Really strong performances this week, and Randy and Paula are making bigger asses of themselves. Avert ye eyes all who hate this crap.
Alrighty, let’s just break this down in order. From now on I’ll try “live” blogging the show – this week I’m “semi-live.”
Anthony “I Knew You Were Waiting” – Very good singer, but not a great performer. Actually, I shouldn’t really say that. He’s good, but there’s something missing and I just don’t know what.
Carrie “Alone” – Great vocals. I mean, she really pulled out all the stops and sounded phenomonal on a Heart song. Ann Wilson ain’t exactly easy to match, but she did it. Unfortunately, she still has no stage presence – there’s a “deer in headlights” look on her during the song. Hopefully she’ll break out of it.
Scott “Against All Odds” – Just plain weak. I don’t like him at all. His best performances are merely above average. Please get rid of him soon.
Bo “Time in a Bottle” – Wow. Not his best performance, but his vocals really stood out in my mind. He has even more control than I realized. And such a subdued song demonstrated what incredible range he has. I think Simon is just about ignoring him at this point – he’s too good for this competition.
Nikko “Incomplete” – Another really fun performance. I like him, even if I didn’t like the song itself.
Vonzell “Best of My Love” – Best performance, hands down. She was absolutely awesome and had so much fun out there. And most importantly, she was far more memorable than in the past
Constantine “I Think I Love You” – He’s finally doing it. He’s finally picking the right songs and doing things with them. Great performance.
Nadia “Time After Time” – Awesome hair, average performance. I’m being a little generous because I like her. She’s fun, but this was an off week for her.
Mikalah “Some Taylor Dayne Song” – Awful. She’s terrible. And this was one of her “better” performances.
Anwar “Ain’t Nobody” – Decent job, but his weakest showing to date. He took a risk and it didn’t really payoff, but I can’t blame him for it. He’ll stick around and make up for it next week.
Jessica “Total Eclipse of the Heart” – Good vocals, but I’m not crazy about her. She’s got some power, and definitely sings well, but her performances are uneven.
This week should really be the final nail in the coffin for Mikalah, but we all know the horrible track record of American voters. Chances are, someone like Anthony will bite the dust due to millions of clueless little girls. Then again, perhaps her poor song choices will finally catch up with her. Barbara Streisand tunes ain’t exactly gonna warm up that pre-teen crowd.
Oook, I think aside from Bo, we don’t agree on anyone. Maybe Carrie, who has what Jeff calls “the dead stripper eyes.”
Good:
Bo – this man needs a recording contract
Scott – probably the best pure vocals of the night. while he’s lacking in stage presence, he’s the only one who can stay exactly on for the entirety of a song
Jessica – love the throaty thing, love the performance, keep it up. i’m very happy she got the final pimp spot.
Carrie – great vocals, but she’s got dead eyes. like she doesn’t even understand the point of the song, so she’s mentally doing a grocery list while singing. she often starts slightly flat, but does that slide up to correct it thing that is common with country singers.
Vonzell – adorable. control the screamy bits and you’d be the best of the night. loud is NOT the new good.
Decent:
Nikko – if he can control his lower register better, he’d be great
Bad:
Anwar – out of tune except on the glory notes and bitchy when people tell him the truth about it
Constantine – he doesn’t even know what “tongue in cheek” means. give me a call when you have the balls to sing “not for you” and then we can talk. dumbass. AND STOP THE EYEFUCKING. AAAAA.
Anthony – cover. the. blowhole. aside from the chorus, he was very very flat.
Ugly:
Nadia – zero range, zero comprehension of the song she’s singing. gratuitous shout out to mr. vasquez just to get his votes turned my stomach.
Mikalah – the horror… the horror
I’d be happy with Anthony, Mikalah, Nadia or Constansuck leaving. Anwar’s past two songs have sucked major rocks, but he’s still got a beautiful voice, and by virtue of past performances, he should go at least as far as Nikko. He’s got a bit of the scared dead Carrie-eye as well.
There’s only one person in the competition who has the whole package and that’s clearly Bo. Everyone else falls short – they either can’t perform very well or they have decent voices but no one else puts the two together consistently. Last night Vonzell and Jessica had both and were excellent, but I never know what to expect from them.
I’d say we agree on quite a few. Obviously Bo is the best hands down. I’d say we both like Carrie and Jessica’s voices, but I don’t really think Jessica’s stage presence is any better. If Carrie didn’t always look like she was trying not to pass out, she’d probably be second to Bo. Nikko is one of those middle of the road guys – not outstanding, but not bottom 3 material either.
We most strongly disagree over Scott. I’ll admit that his attitude is something that really turns me off, but I really just don’t see much behind his voice other than someone who can hold a tune. I’m sure he’d do well at karaoke, but not good enough for the stage.
I was definitely being generous with Anwar, because I think that was his first misstep. Similar with Nadia (although she’s got to stop that snearing), I think she made a mistake this week but will come through again later. Constantine’s performance was one of those “love it or hate it” things. Either you had fun with what he did, or you found it atrocious.
The only thing that would bother me about someone like Anthony or Constantine going is that would mean Mikalah is still on. Once she’s gone, I’ll be more objective about the others sticking around, but for now it’s hard to suck more than her. At this point my must remain list would be Bo, Anwar, Vonzell, Carrie, and Nadia with Nikko on the outside. Jessica doesn’t make the cut because I just don’t think there’s anything more than what we’ve seen – all the others I think are good enough to be even better as the competition goes on.
I agree that everyone did better than Mikalah, so it really would be tragic if she didn’t leave tonight. She deserves to leave and no one else came close to her level of suckage.
If Jessica is in the bottom three, then the people who watch the show clearly have no ears. She showed better chops last night than Nikko, Anwar, Constantine, and Nadia and her voice has an amazingly husky tone to it – kind of like what Bo would sound like as a woman. She doesn’t always put in an outstanding show, but her voice is really very good. Plus she has that somewhat slutty, trashy “love me or I’ll cut you” kind of vibe, which I find a lot more appealing than plain vanilla Carrie-bot.
I’ll be really irritated if Bo, Carrie, Jessica, Vonzell or Scott ended up in the bottom three, but one of them probably will. Unfortunately, people tend to forgive heinous vocals (and incorrectly sung ones at that) if someone puts on a good performance. And by good I mean “loud”, “inappropriate for the song” and “grating”. And yes, I do mean Nadia.
Randy and Paula are making bigger asses of themselves.
Funny that I read that, just after I read this…