TRANSITIONING FROM THE girls' performances Tuesday night over to the boys' on Wednesday has the feeling of ambling into a fifth-grade talent show after watching Cirque du Soleil. Some of the women have been so good and the men so middling that I can't help but wonder what brand of disappointment will greet me.
Although I suppose a little deflation is better than what the contestants themselves must confront as the show begins: in their faces is Seacrest's face as he walks melodramatically up to each of them, turns, stares like that creepy guy on the Metro and says their name. We can only hope that he didn't have tuna for lunch.
Also, has anyone else noticed that Seacrest seems unable to keep his hands off poor little Aaron Kelly? If this was a traditional office, he'd have such a sexual harassment suit on his hands. Maybe he should just start tickling him instead; that seems to be in vogue these days.
It's another one-hour, eight-contestant show, so the amount of horseplay is kept to a delightful minimum. Except for this little exchange:
» SEACREST: Can I ask you guys a question seriously, because I was reading the e-mails: Why are you so close to each other this year?
» KARA: He's leaning on me.
» SEACREST: Are you leaning on her?
» KARA: I feel like it's separation anxiety maybe because you're not with your fiance? [nudging unbearably close and looking at Simon with puppy-dog eyes] Whaddya think?
» SIMON: So I'm leaning into you?
» KARA: Definitely.
» SIMON: Yeah, right.
» KARA: You are completely leaning into me.
» SEACREST: I think Kara's your binky.
» KARA: Oh! [laughs]
» SEACREST: What's a binky?
» SEACREST: I'll explain in the next commercial.
Fascinating. A pertinent question, a pointless answer. Now, on to the performances.
The players: Todrick Hall, Aaron Kelly, Tim Urban, Lee Dewyze, Michael Lynche, Alex Lambert, Casey James and Andrew Garcia.
The songs: More random whatever!
The mood: A little creeped out.
LEE DEWYZE
He sings "Fireflies" by Owl City. Which I originally wrote as Open City, which now has me craving an omelette. Silly brain.
I like Lee's voice. I don't like that song very much. And the combination of the two leaves me feeling a little meh.
It's a poppy tune, and it's certainly a current tune, which seems to be more important to the judges than it does the people who buy music, given how popular classic rock and artists like Alison Krauss continue to be. But the performance as a whole feels like it's all air and no substance — even a happy song has to have some kind of concrete feeling behind it (like, um, happiness). And all I get from Lee is a strong sense at the end of the song that he's relieved that the performance is over.
"For me, it was a strange song choice," Randy says. "There were a couple little pitch problems here and there, but you really kinda made it your own. ... You worked it out."
"I like that you made it a little rock," Ellen says. "I think that a lot of people like you."
"You look confident tonight," Kara says. "That's what we've been waiting for is for you to step up. ... I think you actually made the song a better song."
"There's nothing to rave about after that," Simon says. "I don't think you had a moment with that song. ... I actually think you are better than the version of the song you just did, I genuinely do."
Continue Reading "American Idol: Big Mike Lynche's Big Moment" »
THIS SEASON'S TOP TALENT is furiously female. So far, even the best of the male contestants have earned some strikes against them — some sub-par song choices, constant pitch problems, an inability to walk and chew gum at the same time — while the ladies' side of the store has already produced two formidable talents: Crystal Bowersox and Lilly Scott.
Both are hippie chicks, both have displayed an ease with arranging songs to fit their sounds. And each one is beginning to develop a following, as you'll probably be able to tell in the comments section as I get pummeled for having lumped the two together.
But they are thus far the season's true standouts, so sidling up to a Tuesday night on which they'll both perform is, for the first time this season, a joy. As long as they don't let me down.
And you know what packing eight contestants into an hour-long show means? No filler! This might be the only time this season when we get to enjoy a B.S.-free week — aside from the usual fluff-fest on results-night Thursday — so soak it up, friends.
Even with limited time, the well-paid folks at the big table can't help but kibbutz for just a moment — and what a moment it is. Perhaps attempting to put rumors of a judges' rift to rest, the camera "catches" Ellen canoodling with Simon during the show's first moments, which is a little weird for many reasons: a) I really don't think they get along; b) Doesn't he belong to Kara? c) He's not really Ellen's type; d) Ellen's married and Simon's allegedly about to be; and e) Kissing Simon? Ew.
But on to the singing!
The players: Paige Miles, Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly, Didi Benami, Siobhan Magnus, Lacey Brown, Crystal Bowersox and Katie Stevens.
The songs: More of the best mix of the '70s, '80s, '90s and today! Music the whole office will enjoy — even the boss!
KATIE STEVENS
Katie sings Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway," illustrating once again how very much contestants haven't realized that Miss Kelly's very tough, very particular songs are performance-night poison on "Idol." They've been the ruin of many a poor girl, and Katie is one.
