American Idol, Episode 18: "Top Ten Perform"
Oh, Nicki Minaj. Don't let dem haters bring you down. Even though they want to criticize you for everything to being too mean to touching your hair too much, we all know that you are what is making Idol fun to watch this year. I mean, take a look at tonight. You show up about 10 minutes late, wearing business casual to the extreme. Hood up. Sunglasses on. Then, you are making advances towards the male contestant most likely to be a homosexual. Keep it going, gurl. The best thing about it? It makes Randy Jackson obviously uncomfortable. Also, it saves us from what was on the whole a pretty yawn worthy show with a wretched "Sing Songs Made Famous by Previous Idols" theme. Come back "Songs From Your Birth Year!" All is forgiven!! All right, y'all. Let's wear our sunglasses at Idol and dive in to last night's performances.
So, Curtis Finch, Jr opened the show. Let's talk about that jacket first off. It looked like he took down his grandmother's curtains and asked her to fashion a suit jacket from it. Now, let's talk about how we can all agree on it's hideousness... wait a second. What's that, Keith Urban? You like it? Um... OK. Is that the reason why you're a jeans and T shirt guy? Curtis chose Fantasia's "I Believe" for his song of the night. It was not great. The song was pitched too low for him. He tried to go into falsetto and it was not happening. The judges gave a nice non-crititque. I was really missing Nicki.
Janelle Arthur was up next performing Montgomery Gentry's "Gone" which Scotty McCreery performed on his Idol winning season. I will give it up to Janelle for picking an upbeat song. Unfortunately, it didn't give her much to do. There were no glory notes. It lacked energy too. She seemed to be out of breath the whole time, too. Apparently, Janelle was suffering from cotton mouth too, which is the oddest excuse for a poor vocal performance that I have ever heard.
Devin Velez brought Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home" to the Idol stage. I like Devin. I like when he sings in Spanish. I think he is very commercial, even though I hate that word. I was not enamored with his song choice. It was sleepy. It was old sounding. He didn't even sing in Spanish. I think Keith was dead on. I'm not sure why Nicki was so enthusiastic about the whole thing. Maybe she was confused? The lights were too bright now that her sunglasses were off? Who knows.
Before we talk about Angie Miller's performance of Celine Dion's "I Surrender, a number that Kelly Clarkson tackled when she was on Idol, let's talk about her meeting with Gollum, er, Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy apparently thinks because Angie smiles sometimes when she sings she is reminiscent of a pageant queen. I understand that Jimmy is a heavyweight, but sometimes he just seems really out of touch. Angie sounded amazing. As usual. I did miss her at the piano because I think that is when she really shines. I wasn't a fan of the song choice. I think Angie typically does a good job of picking a song that is similar to something you may hear on an Angie album. I didn't feel like this was a song you would hear on her album.
So, Paul Jolley definitely has the best voice of all the guys, for me. He has a crystal clear tone. I mean, even if he does over sing like those wretched, over blown Broadway singers. I mean, who would ever buy an album by one of those Broadway singers. They're good for what they are, but that's it. Who needs 'em? Amiright? Ugh. Jimmy. You're killing me. Anyways, Paul did a great job on Lonestar's "Amazed." He showed restraint when needed and let the song build to a climax that showed off the amazing tone of his voice. Paul suffers a little bit from wanting to please and I think that could cause his performances to come off as a little stilted. Also, the less said about Paul awakening Nicki's sexual appetite the better. Poor Paul. I'm sure he'd have rather heard that from Keith.
Candice. Glover. Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me. She is the front runner. Her take on Shirley Bassey's "I Who Have Nothing" was phenomenal. Jordin who? Candice owned that performance. I can't even think of a coherent way to describe how ridiculously splendiferous it was. I agree with Nicki. It's time to retire this song (along with many others). It now belongs to Candice Glover.
Oh Lazaro. You did so well last week, but it seems to be a one step forward, two steps back situation. Lazaro's rendition of Kelly Clarkson's hit single, "Breakaway", was pretty terrible. I mean, it was wobblier than a three legged chair under Randy Jackson. I know that Lazaro has fans that feel sorry for him because of his stutter and he is cute as a bug, but the sooner Lazaro gets to his hopeful ninth or eighth place finish the better. I mean, the nicest thing I can say is that the dude looked cute in his Ricky Ricardo ensemble.
Kree Harrison was the perfect palate cleanser after Lazaro's horrible tasting performance. She sang k.d. lang's "Crying" and she gave the second best performance of the night. "Crying" is such a gorgeous song and Kree really infused the performance with the emotion that is needed to really convey the song. She completely pulled it off and for the first time, looked gorgeous while doing it. Props to the stylists for finally putting Kree in something that looked starge ready rather than Kree's Saturday night bar attire. If there is only room for one female country crooner in the competition than sorry, Janelle, it belongs to Kree.
Burnell Taylor brought Ruben Studdard's season two victory song, "Flying Without Wings" back to the Idol stage. Burnell has a great voice and it is so different than any of the other guys and that is a good thing. I hate to agree with Randy, but he definitely has a Frank Ocean vibe, and I know others aren't down, but I like Burnell's Urkel/Carlton Banks fashion sense. I don't think that this was the best song choice for him, but he definitely did a serviceable job and it should be enough to keep him in the competition for one more week.
