American Idol Season 9

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

I hope LEe goes home or the blond guy.

All I can say is thank god you don't decide the vote. There is absolutely no way that Lee or Casey should go home, at a minimum, before Aaron, Tim or Andrew.

Let It Be is one of my favorite songs of all time and I thought Katie was going to ruin it, but it was her best performance. I'm not sure what you were referring to saying it wasn't received well.

Michael put some runs in that weren't necessary so, I'm not saying that was awesome. I enjoyed David Cooks version better.

[Solecismic]

I have a bad feeling about the woman commonly known as "Mamasox" or "BSox" or "Soxy Mama." It's a similar feeling to one I had three seasons back, when a contestant called Melinda Doolittle consistently had the top performances of the night, only to struggle for votes later on in the competition.

Melinda was a professional among amateurs. Eventually, the judges ran out of ways to praise her, and she wound up a disappointing third.

Crystal Bowersox is in the same position today. Each week, she shows us why she's ready for a long career in the music business. And, soon enough, we'll take her for granted, and the votes will go to a younger talent who has improved steadily along the way.

Tonight was Beatles Night on the Idol stage, which made for an entertaining evening. I was never much of a Beatles fan, so most of the performances seemed better than the originals to me.

On the negative side, the producers stretched nine songs into two hours, which might be an Idol record. Only 11% of the show was devoted to singing. The rest was filled by commercials, promos, the judges being sillier than ever and long introduction pieces for each singer that didn't even feature a mentor. Rather painful if you don't have a DVR. Thankfully, I do, though I didn't start watching until about 4:30 this morning.

Since it's so late, I'll keep the critiques short. Here are the rankings:

1. Crystal Bowersox. What I loved about this performance was that it had a strong, authentic blues element. She sounded like she was riffing on various themes in Come Together and it kept me interested throughout. Usually I'm ready for even a good performance to be over after a minute. This one, I was left wanting more. It would be a shame if she isn't the next Idol. Score of 91.

2. Katie Stevens. She seemed a bit nervous at first, but managed to stay mostly on pitch, which is unusual for her. She added a little soul to the second half of Let it Be, picking up the pace, and did not sound like a robot for the first time all season. This was a pleasant surprise. Score of 82.

3. Casey James. Casey took an obscure (to me) John Lennon solo. It was a huge risk, as you need to have a strong voice, rich texture and conviction, or it will sound dreadfully dull. While he overdid the vibrato, I thought he pulled it off extremely well. He showed a lot of nuance, and the risk-taking puts him ahead of the other men as far as I'm concerned. Score of 81.

4. Michael Lynche. Aside from Crystal, Michael has been the most consistent performer this season. This time, he tried an odd arrangement of Eleanor Rigby. There were several different styles, and, fortunately, only the one he tried first was terrible. It was a bit frenetic, but the pieces he did well showed off his talent. It also marked a new low for Idol product placement, as Randy managed to talk about the Fox show Glee in his critique, which was followed by two commercials for the show. Unusually tacky, even for Idol. Score of 76.

5. Tim Urban. Tim is playing with house money at this point. He doesn't have the voice of the other competitors, but he has a nice tone, and he tries to make everything contemporary. I was a little bored with All My Loving, but I thought he did it well. He's not all that talented, but he stays on key and is rarely too annoying. Score of 73.

6. Lee DeWyze. He started off OK, with a decent enough rendition of Hey Jude. Then some guy with bagpipes appeared, and Lee stopped singing for the most part. Maybe that's as much as you can do with that song, but it didn't work for me. Score of 69.

7. Siobhan Magnus. The poor girl is fading. Rightfully, the judges told her to give the screaming a rest. So she took a lesser known song, Across the Universe, and sang an oddly muted over-controlled version with bizarre phrasing. Maybe that's just Siobhan. She really shouldn't be interviewed, as her slow, stilted speech makes her appear impaired. Then she cried when explaining why she chose the song, though the explanation was a little silly. I'm wondering if she escaped from an asylum now. She simply didn't look comfortable tonight, and I'm beginning to wonder if she might be Idol's first-ever disqualification for involuntary hospitalization. Score of 67.

