Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine American Idol

I'd be interested on what the rules are with that. A fair few of the people have been on it in the past have been working as singers for a while although i don't recall any of them ever having had a recording contract in the past. The problem would be that you'd have to make a rule saying what level of sucess you can have before you are disqualified and that's bound to cause problems, especially in this age of on-line record releases and such.

AH!

Bevis, I forgot how blatant your AI opinions are! I was going to complain that it isn't very nice to say someone sucks when others in the thread have posted their delight with that person, but then I remembered that your comments are biting and searing and usually pretty funny even if I don't always agree with them.

There are 5 hours of Idol this week, starting tonight. I don't think that even I have the tenacity to sit through all that. The good news is I have TiVo, so I can watch it in bits, and spread it out over the weekend if I need to.

This is probably the best week each year for Idol viewers. This is the week to find out who can really sing (since before we've just gotten snippets), to find out who really sucks, to choose our favorites and to identify the awful singer that the teenage girls will put through to the finals. I'm really looking forward to this.

The guys are really the best in years. My top 3 in order, are Michael Johns (the Aussie), David Archuleta, and David Cook. The worst were Chickezie, Garrett Haley, and Luke Menard. The other boys are all pretty good and are contenders. My worst picks should not be on the show.

Heh, that's half the fun with AI and it's like. They're supposed to be the best singers the county has to offer so that ones that aren't deserve my full analysis. Plus when it comes to music you've always got a really interesting split in terms of opinions. Something else else that I love the next person hates and vice versa. Besides, wouldn;t it all be a bit boring if you didn't have me ranting every week?

I have to say though this year, with what I've seen so far, there's no-one that I really don't like. A fair few of the final 24 I don't remember seeing at all during the audition/Hollywood rounds and there area few that just seem a little dull but there are some pretty interesting people in their too. David Archuleta interests me because he looks so small and young and then has an absolutely belting voice. Same goes for Noriega (sp?) who could become annoying quickly but has a hell of a voice.

The girls I'm not so sure about. Not many of them really grabbed my as being instantly brilliant with maybe the exception of Syesha and the Irish lass. The singing nurse I like but I just don't think at the moment she's got anythign that sets her apart from Janis Joplin or Marianne Faithful or someone. She's good at what she does but what she does has been done before, if you know what I mean. Simon had it right during the Hollywood round when he said she's very good but even before she starts singing you know exactly what the song is going to sound like and she needs to learn to put a bit more light and shade into her performance. She is the kind of performer that could easily blossom though.

I'm about to go watch the girls..the guys were pretty good last night. I liked the dreadlocked boy the best (Jason?)...that lil David Archuletta is a cute kid, but I fear a crash and burn. The Aussie guy and the former boy band rocker just seem like posers. Danny (Flame On!) Noriega is fun. The rest were just kinda meh for me, but at least no one out and out SUCKED.

I like to do countdown style reviews, from worst to best...

Luke sounded like Kenny Loggins, which isn't all that bad, but it was SUCH a dull song.

Colton grinned and danced around to "Suspicious Minds." Colton, "Suspicious Minds" is not a happy joyful song!

Chikezie looked ridiculous in his orange leisure suit! What? He sang something? Didn't notice.

Jason...Moon River? I hope his grandma liked it. I fell asleep.

Leif Garrett Haley... I just don't care for his kind of voice. Personal preference thing. Terrible lighting. It did make him look sickly.

David Hernandez... Good start. I got distracted during the middle. That shouldn't happen.

Danny Noriega... NO NO NO! Jailhouse rock? Wrong!

Robbie Caraco... I don't remember what he did. It must not have been that bad.

David Cook... Don't remember his song, but I'm sure it wasn't that bad.

Michael Johns... it was good but it didn't blow me away.

Jason Castro... he's one that I had no idea what would happen. I really liked his performance. I was pleasantly surprised.

David Archuleta... really charming, great song, my wife kept calling him cute, cute, cute.

Okay--just watched the girls. I liked Alaina "More Today Than Yesterday" and Ramilee "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" the best.

Carly, aka "the one who had a contract" just leaves me kind of cold. I liked parts of AlexANDREA's "Spinning Wheel" and Joanne's "Say a Little Prayer". Brooke "Happy Together" has a sunny, hippy vibe that I kind of like (she should duet with Jason Castro), and Asia'h was pretty good on "Piece of My Heart".

Sayesha and Amanda rocked out, but I'd kind of like to hear them, you know, SING.

Kady IS more fun when she's imitating Britney. She started off pretty good but it bogged down. I think that's everyone, other than the poor girl who butchered "Where The Boys Are" and bought herself a ticket home.

Overall, I think the boys were better last night.

