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Image courtesy Fox
Well, as Season 9 winds down, I'm doing my best to drum up some enthusiasm, and mostly I'm thankful that some of us still want to talk about what was a pretty lackluster season.
I'm sure the producers are working on spicing things up for their big tenth season, and we can only hope that they take some of the advice I freely doled out in my Top Five Reasons American Idol's Ratings Are So Low.
In the meantime, we're stuck with what we've got. And less of it. I keep banging that drum that four judges means more talk and less singing. Before four judges the Top Three got to sing three songs each. No more. I feel a bit like the grumpy restaurant customer who says, "The food is here is TERRIBLE...and such small PORTIONS!"
Last night's terrible small portions went like this:
1. Casey
First, Casey sang his own choice: "OK, it's alright with me" by Eric Hutchison
You will be forgiven if you say "Huh-what? By Whom?" (If you are so grammatically correct as to say the proper "by whom", that is.) Yeah, it's a basic little blue shuffle, and it was certainly representative of Casey's taste. But it was insignificant. I don't need everything to be bombastic or or always feature the big notes or big runs, but this wasdefinitely too laid back, too chill for the moment. He sounded fine, he played fine, it was cute and harmless. But it was also completely unmemorable. I had to look at my notes to remember the title, and it was basically repeated twenty bajillion times during the song! So, bad choice, Casey.
Second, Casey sang the judge's choice: "Daughters" by John Mayer
Here I will diverge from those judges who thought this was too laid back and low key. I disagree home-Simon. I loved the arrangement. This is one of those songs I've heard a million times, but the only thing I would have been able to sing for you from it was the chorus. I really had never heard the verses before, which means I never had really heard the story. Casey changed that with his rendition. It was less light and frothy, more heartfelt and even heartbroken than John Mayer's version. This was my favorite performance of the evening, actually, because I love when someone can do that: Help me hear a song as though for the first time. Hearing kd lang sing "Roy Orbison's "Crying, Hearing the original EdnaSwap version of "Torn" after only knowing the childlike Natalie Imburglia's version. Those kind of moments are rare and valuable.
Bottom line: Casey went for the low key, and the judges pretty much made him pay dearly for it. I don't see much hope for Casey to make it through ot the Final Two. I probably wouldn't buy this guy's album, but then I[m pretty confident that's true of all three of these folks. Casey was a) too erratic and b) to low key all season, so I'm actually surprised he made it this far. But it ends tonight I think.
Image courtesy Fox
2. Crystal
First, Crystal sang her own choice, "Come To My Window" by Melissa Etheridge
This was, on the surface, a great song choice. You can hear Crystal singing Melissa, the closest we've come to a Janis Joplin type in the last couple of decades, in your head, can't you? But this didn't live up to my expectations. It was a variety of things that added up. The harmonica was rarely played, not that meaningful when it was played, and just another barrier/distraction between Crystal and the audience. The high notes were strained; she didn't quite get there. And this was a case where Melissa has the edge. When it came to that one big note, the climax of the song where she holds out "What do they know about this love...anyway....." as the music falls away to just the acoustic guitar line, Crystal just didn't have the clarity of tone and breath control to live that moment the way Melissa does. It was a letdown.
Second, Crystal sang the judge's choice: "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney
I found this very rough too. All that walking around and up and down stairs seemed totally distracting to her. She sang through it, but there was nothing going on on her face, not a thing. Vocally fine. Physically uncomfortable. Kind of Crystal's story this year.
Bottom line: Barring a big surprise, I