8. Aaron Kelly. He's getting less annoying, but his lack of a power voice and his tendency to pick easy, slow songs is making me wish he'd go home. I was quite bored. Score of 63.

9. Andrew Garcia. I had no idea an Elvis impersonator could try a performance version of Can't Buy Me Love. It was a joke, a lounge act. It wasn't terrible, but it did emphasize Andrew has no range and is simply making fun of the competition at this point. Score of 57.

Summary: Overall, they beat the Beatles. I thought it was a decent night, with Crystal establishing herself again as the singer to beat.

Expected Bottom 3: Aaron, Tim, Andrew.

Who Should Go: Andrew.

Who Will Go: Tim.

[Ksyrup]

I pretty much agree with Jim, although I thought Big Mike's version of ER didn't really work and was too overly dramatic. Also, I don't think Lee started off OK - everything was terrible about that song. He was nowhere in tune for the first half of the song, and then he just screamed/riffed for the nanana part. You know he couldn't sing the song because he cut to the nanana section way too quickly and it went on forever.

Casey overdid the vibrato at times, but was really good. He reminds me of Will Hoge, which is probably why I don't mind his voice, but hate Aaron's (who is a poor man's Archuleta).

I also agree that Tim is going home tonight. I think the judges made a conscious effort to praise him, thinking that people have been rallying around him because of how harsh they've been to him. The judges decided to use reverse psychology on the voting public - we'll see if it works.

Siobhan was terrible - she has absolutely no ability to control her softer voice and lower register, and as a result, it sounded like she was singing nonsense into a pillow. At one point, my wife asked if she was singing in another language (not during that one line, either)! That's never good.

Biggest surprise of the night had to be Katie. Pity for her that she happened to give her best performance from the Death Spot (#2).

I also agree that Crystal probably isn't going to win, but ... who cares! Whether she finishes 1st or 3rd or Aaron wins - nothing's going to change my world.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

6. Lee DeWyze. He started off OK, with a decent enough rendition of Hey Jude. Then some guy with bagpipes appeared, and Lee stopped singing for the most part. Maybe that's as much as you can do with that song, but it didn't work for me. Score of 69.

I actually told my roommate early in the show, "At least nobody has done 'Hey Jude' because that's going to be a horrible song to do anything with." Lee proved me right, but his voice was off compared to last week as well. It only really worked for me in a last song at a rock concert kind of way.

[Ksyrup]

I can only assume that's why he went last. But what ticked me off about that is the judges continued their "if you went last, we must tell you how great it was" crap. Only Simon said it wasn't good, but mainly because of the bagpipes. Kara mentioned some vocal problems, but the first part of that song was horrible and no one really said that. He picked the wrong song, but he had a difficult choice this week given his style. Maybe he should have gone with Helter Skelter, something that would have allowed him to cut loose and had a vocally forgiving delivery.

[MJ4H]

Lee was horribly out of tune the whole time. Not even close. Katie was awesome. Sang well in tune with a good interpretation and feeling.

Most disappointing of the top 12 so far has been Andrew. Wow is this guy lost.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Most disappointing of the top 12 so far has been Andrew. Wow is this guy lost.

Jim Cantiello from MTV has some great lines in his weekly recaps (particularly the Verdict he gives each performance). Here was the first line of his comments about Andrew:

Weird. Why was there a drunken Thai businessman singing "You Can't Buy Me Love" over an '80s lite-jazz karaoke track for Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual?"

Ha!

[MJ4H]

Sounds fairly accurate, actually.

[Autumn]

One thing I noticed with Lee was that there was some backup singer who was A) singing louder than him half the time, and B) horribly off-key. I felt bad for him because it really colored his performance. I wonder how much control they have over the arrangements, he would have been better off by far ditching her.

