing special. It started off as if he was going for that moment on the show that was going to define him but before the first verse was even over, he was settling back into “comfortable glide” mode and didn’t really do anything impressive. Sure, his voice is really, really good but everyone at this stage can sing. This was kind of bland, kind of forgettable. Nice to see the Jacob Lusk choir getting some work though. Lord knows he’s not. 5/10.

Jessica Sanchez “Steal away”— I appreciate Jessica’s effort to wake me up with this track and I especially loved her Haley Reinhart-like growl but the song itself was just kind of blah for me. Still, nice to hear a different side of her voice and I imagine that if she gets the right material, she could make some awesome tracks just going from growl to soft and back again. Sadly, her 6/10 wins an incredibly full first round.

Joshua Ledet and Phillip Phillips “This Love”—Man, I wish I was in the creative meeting for this set design. It’s like someone said “Hey, we’ve got a white guy and a black guy. Let’s randomly put a black piano next to a white piano so people can get that these two are totally different but together!”. Dumb asses. But they’re nowhere near as idiotic as Steven Tyler, aka Mr. Burger King, who called this “perfect”. What was perfect? On their own, I’m confident either of these two could have put out a fun version of this song but, together, it sounded like a bag of smashed assholes. I couldn’t believe Joshua meant any of the words he was singing because, well, I can’t picture him liking girls. NTTAWWT, of course. And Phillip almost had me into the song at the end once it went high-tempo rock but his continued uncomfortableness on stage make it took like he was singing at gun point. I was glad when this was over. 4/10.

Jessica Sanchez and Hollie Cavanagh “Eternal Flame”—Now this is a duet. Seriously. This was so, so, so good. I could have done without the swingsets which were just awkward but the first verses for both of these two were perfect. Nice pace, a chance for both to kind of do their thing and when they went to combined vocals, it wasn’t nearly as good but it didn’t sound as forced as the other duets this season. It helped, of course, that they two had voices that kind of complimented each other but I thought this was the best effort of the night up to this point. 8/10.

Top Four “Waiting for a girl like you”—Man, I’m so glad they weren’t singing ‘I wanna know what love is’. My hatred of group performances on this show has been well-documented but I actually really liked this. The pacing was terrific and, thankfully, the four contestants didn’t trip over themselves here which was nice to see. Each singer got to showcase their unique voices here and everyone sounded great. This could be a good band with a nice mix of vocal talents. I’d listen to this group sing some more, which is the first time I’ve said that following a group number. 8/10.

Phillip Phillips “Volcano”— I wonder who Jimmy was referring to when he said P2 sounded too much like another artist. (No, I don’t wonder at all). Jimmy was right though. This was something unique, different and special for Phillip. Granted, I had never heard of this track before tonight but I can totally see this being another “Everything” from Colton. I didn’t get that song at first but it grew on me immensely the more I listened to it and it became “Colton’s song”. This was so soft and yet powerful. I’ve said it before that I think Phillip has abused the guitar this season but this was absolutely perfect for him. The undressed set, spotlight-only design was terrific. 7/10.

Hollie Cavanagh “ I can’t make you love me”— When I saw the front page of Yahoo describe someone on Idol “failing” at a song, I immediately thought it had to be Hollie. She was in the most danger here. This worried me. The first verse was only so-so, nothing special. I liked the start of the chorus but I couldn’t stop listening to Jimmy warn her not to over-sing this. Part of the biggest problem, in my opinion, was the distracting stage show going around what was supposed to be a touching performance. I just picture Phillip’s song before this and Jessica’s second song last week and see how those performances were made all the more special by the way the backdrops, lighting and what have you stayed out of the way. The background of this, with the yellow spotlights and the random and in the way violin players, took away from the emotional impact and really hurt her here. I honestly think it’s enough for her to get the boot. That bad. Shame, too, because I thought it was a great vocal performance otherwise. 5/10.

Joshua Ledet “This is a man’s world”— Let’s face it. Joshua is a bit feminine, right? Well, not here he wasn’t. This was freaking awesome and, surprisingly, I actually believed Joshua when he started belting the second chorus out here with some fire and some passion. About halfway through the song, they cut to Randy rocking out to this and it’s with good reason. This was unbelievably awesome. This might well have been Joshua’s moment tonight. Bravo. Freaking top-notch. Right amount of anger, right amount of passion and that high note he hit randomly in the middle was both unexpected and unmatched. 9/10.

Jessica Sanchez “And I’m telling you”— Lots of praise by Jimmy on this one. I couldn’t imagine Jessica matching that kind of introduction and she didn’t but, let me tell you, this was very, very good. I don’t think this was a big game-changing moment, not by any stretch, but this was really powerful and emotional and Jessica looked so much older than a 16-year-old, despite her ridiculously awful blue/purple shirt combo. Solid effort, only dwarved by the song before it. 8/10.

My rankings:

1. Joshua Ledet
2. Jessica Sanchez
3. Phil Phillip
4. Hollie Cavanagh

My prediction: I don’t know if they’re going to break the four up into a top-two and bottom-two but, either way, I think my rankings actually hold this week. You can flip-flop Joshua and Jessica if you’d like but those two were clearly the two best tonight and Hollie has got to go. For sure.

See ya tomorrow, folks.

 

I don't know how we feel dialidol.com numbers these days, but all three indicators point toward an ugly result tonight.

Hollie has the best numbers overall.

And Joshua has the worst.

 

Thank god. You scared me.