Tuesday, April 6, 2010

American Idol Top 9 "Get Back" to the Lennon-McCartney songbook

Imagine there's no Tim Urban. It's easy if you try....

Once again, American Idol is hoping contestants draw inspiration -- and great performances -- from the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, even though all nine of them were born waaaaaay after the Beatles broke up and John Lennon was shot.

Also, note to Aaron Kelly: please please please do not go the David Archuleta route and sing "Imagine." While it created a nice moment for Archie, despite Ryan's confusion, you are not him. And I swear, if I hear one more Idol contestant attempt that song I will turn off the TV.

Now on with the show. And speaking of the young Jedi, who should be first up tonight but...

Aaron Kelly (aka "Yoda"): The spouse just moaned "Noooo. Bad song to begin with; bad song choice," when he heard that Aaron Kelly would be singing "The Long and Winding Road." And I gotta agree. Sorry "Long and Winding Road" fans. Sappy song. Not Lennon and McCartney's greatest hit (IMHO). And even though I've grown to like Aaron, it felt, to use a Simonism (or two), "very karaoke," and "very boring." (Also, for the record, I thought "Long and Winding Song" before Ellen said it.) Not a good night for the young Jedi. My grade for Aaron Kelly: C+

Katie Stevens: Can American Idol please ban "Let It Be," the song and the album, from ALL future American Idol shows? PLEEEEASE? Katie did a nice job with the song -- wasn't pitchy at all (yay!) -- but COME ON, it was another slow, boring performance, and pray tell me how she changed up the song and "made it her own"? And I like Katie. My (really "our") grade for Katie Stevens (which is being heavily influenced by the spouse and child who really liked Katie's performance): B+

Andrew Garcia: FINALLY, an upbeat song, and I LOVE "Can't Buy Me Love." (Please don't switch it up and screw it up, Andrew. I will NOT forgive you.) Bumpy start, though thought it go a bit better towards the middle. However, the spouse, who was a musician, back in the day, just called it "schlock" and "cheap" and said "Simon is right." And being a good wife, I defer to him. (Also, what is the deal with the pompadour, Andrew? Were we going for a rockabilly/Brian Setzer or Buddy Holly feel?) My (make that "our") grade for Andrew Garcia: C/C+

Michael Lynche (aka "Big Mike"): Ah, look at all the Lennon-McCartney songs.... Gotta admit, I didn't think "Eleanor Rigby" was a great song choice, but I thought Big Mike did a nice job with the song and made it "relevant" or "current" or whatever the kids call it these days. It didn't have that "wow" moment for me, and I didn't think that Michael was "incredible" (as Ellen said) or that his vocals were "on fire" (as Kara said), but it was a good performance. (And for the record, the singers on Glee are better than this year's American Idol contestants.) My grade for Michael Lynche: B

Crystal Bowersox (aka "Mamasox"): Best. Performance. Of. The. Night. "Come Together," indeed. Well, Crystal, everything came together in that performance, though, like Randy, I found the "whole didgeridoo thing" a bit distracting. Still. My grade for Crystal Bowersox: A.

Tim Urban (aka "Teflon Tim"): Well, Tim has all of someone's lovin', as he's managed to somehow make it into the Top 9 despite being in the bottom two or three every week (and being one of the worst singers EVER to make it into the American Idol finals), but he's got none of mine. I think the nicest thing I can type about Tim's version of "All My Lovin'" is "Well, it wasn't his worst performance." My grade for Tim (not that it matters one teensy eensy little bit, cause you know Tim is going to be around for at least another week): C+ -- though I give Tim's hair a B+

Casey James (aka "Hawt Boy"): Uh, what is the deal with Casey's hair tonight? And I wish he'd lose the white jacket. (The look totally screams "lounge singer," though Casey's better than that.) Not that familiar with "Jealous Guy," which is not a bad thing. Just means I've got nothing to compare this performance to. (Though the spouse thought it was a poor song choice, especially considering ALL the songs he had to pick from.) Not the best performance of the night (despite what Simon said), but solid. My grade for Casey James: A-

Siobhan Magnus (aka "the Singer from Another Planet"): Well, Siobhan certainly looks (and acts?) like she came to American Idol from "Across the Universe." Not my favorite song choice (of all the Lennon and McCartney songs she could have chosen, she chose this?!) -- and not a good arrangement (WAY too slow), but I still think Siobhan has a beautiful, amazing voice. Just was not her best performance. My grade for Siobhan Magnus: B

Lee DeWyze (aka "Andrew Garcia's Bitch"): Nooooooooo! Anything but "Hey Jude." Sigh. (The spouse said "He should have sung 'She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.'" Agreed. Though I thought Lee should have song "Come Together," or, like, a hundred other Lennon-McCartney songs.) Na na na na-na-na-na... WTF?! Is that a bagpipe player?! I give the guy with the kilt an A and Lee DeWyze a B+. (I LOVE Lee, but it was not his best performance. And seriously, bagpipes? WTF?)

