Bad choice Jordin. "Livin on a Prayer" isn't a song that can be "sung" like she tried to.

But Phil fucking rocked Blaze of Glory.

hahaha BLAKE

fucking YES

Watching Melinda try to sing and act like a rocker is just.....sad.

She did not have a nice day.

My rank for the week:
1) Melinda
2) Phil
3) Blake
4) Lakeesha
5) Chris
6) Jordin

eh melinda was good. blake stole the show tonight though.

My ranking:

Blake, Melinda, Phil, Lakisha, Jordin, Chris.

So I only caught the recap. Was it as bad live as it was in the short 5 seconds I saw for everyone, because they all sounded like ass. Based on the little bit I saw, Chris sounded the best, which sees hard.

No, it was actually quite tolerable tonight.

I thought tonight was great. Melinda proved she is light years ahead of anyone else as a singer. Blake was by far the most entertaining and took the biggest risk but it kicked ass!!

I thought Jordan and Chris were horrible and Phil and Lakisha were great, Lakisha was the biggest surprise for me.

I'd rank them:

Blake
Melinda
LaKisha
Phil
Chris R
Jordin

Jordin was awful. She may be versatile, but she's not Janet Jackson (Black Cat) versatile. Chris R. picked probably the worst song possible, which showcased how thin and lacking in depth his voice is. But Jordin saved him, even though her good week last week should keep her pretty safe. Phil has been solid for 3 weeks in a row. Melinda would have been better had she not already done a Tina Turner-like performance, but this was a hard week for her and she pulled it off. LaKisha made the smartest choice of any of them for her style. Jordin was probably kicking herself halfway through LaKisha's song.

Great week, I hope they do more rock next year.

I'd reverse Jordin and Chris, but besides that I agree...

Thank god we got the "Fun Blake" again and it was awesome... this is the way he wins, not trying to show off his voice...

I'm very intrigued to see what his album would be like... I figure he gets one iether way, and I'm curious how much control they'd give him..

Blake and Melinda showed who should be the final two this week. Phil did a great job as well but he doesn't have enough outstanding past performances to deserve getting that much farther. LaKisha rebounded quite nicely, luckily for her she didn't get a chance to choose another past contestant's song this week.

Jordin picked a bad song for her voice and may have been the worst today, though I would love to say Chris was the worst.

I would say Chris and LaKisha to go based on the last two weeks but who really knows at this point.

I thought Melinda was horrible. She sounded like someone stuck her neck in a clothes wringer and twisted, and during this time she tried to get this song out. Yuck.
Phil sang it well, but once again the song was devoid of the Phil personality. What kind of album would he record? You just can't hear Phil, just a bunch of copycat performances (which are fairly good).
I think that Blake's performance was one of the best of the season. You KNOW what kind of album that Blake would record, and you hear him on everything that he does. Big risk, big reward.
Lakisha was great as well, she didn't try to force one out like Jordin this week, took a less "rocker" song and sang it.
I think the non-rockers should have realized that Bon Jovi is at the pop end of the rock spectrum, and that they could have picked a lot more material that's applicable to their voices and stayed away from the more rocky stuff.

One more thing ... didn't Ryan say that they played 2 songs each last week, and the same for this week? I only heard one.

Okay, so here it goes. After the most overrated week in American Idol history - a week in which Ryan Seacrest and his band of corporate suits preached non-stop about giving up the pretense, I mean, giving back, yet didn't have the chutzpah to tell us beforehand no one would be eliminated - they go ahead and feature the most overrated band in rock history.

A fraud followed by a fraud. Hey, it's all good when you can get the First Lady reading more awkwardly from her cue cards than Hortatio Sanz at an old Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal.

Yeah, I can just hear the Bubble Metal enthusiasts winding up for a rant. Can't I see that Jon Bon Jovi is a true musician? Can't I see that there's real talent behind these over-produced, Kiss-wannabe bubble anthems? Damn it all, an entire generation of sanitized pulsing power music afficianados grew up on this safe schlock. Surely that's better than Veronica kissing a puppy dog named Piz or Lorelai mooning after Luke because he wore the blue hat she gave him in seasons past while she threw away the love beads he pressed upon her after a whimsical moment at some Renaissance Festival long forgotten. Right? Am I right?

