Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Surfing Through "American Idol"

A goofy, dorky night on "Idol."

Elliott -- his first song was pretty good. It wasn't much more than an imitation of George Benson's "On Broadway," but it was a good imitation. His cover of "Home," (the Michael Buble song) was poor, though, weak and colorless. Just not a fan of his voice.
Paris -- smart of her to play young. But Paris brought no style to Prince's "Kiss." She did a little better with Mary J. Blige, but still...I think this was her last week.
Chris -- his first performance was far, far better than anyone else. His second was an uninspiring take of an uninspiring song and he did indeed sound like he was going to blow out his vocal cords in the middle of it. So much more of a pro than the others.
Katharine -- a dull, meandering take on a Phil Collins song followed by one of her most delightful performances (from on her knees) of some light ditty I'd never heard of. Just when I'd written her off again.
Taylor -- "Play That Funky Music" is such an obvious choice for Taylor, but he still did okay by it. If I saw him in a tiny bar, I'd think, 'This guy is fun.' But he doesn't seem to have the chops for anything more than a good covers band. His cover of the Beatles's "Something" was typical -- a few moments that capture the ear but as a whole just a guy working his way through a song, not a "performance" that really captures you.
Judges -- Simon accidentally said Katharine's first performance was "by far your best" when he meant to say "far from your best." But apparently Ryan and the others have stopped listening to him. When he tried to correct himself, Ryan acted like Simon had lost his mind.

Bye Paris. Join a jazz band, start studying the standards and see us in 10 years.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that Paris is most likely to go, but I think its unfortunate because those were two of her better performances in my opinion (especially the Mary J Blige song).

I've never been a fan of Elliot but I thought his voice showed a lot of promist last night.

Chris was good in the first song but I was in pain listening to him the second time around. It was like watching AJ Burnett try to throw 95 mph with a sore elbow.

Katharine was absolutely wretched in the first song -- the worst I've ever heard her -- but she completely redeemed herself the second time around. That's the kind of soulful jazzy tune that she needs to establish as her niche (if its possible to establish a niche this late in the competition).

Taylor's first song was a lot of fun -- I definitely enjoyed it. I was kind of bored by the second song even though I'm a fan of it.

By the way -- no more posting as "anonymous" for me. Gotta put a name to these enlightening posts.

Michael in New York said...

Welcome to the world of non-anonymity! I agree with all your comments -- and thanks for the first baseball/Idol cross-reference. Katharine's first # was very bad, though she's been close to that far off the rails before. I don't know who can give Chris his biggest challenge -- maybe Katharine, maybe Elliott, maybe Taylor. But since Chris has been the most consistent, he seems to be in the driver's seat. Paris could be really good in five to ten years.