And so we come to the end of another episode of American Idol. Who will be going home? I've got no clue. Though my Top 4 is still Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus, Casey James, and Lee DeWyze. Will update the post manana.

Btw, rumor has it that Adam Lambert is going to be next week's mentor. We shall see.

UPDATED 4/7/10: And the judges use the save on Big Mike Lynche. I think it was a mistake, but time will be the ultimate judge. So now two go next week. Rounding out the bottom three were Aaron Kelly and Andrew Garcia. And, as rumored, Adam Lambert will be the mentor next week.

9 comments:

Madam Toussaint said...

You're right, "Imagine" should not be touched on AI. I showed up late for this show but that never seems like a big deal for me this season.

Sorry to hear that about Andrew. Maybe the pompadour goes with the Buddy Holly glasses and his whole hipster thing.

You're right about the Glee singers. The Black singer on Glee was an American Idol cast off wouldn't you know it! They gave her the thumbs down. I think about that whenever I watch Glee now.

Tim's hair gets a higher grade than Tim does? Hilarious.

Casey had a good performance and he's looking like a contender now.

Siobhan Magnus: Seems like she's got some work to do in convincing people he's human and not so strange you can't relate to her. Too slow, a little boring, still like her a lot.

Lee DeWyze: Getting more confident and actually looking better every week. Bagpipes were weird, not my fav performance.

I'm liking your top 4 but I still love Andrew Garcia. I'm pulling for him but I have no clue who's going home. When will Tim go home???

Anonymous said...

YOU rock J!

marindenver said...

Aaron's headed for the bottom three - think he's cute as a button but wrong song, blah performance.

Katie was better than I expected her to be. I'm kind of impressed.

Andrew was karaoke city. Bottom three.

Michael - I dunno. OK. Not much beyond that.

Crystal once again solid and cool. I'll be downloading her studio version for my "Remembering her back when she was on Idol" CD.

Tim was actually pretty cute! He'll have the teeny bopper vote this week.

Hawt Boy was Red-Hawt Boy this week. Great song choice - working the edgy hawt boy now.

Siobhan? Beautiful. Just beautiful. Can't say much more.

Lee. . . I don't know. Kind of a mess I thought. And I like him! Could be bottom three, though.

Or Michael. Getting hard to say.

Overall I thought it was a good week for most of them.

And srsly you heard Glambert will be the mentor next week!?! YAY if true!

Unknown said...

A national poll conducted by Mediacurves.com on 3,305 American Idol viewers found that the contestant with the lowest percentage of votes, who should be eliminated from the top 9 on tonight’s show, was Aaron Kelly, with 3.8% of the votes. The study parallels American Idol voting to determine the weekly winners based on a democratic, “one person, one vote” methodology.
More in depth results can be seen at: http://www.mediacurves.com/Entertainment/J7760-AmericanIdol-4-7-10/Index.cfm
Thanks,
Ben

Aunt Becky said...

Imagine touched by that douche? I'm Furious George! Actually, I was upset to have missed the show until I heard they were doing the Lennon/McCartney stuff. Then I was happier because I would have heckled the TV.

Glad you sent me this! I didn't know what had happened. I heard the Twitter rumblings, but didn't know why.

J. said...

@ben: So much for mediacurves.com.

So in case y'all didn't catch tonight's results show, Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia, and Michael Lynche were in the bottom three -- with Michael Lynche receiving the fewest votes. But, of course, the judges unanimously saved Big Mike, which I think make prove to be a big mistake. We shall see. At any rate, hopefully next week Tim Urban will be one of the two contestants voted off.

Unknown said...

@J.

The discrepency between our results and the show's elimination pick is due to the fact that the show allows viewers to vote multiple times. We use a polling menthodology similar to what Gallup uses to guage presidential elections, which only allows viewers to vote once for a single contestant. More information on our results and methodology can be found at http://www.mediacurves.com/

J. said...

@ben, that may be, but if your polling methodology produces an incorrect result, what good is it? Your methodology may be more democratic, but it's still inaccurate.

Unknown said...

@J.
Our goal was not to predict who would be voted off American Idol. Our goal was to guage who should be eliminated if their voting system was democratically based. We are not basing the accuracy of our results off of what occurs on the show.

However, we can statistically support the accuracy of our results. The studies we conduct reflect a randomly selected sample that comes from a large national panel matched to the demographics and characteristics of the US population. With the current sample size used for this study we are operating on a 95% confidence level, which is standard for this industry. As such, our results are statistically relevant and generalizable the US population.

Thanks for your interest in our studies.
Ben