My own beliefs are in my song

[jlh]

dreamerren should be pleased that they didn't do the silly judge thing, but then, we got baby pictures. And thank goodness, we got little buck-toothed chubby-cheeked Ryan, and Simon mysteriously holding a plastic gun.

ETA: Saw it! See below.

Wow, they went spectacularly over tonight, didn't they? I fear that Ryan dropping his tie bar was some kind of omen.

1. Danny, "Stand By Me." I have a very complicated relationship to this song, but I'll set that aside. I thought the arrangement was really, really shitty. I thought Danny did his Danny thing which I continue to not really care about.
   
2. Kris, "All She Wants to Do Is Dance." Seriously what is with the Vegas tonight? I feel like we completely lost the admittedly ridiculous lyrics, so I'm not entirely sure why he was singing this. (I also don't know what Kara thinks was young about the song to begin with.)
   
3. Lil, "What's Love Got to Do with It." Why is she walking around the stage like Tina Turner did in the video? Seriously, Lil, how can we find out who you are when you're a new person every week?
   
4. Anoop, "True Colors." The editing of that song was really, really odd. But the performance was good.
   
5. Scott, "The Search Is Over." This is everything I hate in one little bundle. He was rushing at the beginning, and was well off key at the end, and the guitar playing looked ridiculous.
   
6. Allison, "I Can't Make You Love Me." She was fantastic, wasn't she? Simon's right, though, because for whatever reason, she isn't coming across and getting a fan base.
   
7. Matt, "Part Time Lover." Is it like, "The Hat of Soul Singing" or something? Now, I really can't stand this song at all—but I really like what he did with the arrangement. (That's how you use horns, by the way, Kris.) I'm not sure about that strobe light thing, but that's okay.
   
8. Adam, "Mad World." So I think we all knew that he'd do Gary Jules version from Donnie Darko, and the staging was very effective. He sounded pretty fantastic—he's unerring in his song choice, really—and I liked how he changed it up even within that cover version. He's definitely what Cook and Blake begat. As for the standing O that's already controversial, I don't think Simon meant it as such—I think that since he didn't have enough time to say anything, and no one else would be talking, he wanted to do something that would have a very big impact. If they all hadn't been chatty patties at the top of the show, he would have stayed seated and said "fantastic" in that way that he does. So that's what I have to say about that.
   

[Poll #1379877]

I voted for Allison and Matt, mostly because Adam really, really doesn't need me. Then I checked DialIdol and started voting for Kris too.

Comments

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

so first of all i keep giggling at your "what cook and blake begat" line because before i read your post it had occurred to me that- well, see below.

# Danny, "Stand By Me." I have a very complicated relationship to this song, but I'll set that aside. I thought the arrangement was really, really shitty. I thought Danny did his Danny thing which I continue to not really care about.

yep. i have decided that for me he is the phil. that is, i like him tremendously as a person, i wish him all good things in the world, to my amateur ear he has a wonderful singing voice with admirable control and technique, and with the exception of a couple of performances i have never felt, as mfk fisher wrote about certain foods, more than clinical interest.

it's not a question of sincerity- i don't find phil or danny fake, and in fact there are fairly synthetic performers i find quite satisfying and intriguing (80s madonna), and in a way that's my point. this was my wedding song; i may have ficced that i think of it as a pop "dover beach." i really do think danny feels what he sings, and if that's the way you feel this song, we won't be bonding except over other topics. i almost prefer archuleta's attempt, in that the sean kingston bit might have been a cheeky little hustler's move and that made him likable to me. bo got it close to right, because bo is stark and so is the song.

# Kris, "All She Wants to Do Is Dance." Seriously what is with the Vegas tonight? I feel like we completely lost the admittedly ridiculous lyrics, so I'm not entirely sure why he was singing this.

so my thought as i was enjoying looking at him is that he looks like c-rich had a baby with jensen ackles, which is why your line made me hysterical, because talk about some crash and burn fanfic. anyway. yeah, the arrangement just sucked. and i don't even think the lyrics are...what was it jacob wrote in s6 latin week about "smooth"? you can say what you like about rob thomas and i've said plenty, but? don knows how i feel about his colitas- they annoy me more than glenn's winslow, arizona crap- but i think i've always seen the "she" of this song as vaguely metaphorical, and i had a "my country invaded nicaragua and all i got was this lousy t-shirt" shirt that year so really i should just recuse myself. anyway, the beat is undeniable, yet kris denied it. finally, there is the frustration of the near-miss in that he could have done "boys of summer," which could have been hot.

# Lil, "What's Love Got to Do with It." Why is she walking around the stage like Tina Turner did in the video? Seriously, Lil, how can we find out who you are when you're a new person every week?

you and paula have it right. that is all.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

# Anoop, "True Colors." The editing of that song was really, really odd. But the performance was good.

he really just needs to stick to ballads, because he's a wonderful balladeer. definitely the person i'm happiest didn't do the spoiler song.