[Pumpy Tudors]

My quick-strike thoughts (which nobody on this planet would agree with 100%) in no particular order:

Loved Crystal
Hated Katie
Aaron put me to sleep
Thought Lee seemed really uncomfortable, but I was amused
Was in the bathroom while Casey was on
Andrew is funny and terrible
Always liked Siobhan the person, always hated Siobhan the singer
Thought Mike was OK, but I don't like that song
Liked Tim
Wanna punch Randy in the face
Ellen is getting less and less useful
Wanna kiss Kara
Wanna kiss Simon
Wanna see Ryan in a bikini
Love the Pittsburgh Pirates (this is unrelated to American Idol)

[Autumn]

It was funny how three of the judges basically gave up on criticizing Tim, they just tried to find something nice to say. Then Simon actually liked him, lol, leaving Tim thinking he's actually doing good.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Hated Katie

Wanna kiss Kara

wat and yesyesyes

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

wat and yesyesyes

I DO NOT LIKE THE WAY KATIE SOUNDED WHEN SHE SANG THAT SONG OK

and I think you meant to quote "wanna kiss simon" for your yesyesyes

[Mustang]

One thing I do like about this season is that they are going behind the curtain and showing some of the things that happen in the background. Unfortunately it took them 9 seasons to do it.

[MJ4H]

yes thats ok more katie for me

[Ksyrup]

That was something they said they were going to do before the season started, although I'm surprised it took them this long to really start doing it. Still, most of it is kinda stupid - right after the performance, they basically say exactly what they said while up on stage, or worse, you get inane stuff like Crystal's didgeridoo/didgeridon't babble with that dude. Or Mike hugging/mugging for the camera at every chance in the green room. Meh. Let's see Lee yacking up a lung before he goes on stage!

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Jim Cantiello from MTV has some great lines in his weekly recaps (particularly the Verdict he gives each performance). Here was the first line of his comments about Andrew:



Ha!

I went and looked up the article. He's rather on in terms of how I felt about all of it. ‘American Idol’ Recap: Casey James, The Beatles And A Didgeridoo » MTV Newsroom

[Ksyrup]

I love the Verdict on Lee: Badpipes. HA!

[lordscarlet]

I don't think Crystal will suffer the Melinda Doolittle fate. Not that she'll necessarily win, but no one was ever behind Doolittle but the judges.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I don't think Crystal will suffer the Melinda Doolittle fate. Not that she'll necessarily win, but no one was ever behind Doolittle but the judges.

ahem

[Ksyrup]

MJ4H robo-dialer FTW.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

ahem

The lone holdout from the 'This should just be about singing' camp. Thought all you guys died with Taylor Hicks winning in season 5.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

ahem

Well, I thought the exception of MJ4H was a given.

[wade moore]

The difference between Doolittle and Bowersox is that Bowersox has relevance. Doolittle had no relevance in a pop-music world. I know we've beat this to death over the years here, but Doolittle hit the notes and that's about it. However, Bowersox (although a bit of a throwback) has relevance.

[Thomkal]

Ok maybe its just me, and yeah it had a few weird notes, but I liked Siobhan's performance and voice Yesterday. The song just has some strange lyrics though. I liked that she kept her voice under control, the loud note felt more natural, and was haunting rather than sleepy as Randy said. I liked Aaron better than the judges as well, and Katie not as much.

Andrew's the one that's got to go for me at the moment though-he's certainly been a disappointment for the most part and don't find him very interesting any more.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Mustang

The lone holdout from the 'This should just be about singing' camp. Thought all you guys died with Taylor Hicks winning in season 5.

It certainly almost killed me.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by wade moore

The difference between Doolittle and Bowersox is that Bowersox has relevance. Doolittle had no relevance in a pop-music world. I know we've beat this to death over the years here, but Doolittle hit the notes and that's about it. However, Bowersox (although a bit of a throwback) has relevance.

I don't know. I think this is becoming one of those overused Idol terms, like making it your own.

Lacking relevance would be someone who emulates Frank Sinatra, or sang opera, or did the Betty Boop thing. Melinda was a soul/rock combo who didn't quite personify the soloist image that's necessary. Simon said she should have won that season. She was never in the bottom three - she just didn't get the kids dialing when it was down to her, Jordin Sparks and the hyped Blake Lewis.

If you want pure relevance, Tim Urban makes very savvy choices and is still around solely because of looks and catering to that young demographic.