THE GUYS


Lotta hotties. Those rating an 8 or higher on my 1-10 scale of sexiness:

David H, Robbie, David (17), Danny, Luke, Colton, Jason "Dreads" (WICKED pretty face!) and Michael.

Unfortunately, looks can't keep Luke from going home... I thought he was the worst. Chikezie, "Leif" Garrett and "Moon River" Jason shouldn't get too comfortable either.

So, setting hotness aside for a second, who performed how? I actually thought "I want to give you money" cutie-17 David was overpowered by the band and backup singers. Punky David Cook did a fun version of "Happy Together", Robbie worked out "1", and I rather enjoyed the gayification of Elvis as performed by the sissy squadron of Danny and Colton. Michael was great but I couldn't escape the "I can sing THAT song!" karaoke-lover in me. I wasn't as in love with Jason Castro's performance as others were, but there is definitely something there.

It will be a blasphemy if any guy other than Luke, Chikezie, "Moon River" Jason or Garrett goes home.


THE DAMSELS

Kristi Lee Cook needs to find a way to sing "Amazing Grace" every week.

I was SOOOoooo disappointed by Joanne.

Alaina "Carrie Underwood with a slight gap" was REALLY good.

Amanda-- that has got to be one of the ballsiest female performances I've seen on AI. LOVE her AND her Winehousian 'do.

Amy-- *chortle!* "Where the Boys Are"? Did she really think this would go over well with the judges? It did annoy me that Randy mistook the Connie Francis song for Patsy Cline (did Patsy ever cover it?).

Brooke wasn't anywhere near the best, but *I* like her.

Alexandrea: I **LOVED**. Her look, her performance, LOVED it.

Kady will do something fun next time, if she survives. And a real cutie.

Asia'h kicked freakin' ASS. Probably my favorite, performance-wise.

I was prepared to hate Ramiele for doing a song I consider to now be owned by former AI fave Nadia Turner, but she worked it out. Her Winehousian 'do was also a plus.

Syesha... ballsy up there with Amanda (and the afore-mentioned Nadia Turner).

Carly... feh. I've grown weary of her.


The bell tolls for these belles: Amy, Kristi Lee and Joanne, start packing.


OMG, Thursday night is just going to KILL me!

It's frustrating for me that the one time I know someone on one of these types of shows I'm not in America to soak up the atmosphere and excitment but am instead back home in Perth on holiday!

And I don't even have the channel here that shows American Idol.

I did manage to catch Mike's performance on youtube though and I gotta say - I didn't like it. It wasn't terrible but an uninspired song choice and a strangely flat vocal just left me unimpressed. I didn't see any of the other guys to compare him with but I think he has to lift his game from here if he wants to stay 'til the end.

re: the first 3 rejects


I wholeheartedly approve


re: the 4th reject

NOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOOO!


How he fared worse than the awful Luke and Chikezie I cannot fathom. Of course, I didn't vote either. Shame on me.

And poor Danny was brokenhearted to see his lover get the axe... it was SO sad!

Wow, I really thought Jacuzzi Easy would get the boot. Ah well, the other guy didn't have a prayer of winning, so might as well leave now.

I wish they'd save these theme nights until it's the actual Top 12.

OK, so because of the way ITV showed the boys last night (splitting it into two hour long shows) I only saw the first six because the second hour clashed with The Sarah Connor Chronicles so I recorded the second half and shall watch it this weekend sometime (since there's two hours of the girls tonight so I probably won't get the chance to watch teh rest of the boys).

So the ones I did watch...

David Hernandez. Hideous shirt for a start. But other than that he was pretty darn good. He didn;t make much of an impression on me during the auditions and while he did need to loosen up a little he can sing pretty darn well and he's got a fair bit of charm to him.

Jacuzzi Easy. Bleurgh. The suit was absolutely hideous and should never have appeared on stage. The performance as well was just naff. It's not that he can't sing (although there were some pretty duff notes in there) but Simon was right when he said it was horribly dated and just didn't work. His whining that it's hard to do anythign modern with a 60s song was clearly complete rubbish since most of the others managed to do something interesting with their songs.

David Cook. I really, really didn't like it. Of the six that I saw he's probably the weakest singer and there's just something a bit slimy about him. I don't rate him as a singer or performer and he comes across as just being a bit garulous to me. I'm not a fan of Mr Cook at all.

Jason. Oh dear lord, that was cheesy. It was like he thinks that Andy Willimas is the height of fashion and that all he needed to do was make it even cheesier and saccharine and he'd wow everyone. The most annoying thing about his performance is that he's cleary a bloody good singer but the performance was so naff that I could barely watch it.