# Scott, "The Search Is Over." This is everything I hate in one little bundle.

i swear to god this is true: this song came on the radio as i was driving home from work yesterday, and i thought, because of your spoilers, "thank god we're being spared this." who else but scott to give that a big bronx cheer?

here is the thing: while i tired of this particular song before it was off the charts, god knows i am not unsusceptible to the charm of this stuff. the first boston album, "carry on wayward son," at least a couple of tracks from the very survivor album that begat this thing, you're not going to see me changing the channel. but the only excuse for this kind of singer, of which steve perry is the apotheosis, is perfection. you have to nail every fucking note. singers whose voices can't hack it had better bring something else to the table, which in his case he has not got. also, and not unrelatedly, his little crack about his "punk side" made me snort, because while i am not now nor have i ever been a doctrinaire anything, i think you cannot lack any sense of the irony you're stepping in there (dude, they didn't even write their own SONGS. even, like, toto wrote their own songs.) and still be a musician who interests me, and i think he does entirely lack that, which brings us back to danny.

# Allison, "I Can't Make You Love Me." She was fantastic, wasn't she? Simon's right, though, because for whatever reason, she isn't coming across and getting a fan base.

and it's really too bad.

# Matt, "Part Time Lover." Is it like, "The Hat of Soul Singing" or something? Now, I really can't stand this song at all—but I really like what he did with the arrangement. (That's how you use horns, by the way, Kris.)

the fact that it was good and terrifically arranged made me all the sadder he didn't pick "love light in flight," which i may have mentioned is the one piece of 80s stevie i adore. also, while after last week he would have been insane to do this, i found myself being sorry he didn't try REM or echo or something else off the college charts from that year of all years of the college charts.

i cannot comment on adam because i watched the show on tivo after work, and i have not right now access to a computer with speakers, and i'm just generally annoyed about that. poor ryan, i bet this upset him.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Here's where I saw Adam tonight, for your computer with a speaker time:

http://bashhh.blogspot.com/2009/04/adam-lambert-april-7-mad-world-american.html

Honestly? I think that the new producers have not figured out how to time out a show with four judges. I think that's putting them over a lot—and the switching the order. Ryan could always get Simon to shut up if he needed to, but it's harder with the others. Eight songs in an hour was always tight, every year, and then we get packages about them being cute little babies and that whole song and dance of baby pictures at the beginning. I'm not sure Ryan could have saved FIVE MINUTES in that show.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

i don't even know what to say about adam. i have feelings about that song- did they ever use it on buffy? i don't think they did, and they should have- and of course about donnie darko, so that comes into play. of all the things that impress me about that performance i find myself fixating on the fact that it did not seem at all truncated he is unusually good at that. a small thing yet maybe not.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

As for what you actually said about the singers:

The good thing I can say about Danny—and I'll likely find a way to say it in the main post next week—is that he's not Taylor. Taylor wasn't actually that guy; he just played him on TV in a cynical ploy for votes that 100% worked. Danny really is that guy. Which doesn't make him any less Dukey, to me, or any more interesting, and with all that Adam is doing I'm not sure he can actually beat Adam head to head. But we'll see, because I would be shocked if that isn't where all this is headed.

Kris definitely wasn't singing about the Sandanistas, or the Contras, or anyone else. He was singing about a girl who likes to dance and perhaps drink a Molotov cocktail, which must have vodka in it, right? Don't tease me with the Boys of Summer.

I love what you're saying about Scott here. He didn't sing the song well, and the judges slammed him for it, and rightfully so. He's an irony free zone, very much so.

Ali and I just talked about Danny's smarm, and I thought of Cook's smarmy streak, but the thing is: Cook DOES have a sense of irony, esp about his own sincerity, as though sincerity is a place he refuses to wallow in. Cook will be Bono, but he will not be Scott Stapp.

Matt and Allison, I don't know, man. Allison seems to be doing okay on dialidol tonight and the west coast hasn't started voting yet, so she's clear. But ugh, worrying about them week on week, blah blah blah.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

as we have discussed before, there was something in taylor i liked, at least fitfully. but it wasn't his pose. danny, like phil, really is aw-shucks. and i think you're right about where this is going, and i love the anagram of past seasons that will present. it's as if you took cook's ironic sincerity (not scott stapp...exactly) and put it on a guy who brings all of blake's intrigue out of the closet, and replaced the pinocchio figure of archuleta with a real that guy.

Kris definitely wasn't singing about the Sandanistas, or the Contras, or anyone else. He was singing about a girl who likes to dance and perhaps drink a Molotov cocktail, which must have vodka in it, right?

and some sort of flavored schnapps. bwah. it was all wrong.

[toastoos.livejournal.com]

That picture of Ryan was so adorable! And Allison made me vote for her tonight because I think I'm starting to love her and don't want her in the bottom 3. I really don't get the Adam love, I guess I'm just not a fan of that type of singing.

[zorb]

I've just started to like Kris, so I'm bummed that he was pretty low on the totem pole this week. That said, Scott caused me physical pain.

Voting Allison and Anoop, and after looking at DialIdol, probably Kris as well, although he might be a real candidate for the save.