Amber Holcomb closed out the night with the Idol OG's victory anthem, "A Moment Like This." I have to say the first time I heard this, I was not feeling it. After I listened to it back thought, I was a big fan. Amber brought it. If she keeps it up, she will definitely be going far in this competition, which is saying something. I will say that the judges need to cool it with the Whitney Houston comparisons. Enough.
So, that's it. My bottom three: Paul Jolley, Janelle Arthur, and Curtis Finch, Jr. Paul will probably get the boot. What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
Janelle Arthur was up next performing Montgomery Gentry's "Gone" which Scotty McCreery performed on his Idol winning season. I will give it up to Janelle for picking an upbeat song. Unfortunately, it didn't give her much to do. There were no glory notes. It lacked energy too. She seemed to be out of breath the whole time, too. Apparently, Janelle was suffering from cotton mouth too, which is the oddest excuse for a poor vocal performance that I have ever heard.
Devin Velez brought Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home" to the Idol stage. I like Devin. I like when he sings in Spanish. I think he is very commercial, even though I hate that word. I was not enamored with his song choice. It was sleepy. It was old sounding. He didn't even sing in Spanish. I think Keith was dead on. I'm not sure why Nicki was so enthusiastic about the whole thing. Maybe she was confused? The lights were too bright now that her sunglasses were off? Who knows.
Before we talk about Angie Miller's performance of Celine Dion's "I Surrender, a number that Kelly Clarkson tackled when she was on Idol, let's talk about her meeting with Gollum, er, Jimmy Iovine. Jimmy apparently thinks because Angie smiles sometimes when she sings she is reminiscent of a pageant queen. I understand that Jimmy is a heavyweight, but sometimes he just seems really out of touch. Angie sounded amazing. As usual. I did miss her at the piano because I think that is when she really shines. I wasn't a fan of the song choice. I think Angie typically does a good job of picking a song that is similar to something you may hear on an Angie album. I didn't feel like this was a song you would hear on her album.
So, Paul Jolley definitely has the best voice of all the guys, for me. He has a crystal clear tone. I mean, even if he does over sing like those wretched, over blown Broadway singers. I mean, who would ever buy an album by one of those Broadway singers. They're good for what they are, but that's it. Who needs 'em? Amiright? Ugh. Jimmy. You're killing me. Anyways, Paul did a great job on Lonestar's "Amazed." He showed restraint when needed and let the song build to a climax that showed off the amazing tone of his voice. Paul suffers a little bit from wanting to please and I think that could cause his performances to come off as a little stilted. Also, the less said about Paul awakening Nicki's sexual appetite the better. Poor Paul. I'm sure he'd have rather heard that from Keith.
Candice. Glover. Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me. She is the front runner. Her take on Shirley Bassey's "I Who Have Nothing" was phenomenal. Jordin who? Candice owned that performance. I can't even think of a coherent way to describe how ridiculously splendiferous it was. I agree with Nicki. It's time to retire this song (along with many others). It now belongs to Candice Glover.
Oh Lazaro. You did so well last week, but it seems to be a one step forward, two steps back situation. Lazaro's rendition of Kelly Clarkson's hit single, "Breakaway", was pretty terrible. I mean, it was wobblier than a three legged chair under Randy Jackson. I know that Lazaro has fans that feel sorry for him because of his stutter and he is cute as a bug, but the sooner Lazaro gets to his hopeful ninth or eighth place finish the better. I mean, the nicest thing I can say is that the dude looked cute in his Ricky Ricardo ensemble.
Kree Harrison was the perfect palate cleanser after Lazaro's horrible tasting performance. She sang k.d. lang's "Crying" and she gave the second best performance of the night. "Crying" is such a gorgeous song and Kree really infused the performance with the emotion that is needed to really convey the song. She completely pulled it off and for the first time, looked gorgeous while doing it. Props to the stylists for finally putting Kree in something that looked starge ready rather than Kree's Saturday night bar attire. If there is only room for one female country crooner in the competition than sorry, Janelle, it belongs to Kree.
Burnell Taylor brought Ruben Studdard's season two victory song, "Flying Without Wings" back to the Idol stage. Burnell has a great voice and it is so different than any of the other guys and that is a good thing. I hate to agree with Randy, but he definitely has a Frank Ocean vibe, and I know others aren't down, but I like Burnell's Urkel/Carlton Banks fashion sense. I don't think that this was the best song choice for him, but he definitely did a serviceable job and it should be enough to keep him in the competition for one more week.
Amber Holcomb closed out the night with the Idol OG's victory anthem, "A Moment Like This." I have to say the first time I heard this, I was not feeling it. After I listened to it back thought, I was a big fan. Amber brought it. If she keeps it up, she will definitely be going far in this competition, which is saying something. I will say that the judges need to cool it with the Whitney Houston comparisons. Enough.
So, that's it. My bottom three: Paul Jolley, Janelle Arthur, and Curtis Finch, Jr. Paul will probably get the boot. What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment