We are the World! Or at least, the awesomest part of it!

[jlh]

I feel like last year they took the "songs of inspiration" a lot more literally, so this year the song choices were more interesting. And oh my god, Ryan needs to STOP with the HAIR or soon he really will look like Top Cheftestant Richard, and no one wants that.

• Michael, "Dream On." Why is he wearing another ascot? Why is his clothing so tight in an unflattering way, when he has a pretty good body? Anyway, as usual, Simon was right about imitating a rock star and Randy was right about the pitchiness because that falsetto was not as good as it should have been.
  
• Syesha, "I Believe." Well, it was good at the beginning, but I feel like it didn't work that well at the end. And Randy and Simon were right about the whole not connecting with the song exactly.
  
• Jason, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." He's playing a ukelele. We were charmed, and so was Simon.
  
• Kristy, "Anyway." I'm finding her defiance to be so uninteresting. I'm waiting for the theme when she can't sing some country song because I feel like she's been coating on shit that is just easy for her to sing. I never thought there was the tiniest chance that she'd be out tonight, but now I know it. She is so shameless and awful.
  
• D.Cook, "Innocent." No one knows this song. So no one will know what the hell he was doing in that verse with the usual Our Lady Peace weirdness except, like, Canada. I loved the writing on the hand; it was very rock and roll.
  
• Carly, "The Show Must Go On." She is seriously a different person every week. Like, I'm dizzy. I want to like her but I have no idea who she is. Like, if she had brought all this drama to Total Eclipse of the Heart then she'd be our drama llama and the whole thing would make sense, but she didn't really. She had a few weird vocal moments, and I totally don't know what the hell she was wearing; unlike Simon, I didn't think it was all that flattering.
  
• small David, "Angels." Wow, way to take all the romantic aspects of the song completely out. How can you really make a Robbie Williams song sound holy? Have small David sing it apparently. Which is not to say that it wasn't completely fucking amazing. WAY better than Jessica Simpson's crappy cover. (And if you haven't heard Robbie's version, omg, EMAIL ME and I will send it to you, because that is what's in Simon's head as a comparison.)
  
• Brooke, "You've Got a Friend." The dress is a little literal, Brooke; singing a song from Tapestry doesn't mean you have to dress like it's 1973.

[Poll #1168093]

I voted for Jason and D.Cook.

Comments

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

It finally gelled for me tonight, when Carly said she'd looked over at Simon's face and faltered. She's not singing because she enjoys singing. Because no matter what look Simon had on his face she would have just kept singing. She's singing for approval, she's singing to win, and that's why I don't feel like I can connect with her like I so badly want to. She's just TRYING so HARD - and unlike KCook, she doesn't HAVE to.

[mistress-mab.livejournal.com]

Ryan's hair? Yeah. I think that Simon told him it looked AWESOME just to fuck with him and see if he would keep wearing it like that.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Wait! I'm confused?! I thought it was some throwaway show tonight. Idols Give Back or something. So there was a real Idols contest tonight? WAAAH!

[phoenixsong]

D.Cook, "Innocent." No one knows this song.

I know it! I know it!

I am amused by your AI reviews, though I don't watch myself. But I might have to go scour YouTube or something tomorrow, just because I am a big dork who grew up in Buffalo and actually has some idea who OLP are. s:)

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

with my mind on my ukelele and my ukelele on my mind

*snort*

small David, because every week should be inspiration week

;)

Also, KLC seems to have worn the same variation of that outfit at least three times now. Snoozefest.

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

You're exactly right. And I can feel her desperation through my TV.

[consumedbywords.livejournal.com]

Archuleta completely ruined Angels. Not quite as bad as Jessica Simpson's butchering, but close.

I know Innocent! I remember it getting a lot of airplay a few years ago. It's also the only Our Lady Peace song on my iPod.

Carly's desperation makes me uncomfortable and I really want her off my tv. Same goes for Brooke.

Who the heck is dressing Paula? My boobs hurt in sympathy.

[ladyjaida.livejournal.com]

Your love for Jason makes me so happy, because is 100% perfection. His weird little face!!

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

So, tonight was the first new NCIS episode in a long long time, and I watched that instead of AI. But I was reading your post and I was thinking...'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'? Ukelele? o_o How can that WORK?

The internet is awesome: someone already has Jason Castro's performance on youtube. And wow, that was really good. Like, the kind of good where I was feeling it so much I started to feel all melty and stuff. Gah.

I've liked nearly all of his performances (that I've seen), but I really *loved* that.