She does a reasonable, but generally uninteresting, job with it. The verses sound dull, although she adds a little punch to the hook, which helps matters a bit. But she certainly doesn't dig herself out of the middle of the pack, and her choices thus far make me wonder if she ever will.
"Kelly Clarkson's one of the greatest contestants we've ever had," Randy says. "It paled in comparison. It was almost like karaoke to me. She's so good and so stylized and this just didn't work for me."
"I love that you took our note, you took a young song," Ellen says. "I think that was a great song choice ... and you have a great voice. ... I think that all those words you were singing, you were singing and not feeling."
"You have a great radio voice," Kara says. "I think what's going on this year is we have people who really know themselves and people who don't. And I don't think you know who you are yet as an artist, and that's what we're seeing week to week is that you're stumbling trying to figure it out."
"I think this has been very confusing for you, because you've had an awful lot of advice and to be fair, you've taken the advice," Simon says. "The problem was that the second half of the song didn't go as it should have done, and you kind of sucked the energy out of it a little bit and made it a little bit gloomy."
Is it just me or do the judges — Simon and Kara especially — seem to be almost apologizing for how all over the place they've been in their advice-giving this season? I hope so, and I hope it signals a change of pace.
But I think they're right on. Katie's got a reasonably good voice, but she hasn't been able to cut through the noise and find her own niche. And that could be her undoing this week.
FORGET ALL THOSE TV commercials singing the praises of investing in gold. On "American Idol" this year, your best bet might be on silver.
Amid all of the pessimistic carping by the show's judges, the squawking by a set of male contestants who have yet to find their footing and the general era of bad feelings that has enveloped "Idol" since the elimination duties were handed to the show's audience weeks ago, gray-maned Colorado native Lilly Scott has been quietly building a cachet of solid, tactile performances.
Her first, a take on "Fixing a Hole," a Lennon/McCartney deep cut from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," provided a rare moment of joy during a bleak two hours of warbling by the contestants and chastising by the judges.
Last week, Scott took on the Sam Cooke classic "A Change Is Gonna Come." Choosing to sing such a widely beloved track could have been a fatal error for a lesser singer, but Scott's approach was so reverent, so soulful and so completely her own that she drew cheers from the studio audience and high praise from the dais.
Continue Reading "Striking Silver: 'American Idol's' Lilly Scott" »
THERE'S A DOMINANT BUZZWORD in this season of "American Idol." It's not "dawg," it's not "pitchy" — it's "frustrated."
After many of the performances over the past two weeks, the judges have made constant, exasperated references to their frustration, as if the contestants are purposely taunting them by hopping on stage and playing the kazoo for two minutes. And commenters on this blog and elsewhere are also venting their frustration — the show's worse than ever, the contestants this year are no good, don't you miss the days when [name of popular former Idolite here] ruled the roost?
I'll agree: there's something wrong with this season, but it's not the contestants.
Let me throw some quotes your way:
"It was bad, bad, bad last night. I nearly turned the TV off several times.""I was shocked at how bad most of the singers were. Even if they picked a bad song they couldn't stay on key."
"I have recorded the last hour of the show, but frankly not sure I want to spend the time watching it....that was really bad (at least what I saw)."
Groans from this year's horribleness? Nope. They're all snippets of comments left at this time last year, when the top 36 were performing ("Idol" let three groups of 12 perform, then combined them later).
And, yes, this particular show was one that featured season eight star Adam Lambert, who was reviewed by some commenters with derision ("Then there was Adam. Hate. Agree with Simon and you that there were parts ranging from good to abysmal, but oh god, the screeching.") and damned by others with faint praise ("I really think only two people deserve to go on--Adam and Allison-- and not because they blew me away but because they didn't suck.")
So even the great contestants don't always start off being perceived that way. Did David Archuleta fare better two years ago? Nope.
The contestants always take some time to warm up — and it always takes us time to warm up to them. So have faith, dear readers.
So, what is different this season? The judges. I'll call it the Karafication of "Idol," and it's a trend I hope will stop.
Gone are the days where "pitchy, dawg" was the extent of the technical gobbledygook these poor folks ganked off the street to sing were subjected to. Now, we're forced to listen to Kara, Randy and Simon sound like huffy industry snobs as they prattle on about vocal minutiae and yank these kids hard to the right, then sharp to the left. Only Ellen seems to be offering any regular positive reinforcement, and even she seems to be caught up in the race to see who can sound most hypercritical.
Has the show really gotten to the point when telling a 16-year-old girl not to smile so much is anything but unmistakably rude?