I think there's a place for Crystal in today's music scene. I don't think she'll sell a tremendous number of records. Melinda didn't, either. But I worry Crystal will be eliminated at that same point.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I think there's a place for Crystal in today's music scene. I don't think she'll sell a tremendous number of records. Melinda didn't, either. But I worry Crystal will be eliminated at that same point.

She'll sell 100x more albums than Doolittle. I'll buy for one. I was telling my wife I'm ready for her to go, so she can start recording. She doesn't need to win.

[law90026]

I'm not sure how Melinda could be described as rock in any sense of the word. She was old and boring the whole season although you couldn't deny she had a good voice.

The Beatles night was actually quite good overall I thought.

Aaron and Andrew were clearly the worst of the lot.

Crystal was good although you could see she was struggling with her illness. Katie was actually impressive and I thought Casey's performance was good too.

Big Mike was just overly dramatic and, frankly, I just can't take him seriously as a performer. Maybe it's the size but there's just a huge disconnect between his appearance and the songs he sings.

I actually really enjoyed the Lee performance. Sure it wasn't the best vocal performance but it was entertaining. My wife and I were just so tickled by the bagpipe.

I do agree that the judges are trying reverse psychology in relation to Tim. Then again, I don't think Tim really cares because he knows he's not going to win and he's already going to make some money from going on tour.

[mauchow]

Ugh. Rihanna was awful. Can't believe waiting a half hour to start the DVR wasn't good enough to watch just the end.

[Matthean]

Have to say that was a rather interesting bottom 3 and vote by the judges.

[mtolson]

Wow, the popularity contest has begun. Mike has one of the stongest voices. The way he carries himself is going to be his down fall in the long run.

[CrimsonFox]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Crystal this week. I said before it's a race between Crystal and Siobhan. Well Siobhan showed a flowery voice this time. She REALLY could have kicked the energy up a notch and be more ethereal with her song (as I said before). Crystal however....everyone said how great it was. Yeah she sang it well and it sounded good, but it really didn't WOW me. FOr that I think it is the song though. I have heard SO many covers of that song and I find them all mostly boring so much so that I don't want to listen to the original anymore. Most are pretty much copies of the original, many singing it just like Lenon sang it. That's bad and good and means I have overheard this song. Choose a fresh ripe song, not a dead horse. That's why What's his face rocked when he chose "She's a WOman" a couple years back. What was his name? one word or something. I wanna say "Akise" (uh-KEY-say) or something like that.

[Matthean]

AI needs more chubby Asian kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3-p_...eature=related

[jbergey22]

WTF is wrong with people? How could people seriously be voting for Andrew over Big Mike.

I realize Big Mike has little to no chance of winning this but he has been outperforming a lot of the others on a consistent basis.

Im guessing the judges wanted to save their vote in case Crystal or Lee were on the chopping block but couldnt after that closing performance.

[Ksyrup]

LOL, the demographic of AI voters is obviously white teenagers (at least without a Taylor Hicks or Adam Lambert to bring in the grannies). When Dancing with the Stars had more total viewers for last week's performance show than either AI show that week, 60% of their audience was 50 and over. AI beat DwtS in 18-49 with a 7.2 rating to 3.0. And you've got to figure that younger people are more inclined to vote than people like us. But I can't wait for Elton John and Al Sharpton to weigh in on the racists watching AI...

I don't think Mike's performance saved him - I think they were genuinely surprised (at least when they found out, which I assume was before we did) that he was going home, knew he deserved to still be on the show, were sensitive to the race thing (Andrew would have been the only non-white left), figured that their favorites would most likely not be voted off by week 5 (the last time they can use the save), and gambled that he'd be the only contestant they really ought to save. I just think he ruined a totally proper-English-sounding Beatles song and turned it into Phantom of the Soul Opera, and no one really responded well to it (although vocally, he hit the notes, the performance and arrangement were terrible).

[path12]

Big Mike just creeps the fuck out of me for some reason.