Must now google for youtube vids of D. Cook.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

You're totally right. Randy, Paula, Simon and Ryan were on Larry King last night and the three judges went through each of the final eight and summed them up. Simon said that Carly didn't know who she was, and then Paula said she felt Carly was picking songs the judges would like to hear her sing, instead of songs she wanted to sing. And I want to connect with her, too!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

SOMEone certainly did—but given how he looks I don't think Ryan is willing to take any styling advice from box-cut Simon. Also, he only does that on Idol—on E!News his hair is normal. I just want to send him an email telling him to knock it off.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

No, no, Idol Gives Back is tomorrow night. This week they're doing the performance show, the charity show, and then the results show on Thursday. But I'm sure you can find all the performances online.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I know it, but I don't think anyone my age knows it, and I don't think that it played to the older rock heads who are voting for him, you know? And when you do a more obscure song you really have to sell it, like Blake would last year, or like Daughtry did because he was always picking obscure songs.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

She's so boring. If next week is Mariah I don't really know what will happen because she might be smart enough to get herself another pass. But I can't imagine she can get past Webber.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Paula's red dress for Idol Gives Back is fantastic, though.

Did you think he ruined Angels? I also thought Jessica sucked, and I prefer Robbie, but I thought he did okay singing the song; he just changed it into, like, a song about angels. Which worries me for small David; if he really wants to be a teen idol he needs to start bringing out the age-appropriate sexuality. That's why he reads so gay—he reminds me of Ricky Martin. But even Ricky worked out how to be pop sexy.

I just don't think the older rock heads are going to know an OLP song and D.Cook didn't sell it enough to get it over.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I thought that pulling back most of his hair really worked for him last night. Also he makes Ryan's head look tiny.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Jason's so awesome. He really put it together last night and I'm so proud of him. He's so very himself.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Dunno how I managed to mix that up. I'll skip Idol Gives Back unless it's supposed to be superduper awesome or something.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

There's going to be an Andrew Lloyd Webber week? That should be very interesting...

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

yes. this is it in a nutshell.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

i was all squeaky when i read what jason was going to do, because i knew it could be awesome, and it was. the arrangement fit him like a glove, musically and emotionally.

i said this in someone else's lj, but here is something that interests me- he has been getting some flak for being a one-trick pony, but i think to a great extent they're ALL niche performers this year, which is not what idol officially wants, and i wonder about that, and how it relates to the bo-daughtry-blake narrative. they thought archuleta was going to be their ideal style-morphing idol, but what's most fascinating to me about him is, he isn't. every week IS inspiration week; if he can make a song work that way, as you say, he succeeds, if not, he fails. jason's niche just happens to be the quirkiest and so they nitpick it.

you're so exactly right about kristy and i'm so annoyed she got this week as a gimme and when she wailed out "god is great...and when i pray..." i wanted to throw up. i repeat, her public deserves her, but what about the rest of us?

dcook- well, i know the song, and i didn't think it was bad, but overall you're right.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I may have to finally load iTunes on my new computer so I can get that song. <3

[consumedbywords.livejournal.com]

Did you think he ruined Angels?

I think if I had never heard the original, then no. But for better or worse, the original colors my judgment. Robbie Williams' version has a passion that I just don't hear in Archuleta's. David's more concerned, imo, about being Miss America. He picks songs that deliver messages about homelessness, poverty, and world peace without ever really connecting emotionally with them. He's just singing words to me, if that makes sense. But, on the bright side, he was nowhere near the hot mess that Jessica turned it into.

I'd rank them Robbie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Archuleta >>>>>>> Jessica

[eilujspark.livejournal.com]

Did you happen to see Larry King the other night? I keep waiting for it to show up on youtube or Flaming Potato so I can see it again. That was pretty awesome. "You're voice is changed. You don't talk like that."

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Using my Ryan-on-Larry-King icon!

I totally saw it, and it's on my tivo at the moment actually. When was that said? Because I'd love to find that moment you mention!

I loved how often when they were standing in the second half of the show that Simon tried to make Ryan laugh when Simon was off camera. I also loved how Ryan didn't even attempt to talk in the first half of the show except to explain technical aspects of the contest to Larry, and how he and Simon kept leaning back to talk over Randy. And of course, my favorite part was when Larry, weary of trying to wrangle the judges, said that Ryan was the most underappreciated person on that show, and Ryan just smiled and nodded. Larry loves Ryan so much it's adorable. I like that Simon just had to deal with Larry's Ryanlove.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I know the song, but I don't think most people know the song, and so he would have had to sell it better than he did. Not his best night, but it's okay. He might be in the bottom three actually.

In some ways small David is more like Daughtry than anyone expected, in that he warps every theme to his own ends. Blake would more, adapt each theme to suit him, but the results sounded different every week. Daughtry would more, game the game, singing rock covers of non rock songs. So small David sings inspirational covers of non-inspirational songs like Angels, which is really a wedding song more than anything else.

what about the rest of us indeed. Yuck.