The judges need to freaking cool it. Criticize, sure. Critique, of course. Tell the hard truths. But if all of them are trying to be Simon, trying to offer the most cutting criticism possible, and if each contestant is heading on stage expecting a four-gun firing squad, can you blame these amateur singers for doing whatever the hell they have to do not to get pummeled on national television?
"It's a really bad atmosphere," Simon remarked Wednesday after four doses of judges-panel harshness nearly brought Didi Benami to tears. He was right. And it's his team's doing. They need to knock it off, or we might all stop watching.
And all of this leads to perhaps the most troubling question of all: Could Paula have been more integral to the show than any of us realized?
On to the results-show goodness.
IT'S ALWAYS A LITTLE unsettling when unexpected reality sets in on reality television, and that's exactly what happened to "American Idol" this week.
The top 10 guys performed a day early in an extremely rare "Idol" schedule change. The reason? Crystal Bowersox, one of the top 10 girls, was taken to the hospital Tuesday morning, where she apparently remained throughout the day. That intrepid truth-seeker Seacrest got details on his radio show Wednesday morning from "Idol" Executive Producer Ken Warwick, who said that Crystal's ailment, which he didn't name, was "worse than we expected" and that he wasn't sure even then whether Crystal could perform Wednesday night.
But lo and behold, when the cyclonic "Idol" sting sounds to begin the show, there Crystal is.
"I feel good. I'm a tough cookie," she tells Seacrest. "Let's do this."
But while Crystal was on the mend, Randy apparently started off the night with his hallucinogen of choice. When Seacrest asks him to rate the guys' performance, he's straight trippin'.
"The guys were hot last night," he says. "They had the fire in their eyes; I think a bunch of them really were really trying to win this thing."
I wish I'd watched the show he saw; that sounds awesome.
A question about Kara's increased physical proximity to Simon — they almost look like they're canoodling during most shows — brings only demurring and awkward banter. And Simon's advice to the girls: Don't suck.
We can only hope.
The players: Paige Miles, Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly, Didi Benami, Siobhan Magnus, Haeley Vaughn, Lacey Brown, Michelle Delamor, Crystal Bowersox and Katie Stevens.
The songs: Still more from the Billboard Hot 100.
The tide: Apparently high, given Ellen's sailor suit attire. Maybe it's a tribute to Donald Duck.
On to the performances.
THIS USED TO HAPPEN in college all the time. "Dude," some far too excited fratty fellow would shout to his pals, "you've gotta come to our house. There'll be a keg! There'll be pizza! There'll be girls! It'll be awweesssooooommee!"
So, said friends show up to find the pizza had been eaten, the keg was full of Natty Light and there was nary a soul without a Y chromosome to be found.
In this case, Fox played the part of the bellowing party promoter, but it was an unintentional bait-and-switch that led to the top 10 guys taking the stage instead of the top 10 girls on Tuesday night, Seacrest tells us.
He elaborated a bit on a press release that Fox sent out earlier Tuesday, which said that a medical issue involving Crystal Bowersox was behind the change. It turns out, she was taken to the hospital, was medically barred from performing and was either still in the hospital or was at least sitting somewhere other than the "Idol" studios, where her nine compatriots sat in the stands.
We can only hope that Crystal's able to perform Wednesday — especially because she's one of the few contestants we can be sure won't make our ears bleed.
And speaking of aural danger, the sudden lineup shift has given us far less time than I would have preferred to prep my eardrums for the guys, who, with a few exceptions, stunk up the joint last week.
They'll fare little better this week, and it's clear the judges' patience is wearing very thin.
The players: Todrick Hall, Aaron Kelly, Jermaine Sellers, Tim Urban, Lee Dewyze, John Park, Michael Lynche, Alex Lambert, Casey James and Andrew Garcia.
The songs: More from the Billboard Hot 100.
The marching orders: Seacrest says the guys will be giving us "more insight into their lives," which might involve Alex's mullet-grooming tips and where John scores his boring pills.
On to the performances.
WHEN SIMON COWELL announced he was leaving "American Idol" after the current season, millions of viewers no doubt wanted to fill his chair. But legendary producer Steve Lillywhite took it one step further: he started a public campaign for the job.
"When I read that he was leaving, I thought, Why not throw my hat in the ring? I have a good accent," says Lillywhite. "If [show creator] Simon Fuller wants to replace a Brit with a Brit, I would like to think my credentials are worthy of some sort of consideration."
Those credentials are impressive: Lillywhite began his career producing some of the most well-known acts of the early 1980s, including Siouxsie & the Banshees, U2, Talking Heads and XTC. Since then, he has had a steady stream of huge hits, from Peter Gabriel to Dave Matthews Band to Jason Mraz and Matchbox Twenty.
Plus, he's already worked with Randy Jackson.
"He probably doesn't remember me," says Lillywhite, "but I recorded him when he was playing bass with Aretha Franklin when she recorded 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' in the '80s for that movie."