But I digress. There was some singing to be heard, and, truth be told, those who can't do, teach, and apparently either Jon Bon Jovi is a fairly good teacher, or these bubblicious power songs are designed to neatly hide amateurism. It wasn't a bad week, after all. Not bad at all. Even if the CW should be renaming their about-to-be-canceled 9:00 p.m. show "Mac and Cheese."

Oh, I'll keep the faith, even if this show seems to be on a lost highway these days. On to the rankings:

1. Melinda Doolittle. Not only can she sing, she can interpret a song as well. I can see why she likes the musicals genre, because she put together a nice acting performance along with her rendition of Have a Nice Day. It kinda makes you think the humility schlump may be a bit of an act. As always, a pro among pronouns. She could be a credible rocker. Score of 97.

2. Blake Lewis. Kudos for throwing in a pig snort and making Bon Jovi sound better for trying. The kid has one small bag of tricks, but he does it very well. If Bon Jovi is the guy who convinced Blake to stay out of his upper register, he did his coaching job very well this week for that reason alone. I'm not sure I liked it, but it was a solid performance and it was nice to see Blake back in the game. I'm also not sure whether this has made me root for his demise. He had better not go into nehru metal jacket again. Score of 87.

3. Phil Stacey. Randy's comparison to Steve Perry was very solid. There was always something a little nerdy about Perry, but Journey had its place among the solid rock acts of the late '70s and early '80s. I get the impression Phil works very hard at this, and when he does, he sometimes pulls together a nice, almost melodic nerd-rock tone. Score of 83.

4. LaKisha Jones. Out of all the singers tonight, I thought she best fit in with the Bubble Metal genre. Her natural inclination is to scream the lyrics a bit, and that fits in nicely with this week's theme, and hard rock in general. The problem is, it just wasn't a great singing performance. It started out very shaky and out of tune, but she ended up selling it well. It wasn't bad, it's authenticity is more an indictment of the musical genre itself. Score of 78.

5. Chris Richardson. Yes, he can sing in tune. But his tone is all wrong for this genre. Simon had it exactly right, the end result of his goatbleating was a performance that's hard to criticize, but excruciating to hear. I have little doubt his performance in tomorrow's double-results show will be his last. Score of 66.

6. Jordin Sparks. This not-so-little little girl has all the poise in the world. I just don't understand why she went for it on this song. She didn't get what the other women were doing at all, and just tried to belt it out more like a punk rock rendition (and if you think I don't like Bubble Metal, wait 'til you hear my thoughts about Punk). It was strained, and she knew it. She was beat this week worse than the Cowboy receivers used to beat her dear ol' Dad. By leaps and bounds her worst performance of the season. Score of 48.

Bottom 3: Chris, LaKisha, Phil.
Who Should Go: Chris and Phil.
Who Will Go: Chris and LaKisha.

Due to the indulgent Idol Gives Up crapfest, Jordin should benefit big-time from the carry-over from her very good performance last week. This might save her. It hurts Blake, who wasn't very good last week. But I think the response tonight will be very enthusiastic for him and it will be enough to save him.

HOW DARE NOBODY IN THIS THREAD LET ME KNOW BON JOVI WAS GUEST ON AMERICAN IDOL THIS WEEK

You hurt me today Jim, tear.

I LOVED Blake's performance tonight. However, I thought Melinda was great and agree with Jim in that I would give her the top score tonight. I thought Jordin had the worst performance of the night by a long shot. In fact, I would rank everyone in the same order that Jim did tonight. Melinda and Blake are the only two I would be shocked to see go.

Apparently you missed my post YESTERDAY MORNING.

I don't watch American Idol so I never really participated in this thread.

:(

Jim, with all due respect, you should stop tinkering with tedious numbers and write articles/books for a living. I would be your groupie. That was fucking brilliant to read.