[Ksyrup]

The chops-licking over the declining performance of Fox’s “American Idol” may grow more intense in the wake of the Tuesday night ratings for that perennial powerhouse. Fewer people watched “Idol” on Tuesday (when the contestant Crystal Bowersox performed with the didgeridoo player Ernie Fields, both left) than watched ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” on Monday. (“Dancing” runs performance episodes on Mondays, with results on Tuesdays; “Idol” generally has performance on Tuesdays with results on Wednesdays.)

And for a second consecutive week, in the category Fox cares most about — viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 — “Idol,” if the Tuesday overnight ratings hold, will post its lowest number ever for a two-hour edition of the show. It will also be the lowest-rated Tuesday edition of the show since an hourlong episode on Aug. 13, 2002, in its first season, when the series played in the summer. “Idol” had a total audience of about 20.4 million on Tuesday, below the 21.2 million that “Dancing” averaged for its performance show on Monday. (The “Dancing” results on Tuesday averaged a total audience of 12.3 million.) But the “Idol” 7.1 rating among viewers 18 to 49 is what will be most noticed. That is down from a 7.7 a week ago and down from the 8.1 the show averaged for the three previous weeks.

With Simon leaving after this season, I think Randy Jackson - and maybe even Kara and Ellen - might be cashing checks elsewhere next year. Iit would be the perfect and least awkward (in terms of providing an excuse - Simon is leaving and we felt it was time to start fresh) way to jettison the group of judges and try to breathe some life back into the show. We'll see.

[Mustang]

If I was in charge of Idol, I'd try to make it more interactive.

1. Split it up into 2 parts. Have the Auditions and Hollywood week run in mid September through mid November except when you hit Hollywood week, get down to 60 people and break them into 10 groups of 6. Do a performance and have people voting for 1 person out of each group. At the end, you have 10 people. Have online fan voting to determine the last 2 spots.

2. Take a break until the beginning of Feb and have these people go through some lessons to clean up their singing and stage presence. At this point, they should be treating them like assets and trying to shine them up as good as possible before hitting the top 12.

3. Limit voting to 10 per household or text.

4. Hire Gene Simmons to replace Simon.

5. Have a few nights that are fan selection nights. Have the contestants pick out 3 songs and put them up for voting 2 weeks before the theme night. That way, you have the results right after they find out if they are safe for the week.

6. Ban a song for 3 seasons after it has been performed. Any songs performed by an idol winner are put in the 'Hall of Fame' and banned.


Hey, I'm in charge, my rules...

[spleen1015]

Question...

This is the first season of AI I have watched after the audition episodes.

How often have the judges saved someone? After they've saved someone, has that person ever done well after that, ie make it a couple more weeks or what?

[Ksyrup]

They only started that last season. They saved a guy the final week they could, and he didn't last past the next week. I think they did it because they made a big deal about it so they wanted to use it.

[Ksyrup]

If they wanted to replace Simon with a pompous ass who knows music, they should get David Foster. He was a judge on Celebrity Duets and I thought he had Simon's assholishness combined with some actual musical knowledge and was pretty good. And to replace Paula, they could even get the second of the judges from CD - Little Richard. Guaranteed at least one LOL/WTF moment every week.

Gene Simmons would whore himself out and do it, but he's too much of a rock guy to be able to authentically critique pop singers, IMO. I just don't see the fit with this particular type of show.

[spleen1015]

If Gene Simmons was a judge, his advice would always be that the contestants need to sing more KISS songs.

[Ksyrup]

Plus, they'd have to change from Coke to Dr. Pepper as a sponsor.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Plus, they'd have to change from Coke to Dr. Pepper as a sponsor.

He is a doctor.

[Ksyrup]

No, they call him the doctor.

[Danny]

If Crystal is voted off next week, would be pretty funny since the judges used their save.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Danny

If Crystal is voted off next week, would be pretty funny since the judges used their save.

I fully expect Crystal to win (vs Lee. Siobhan will go out at #3). I'm not sure why people think she won't.

[MJ4H]

There is plenty of precedent for the most talented singer not winning in favor of the shiny, popular mediocre singer.

[CrimsonFox]

LOL! What a night. I'm going to stop rooting for people if they are going to go home.

I did not even realize there were only 3 girls left! I honestly think that those 3 girls will make it to the final 5.

Simon should play werewolf...