Last month he launched his campaign with a charmingly off-the-cuff YouTube video, which has already received several thousand hits.
"I watch that now and think, 'Oh, God, what a little twit you are!' So I'm going to do another one," he says. "It's sort of funny doing a public thing to get on there. The whole show is public, isn't it? It's almost like a presidential campaign."
Lillywhite's goal is twofold: to give viewers a strong, well-rounded pool of singers to vote on, and to provide those contestants with constructive criticism that will develop their talents and guide them through long careers in the pop industry.
So far his campaign has elicited a range of responses, from serious to shocked.
"A lot of people have said to me, Are you joking? Why do you want to do something like this?"
But he is very serious about it, as he explained to Express just before rushing to the studio to work on a new album by Evanescence.
THE OLYMPICS ARE a visceral kind of thrill. Who can resist watching the well-honed bodies of the world's best athletes as they skate, slalom and slide their way to acclaim? In fact, the games enthralled viewers so much this year that they muscled out TV's most venerable ratings contenders.
But now the games are gone, leaving us in the fat fingers of fare such as top-rated "American Idol," which will be easy to rejoin even if you took a three-week Olympic timeout. Watch out, though: Many performances so far have been more throw-tomatoes than Flying Tomato.
Continue Reading "Passing the Torch: What You Missed on 'American Idol' During the Olympics" »
SHE'S BEEN HOLDING FORTH on the merits of a gaggle of understudy songbirds — now, here's your chance to share your opinions on Ellen DeGeneres' performance thus far as a judge on "American Idol."
Today's Express poll question poses the query thusly: Do you think Ellen DeGeneres has been a good fit on 'American Idol' so far?
The vote tally — and some of your comments — will wind up in tomorrow's Express print editions, laid out in newsprint for the world to see. So step lively, folks.
Also, pay no attention to the regular poll commenters who turn every pop culture question into a holier-than-thou competition. They're all closet "Jersey Shore" fans — I'm sure of it.
Photo courtesy Fox
THERE'S NO SHORTAGE of opinions on the new batch of "American Idol" contestants' first live performance week. But few can come at the task of critiquing "Idol" hopefuls quite like folks who've been there themselves.
What do former "Idol" contestants think of the new kids on the block? I took to Twitter to find out.
SPECIFIC THOUGHTS:
» Jordin Sparks (season six winner): Aww Randy. I have mad love for you dawg.
Oh Simon, you know you love me & my song!! Hahaha try to remember the melody next time! :P
» Adam Lambert (season eight runner-up): Toddricks def gonna surprise us!! Mad talent!! Def the full package. Casey is def the real deal. authentic. Andrew Garcia's too.
» Matt Giraud (season eight): Daaaaaaaaaaaang You betta sang Jermaine!!! I felt that man!
» Michael Johns (season seven): I love Ellen!!!! Banana comment
» Danny Noriega (season seven): HONESTLY! IDOL GET THE MICS BACK FROM OUR SEASON! The sound SUCKS. I LOVE Lilly!
» Alexis Grace (season eight): I can't believe I missed idol! How did my boy Andrew Garcia do?
I really liked Katie Stevens! That girl can blow and she's only 16, I think. Cnt wait to see what she can do
» Alex Wagner-Trugman (season eight): make sure to send a few votes to my buddy john park. 1866 436 5708. hes a super great guy and a talented singer.
i dont mean to be a hater, but is this really the best 12 guys they could find? season 8 guys ftw... just sayin.
Vote for Katie stevens and lacey brown!!!!
» Ju'Not Joyner (season eight): Lilly Scott is authentic. Lilly for the win!
» Casey Carlson (season eight) My top six for the guys are Michael, Jermaine, Lee, John, Andrew and Casey (something about that name... ;)
Everyone!!! Watch american idol tonight and vote for my girl Lacey Brown!!!!!!! Do it!!!!
» Felicia Barton (season eight): oh the manipulation of AMERICAN IDOL!..WHAT THE HECK !!!>...IS SIMON DEAF!!!! LEE WAS NOT THAT GOOD!!!!! OMG
oh tyler grady what in the world, hubby just said...it's ridiculous 2 suggest that these r the top 24 performers out of the 100000 auditions
I heart Crystal Bowersox!.
ok Didi Brook White look alike...and that sweater....perfect song choice...for her sound.
» Jason Yeager (season seven): Ok peeps TEXT the word VOTE to 5701! Vote Todrick Hall!!!!
Casey's runner up. Mark my words
Umm big mike there's a guitar under your belly. Play it
... but if you want some really incisive analysis — including some details on which contestants get paid what when — check out the feed of season six's Chris Sligh. It's an education.
Addison Road