Well written, but too much negativity. It makes you wonder why the guy even watches the show.

FWIW, I put Blake above Melinda because I "enjoyed" it more.. I realize Melindas was a more technically sound performance... I could easily swap the two and not feel guilty about it though.

I usualy agree with Jim but I couldn't disagree with him more this week. I think his dislike of Bon Jovi seeped into his write up to much.

I actually don't think Jordin's choice of song was bad at all. I think the version of the song she did was terrible. In the little clip with Bon Jovi she sounded good. Bon Jovi has done a couple different accoustic and more soulful versions of Livin on a Prayer. I can't for the life of me figure out why she didn't go that route.

Yeah, that was probably one of the least authentic headbanging moments I've ever seen. Jordin, my dear, you are not allowed to flip the horns ever again.

Yeah, that was probably one of the least authentic headbanging moments I've ever seen. Jordin, my dear, you are not allowed to flip the horns ever again.

I would die to see punk night on AI - and to read Jim's critique afterward. Of course, they'd come up with a neutered list of songs - Should I Stay or Should I Go, Rock the Casbah, anything by Green Day, and leave the goods on the table. Except Blake, who would have to go into hiding after his performance of "A-a-a-a-anarchy-ee in the U-u-u-u-u-u-k-K."

I agree, though, too much negativity from Jim about the music. Not only is Bon Jovi far from the worst/most overrated rock band in history (and I'm not fan of Bon Jovi, or at least I haven't been since I was about 17 years old), but given the slop we've been forced to listen to the past seasons, not just weeks, I'm a bit offended that Jim chose this week of all of them to lay into the coach/artist.

As much as I like Blake as an AI contestant, and even with what I thought was a great version of YGLABN last night, I'm even less interested in hearing an album of this stuff. It sounds neat in small doses and juxtaposed against boring/mediocre performances of crappy songs, but a whole album of it? No thanks. He is the perfect "sound bite" contestant for a show like this, but I can't see an entire album of half-beat box, half-moody crooner. I'm sure it would sell, but I don't see any staying power there at all.

No shit. Not only do I want a refund on all my purchases so far, but I'm done with Solecismic products.

That's a bit harsh, Logan. The football soap kicks much ass.

Not as much as Bon Jovi.

Sorry, didn't notice you are in New Jersey.

QFT

another Jersey guy here

Screw AI, at least Jim threw VMars a little recognition.

Strangely enough, dialidol.com has Jordin safely ahead of everyone based on last night's votes. Huh.

Is Bon Jovi really that popular these days? I kinda lost touch with him/them after high school - I knew he was out there, the band put out a few albums, he did his solo thing, etc., but kinda like Def Leppard, in a way, the band was "there" but not really making much of a splash. At least, that is my perception. They certainly weathered the grunge/anti-hair band backlash of the 90s and have benefited from the 80s resurgence, I guess. Are kids listening to them now? I just don't hear the name much these days, so it would surprise me to find out they still have a strong following.

Jon Bon Jovi's AFL team is on ESPN2 pretty much every fucking week. Screw Bon Jovi.

QFT * 2

They don't make stadiums big enough to prevent sellouts anywhere around the NY/NJ area.

I think it's more from my generation 25-35 that keeps him popular. His early music IMO is timeless, take the fact that Jordan was excited to sing a song that was recorded about 5 years before she was born, I think that is an indicator that they are still popular

It's My Life was a big song in 2000. That album, Crush had a huge tour. They still make an impact. Have a Nice Day in 2005 is a fairly popular as well. They were #2 on Billboard with that one for a while.

I'll draw ire here I'm sure, but as far as Jersey singers go, I think I like more Bon Jovi songs than I do Bruce Springsteen songs.

But then again...I'd probably say the same for Bruce Willis, too. :p

See, I'm surprised to see the ages you cite trending more young than older. I'm 36 and was into Bon Jovi with Runaway and through the New Jersey album. I'd expect someone who was younger than me by more than, say, 4 or 5 years, to have been caught up in the hair band backlash. If I had to guess I'd say 30-40 makes more sense to me.

