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Last week was a very strong week for American Idol. The Top 12 tackled Lennon & McCartney, and even the lesser performances mostly showed talent and spark. The response was, apparently, so positive, that the producers decided to go back to the L&M, or more accurately Beatles, well and have another week dedicated to their music.
Big mistake. They should have left well enough alone after last week's Lennon & McCartney fest
There was no more lightning in that bottle, let's just put it that way. In fact, the performances were so weak I have trouble identifying who exactly will land in the Bottom 3, let alone will be sent home. By my reckoning more than half the contestants should be at risk.
let the bloodletting begin:
1. Amanda sang Back in the USSR
What? What's that you said? Her complete and utter unintelligibility (is that a word?) is starting to wear really really thin. And her intermittent pitchiness is the one thing that is consistent about Amanda. This isn't to say she's not improving, because when it comes to her performances she is actually improving. But we weren't starting from a very high place there. Her problem is that she's a mess without being inspired chaos or anarchy. She may think she's shooting for the latter, but nope, it's just a mess. Finally, after last week when she sang about not letting someone "talk to another boy" I was really hoping she would just sing the bridge section with gender references left intact (you know, the Ukraine girls etc.) But no, she changed the references to "boys" and it was lame.
Bottom line: As mediocre as this was, it wasn't even Bottom 3 materials on a night like last night. So, she's probably safe.
2. Kristy Lee sang You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Wow, talk about pitch issues. The chorus of this song was clearly beyond Kristy Lee, who just groped around for notes without actually hitting them. That being said, i actually thought she made a nice attempt to connect to the material, to show some emotion and to give it a somewhat haunting quality. But then... it just got monotonous. The only thing that livened up her appearance last night was the whole "blow his socks off" train wreck. because I can be as tawdry and immature as the next person :)
Bottom line: Again, I'm not even sure she was the worst last night. But she is probably at risk again.
3. David A. sang The Long & Winding Road
Amongst my viewing companions I was alone in thinking the arrangement of this classic was a little over-the-top on the cheese factor. But it was. David A. does have a nice, mature delivery and a very good sense of musicality and pitch. I just wish he could show us something a little different...without it being a disaster.
Bottom line: If he was safe last week, he's more than safe this week.
4. Michael sang A Day in the Life
And that was just a bad idea. In his package he talked about the difficulty of compressing 6 minute song into a minute and 40 seconds, and that difficulty was painfully apparent. This was disjointed, and he seemed nervous. And with that nervousness came two things he had seemed to overcome last week: he was back to very constrained eyes-closed singing, and he was back to exhibiting a bit of kermit the Frog throatiness on his high notes. Not a good performance at all, although I do give him props for tackling the song.
Bottom line: Well, he's been spared from the bottom up until now, but this was an impenetrable performance, and I can't imagine it inspiring a lot of phone calls. He may be at risk for the first time.
5. Brooke sang Here Comes the Sun
Again, my opinion diverged from my viewing companions. I found this utterly painful. She was off-key consistently and throughout. She looked like a hobo, and she danced like a very stoned Deadhead in a parking lot...if that Deadhead had no sense of rhythm. I just thought it was terrible.
Bottom line: one of the worst for me, but is Brooke's popularity as strong as David A.'s was when he eluded suffering for a terrible performance?
6. David C. sang (and played guitar on) Day Tripper
He is oh so very Daughtry, isn't he? I thought that this performance was OK. He never went for the real high notes (on the "so long" lyric) so instead he sang it exactly the same way each time, which