But then again, I don't really find his music to be timeless, so I'm probably (unintentionally) discounting him because he's been so irrelevant to my musical tastes since high school. I never disliked him at any point, I just stopped listening to that kind of stuff once I got into college, and like most of those bands, they pretty much disappeared for a while when they were out of fashion. Good for them if they've managed to pick up some momentum in the past 5 or so years. I just haven't really seen or heard much about them since the early 90s.

I'm 23 and everyone I know, even if they don't like that style of music, loves Bon Jovi. Maybe it's just because of the area I'm in, but then again, when I would go and hang out with friends at different schools, they were huge there too. Plus his songs are monster hits in the bar, which always helps.

ditto

I plop Springsteen in the same pile with Johnny Cash and Nine Inch Nails. I understand that lots of people like them, but I just don't get it.

That's interesting. I'm sure the NJ connection probably overstates his general popularity, but maybe not by much.

I'm 26 (27 in less than a month) and everyone I know from Jersey loves Bon Jovi... well, let me add, they are either a Bon Jovi fan or Springsteen fan... usually not many that like both.

Springsteen...meh. What a hack.

You're lucky I don't come down to New Jersey and rip them off your computer myself. When you've sung the National Anthem a cappella in front of a packed house in the Meadowlands, then maybe I'll listen to your opinions about wannabe glam-rock princesses like Bon Jovi. Welcome to Canton.

See, this is where the QOTM function is absolutely essential. Well played, sir!

Invalid Entry. Does not compute.

Funny, QOTM was the first thing to cross my mind. Well played, sir x 2.

Reusing a line (that others have used as well) is considered well-played now?

A line meant to rip on a game developer, coming from Jim, in the AI thread? It was unexpected, to me anyway. So that's part of the effect. I give Jim a 92.

So what song is Bon Jovi doing tonite?

From MJ:

On Wednesday, Jon’s band, Bon Jovi drops by to perform their new single, “(You Want to) Make a Memory.”

Now I like Bon Jovi but that title screems suckage.

Oh, and suck it spoiler warning people.

Living on a Prayer is timeless. :)

I'm also hoping that Akon drops in again, but decides not to dry-hump a 14-year old on stage this time.

hxxp://pandagon.net/2007/04/22/hip-hop-star-akon-dry-humps-14-year-old-onstage/

they have so many of his performances in the can that he's good to be on the next 3 seasons at least twice.

Maybe he needs to try Dancing With the Stars.

hip hop star? the only better headline I saw was "Celtics Star Telfair Arrested" in some newspaper.

Fox could sell ABC some footage to use with that Elvis technology and BOOM, Akon waltzing.

I don't think waltzing is his cup of tea, though.

that's where the hologramming comes in. then it's Akon, waltzing star.

what better Akon or Brady Quinn

thanks

Not meant to rip on anyone. More like riff. It's a line that's taken on its own meaning here. I'm sure if the HM guy were here, he'd be joining in.

Something tells me he doesn't have the sense of humor you do...

I'm not so much saying I'd like it (although I might) as I'm just curious to see how it sounds.. my assumption has always been that the beat-boxy type stuff would ideally be more techno/house/whatever sound if he had his way on an album... I've always thought that he was substituting for not having a DJ to some extent..

I was interested in seeing the performances of the top 3 on YouTube since I like those three songs (Blaze, Nice Day and Bad Name) - unlike most other weeks which I hated the theme. Melinda is still doing her usual Gladys Knight impression which means she has the pipes but not the diversity. Blake and Phil brought it, imo and that was really gutsy performance by Blake. Phil can sing, not sure if he can't rock though.

Evidently the Evolution of Robert Thicke doesn't involve his balls dropping

the hell????????????

Yeah, that fucking SUCKED... and I'm a big Bon Jovi fan :(.

(I'm going to adopt that for Jovi's song and not the reason reason you said that :p)

Phil's final song was the way everyone should leave (no crying, moving around and wishing goodbye). Well done.

Not having ever watched this while the show aired, remind me how the final song works? They tape the standup/sit down thing and then the loser prepares a final song? I know none of it is live and fully rehearsed, edited, etc. but when do they record their final song? Is it at right after they do their performance song?

I had no idea Robin Thicke was a man (just from seeing the name on the charts, although had I heard the vocals, I probably would have thought the same thing). That was probably the worst song I've ever heard in my life. And to make matters worse, he's the spittin' image of his dad (I assum; surely they're related).

The crowd was all ready to rock, and Bon Jovi went limp. The crowd was begging to cut loose (as the screams during Sambora's solo suggested), but they didn't give in. I thought for sure that song was going to take off, but no. That was boring as hell.

Man I look bad defending Bon Jovi earlier.

I don't feel like watching this tonight, so can you guys tell me who's gone?

Yes, Alan Thicke is his father, God rest his soul... oh wait, he's not dead... with a son like that...

Dola- I am upset but not surprised to see Phil go, I really liked how genuine he is.

I really don't care about Chris but I didn't realize he and Blake had become such good friends, I really believe that Blake would have gone home for him and he was obviously upset at the end of the show.

Overall no big surprises.

Robin Thickes ?mustache? is the most horrible thing I have ever seen.

It's strange - he looked, all at once, like a 13 year old, a 35 year old, and what his dad probably looked like at 20. I was completely confused. And that was before I heard the voice.

So, I tivoed through and watched the elminations.

is this Robin Thicke thing so bad that it is worth watching?

Bon Jovi is going more country with their new album, hence the more mellow tune.

That wasn't particularly country...not to mention, country doesn't necessarily equal mellow.

yes it is,

Not surprised here at who left this week. It was a little obvious with the groups of 3 they had up there. I wasn't sure who Robin Thicke was and after a few seconds fast-forwarded through the song.

I'm not sure Blake can beat the girls unless he keeps doing the remix stuff. He hasn't used it every week, so can he make it to the finals even if he skips the beat boxing a week or two?

I think Blake now being the only male competitor, gives him a nice little edge. Not a guarantee by any means, but I say he makes the final 3 at least because of that.

It's all live, and for the final song they just re-sing the song they sang on the previous day's show...

I actually had a nightmare about Robin Thicke's mustache. It involved Dave Wannestadt. I woke up sweating and pleading for AI to bring back Michael Buble.

Thanks for responding to Bucc. There were so many wrong assumptions in there, I didn't know where to start! :D

I assume Blake now gets the bulk of Chris R's "I voted for him because he's cute" contingent. Any idea what Phil's voting demographic is? Enlisted personnel and their families? Ugly men and the women who love them? Funeral directors of America? Hard to figure where his votes go.

Wow, where to begin.

I watched this at my girlfriend's place, and therefore didn't have a chance to jump on here to delete every post I made praising Jon Bon. Thanks pal. I kept waiting for that song to drop but it just never did...call it "country" or "mellow" all you want, but it just sucked. Wasn't this rock week? AI is getting so ridiculous that even the guest performer can manipulate song choice.

He does have 10 dates coming up in the area, so I'll still probably check him out again. When I saw him in 2001 or so, it was a tour for one of his new CDs, and his song selection was maybe 4 new, 20 old. So he's got that going for him...

And let it be known, I have nothing against displays of affection between men, whether they are actually gay or just close friends...but come on. That was a little too much between those two last night.

Sorry to see Phil go. His performance was my favorite of the night. Lakisha doesn't stand a chance next week though.

I guess I can understand how Blake and Chris became good friends on the show. But it made me thinnk even more that Phil was completely out of his element, not just on the show but as a contestant. He never made a connection with the audience, and I'm guessing he never really made much of a connection with any of the other contestants, either. He was just "there."

Called that one when you told me the title. I rule.

Yeah, I was thinking, "Where the hell does he get this stuff?!?" :D ;)

This show is a good argument for embracing Armageddon.

100% agree. Also, I'm a Bon Jovi fan, but that was just hideous last night.