Robbie. Now this one surprised me because I'd really not rated him during the auditions either. He just didn't seem very interesting. And while I can see where Simon was coming from with hsi comments about not being sure about him being a rocker his performance this week was actually very good. He's very slick (which is maybe where teh questioning his rock sensibilites comes from) but he's a very good singer and he's got something very appealing about him.

and then finally (of the ones I saw) we had little David Archuleta. Bloody hellfire the boy is good. He could so easily slip into being a bit annoying and precocious but he's got an absolutely incredible singing voice and is incredibly cute. He's charming and modest without it being false modesty and is easily the best of the ones I saw by a mile. My only worry with him would be that since he is so much younger than the others (and looks younger still) that he might burn out early and never quite live up to hsi full potential.

Just foudn out who went. The two boys are fine with me (even though I've not actually seen their performances this week, but neither of them did anything for me during the auditions) and one of the girls I don't even vaguely remember from teh auditions. The other one I thought had potential but I'm maybe not as upset as I might have been if I'd seen more of what she could do.

I didn't get a chance to review the girls! I'm gonna do it anyway!

Okay, least favorite to most favorite...

Amy Davis... where the notes aren't.

Kady ....snore....

Joanne... shriek!

Kristy Lee...she looked cute, but the song was too big for her.

Alexandrea... she looked 40, sounded okay.

Brooke... I want her to do better than she actually did.

Amanda... I liked the edge, but where were the vocals?

Carly... kinda cool, jazzy. I'm supposed to appreciate that she was even able to get up there, right?

Ramiele.. really cute and she did fine, but that's Nadia's song.

Alaina.. cute and fun, good job!

Asia'h. I love her!!! Fun and soulful, really entertaining.

Syesha. I love her too!! A well done big finish will impress me everytime. A touch of diva?

I'm totally fine with the eliminations.

*ahem* That's Dusty Springfield's song.

Hah! I know.

I mean in the Idol Universe, no once has been able to cover Dusty's song better than Nadia did in season 5. I feel that way about a lot of performances on Idol.

Right, after a long weekend I'm back to whitter about the other six boys and all twelve girls. Boys first...

Danny Noriega. I was slightly disappointed with him to be honest. He's shown in teh audition rounds how good a singer he is but his peformance was just a bit blah. Misjudged maybe rather than bad exactly but he needs to be better than that if he's going to go any further.

Ellen Degeneres. Now I don't see why he got voted off at all. He didn't do a brilliant performance but he certainly wasn't bad and he's got quite a nice voice.

Garrett. Bleurgh. He's not going to be missed. Not a good performance and just lacking anything really appealing about him.

Luke. Ooooh, bad. Very, very bad. I suspect the reason he didn't get voted off is because he's quite good looking. It'll be a miracle if he gets into the top twelve though.

Michael Johns. Again I was a bit disappointed with him. It wasn't a bad performance and I think he'll probably be OK into getting through to the top twelve but I wanted him to wow me and he didn't. Possibly he's set his own bar so high with the audition performance of Bohemian Rhapsody that he might be in trouble if he doesn't reach that standard every week.

Jason Castro. Now I have no idea why I like Jason so much, but I do. I agree that he might have been even better if he had just done it on his own with the guitar (which is saying a lot about how good he is) but it was a beautifully underplayed, simple performance that showed off his voice incredibly well. He's also got a huge amount of charm to him and comes across as being a genuinely nice guy. We like him a lot.

So top six boys? Hmmm. David Archuleta and Jason Castro definately. Michael Johns, Robbie and David Hernandez probably and Danny Noriega probably making up the sixth. The others don;t desrve to be there to my mind. Which probably means they'll all be there and the really good ones will get the boot...

And then there were the girls...

Alaina. Erm.... I have absolutely no recollection of her. What did she do? Clearly nothing memorable.

Alexandrea. OK, the name is a win on it's own. Her performance was pretty good. Nothing amazing but I quite liked her.

Amanda. She's losing it for me. She can sing and there's soemthign quite appealing about her but she's very samey and I don't know if she'll be able to last the distance.

Amy. SQUACK!! SHRIEK! NeRF! Oh dear, she was rather awful wasn;t she. Very pretty young girl but if that's the best she can do then she clearly deserved the boot.

Asia'h. T'he rand'om extr'a pun'ctuat'ion in' h'er na'me bu'gs me' m'ore tha'n 'it sh'ould, but she was pretty good.

Brooke. I suspect it wasn't anything as good as she has the potential to be. There's soemthing interesting about her but she's got to be careful not to be so 'nice' that she sort of fades into the background. She could be great though.

Carly. Hmm. Not up to the level that she's set already. She looked really uncomfortable and while she wasn't bad she wasn't great either.

Joanne. Well she wasn't bad exactly, but it wasn't very good. It was just a bit dull. Maybe she didn't deserve to go this early but I don't think she'd have alsted much longer to be honest.

Kady. Another pretty blonde one. Who I don;t remember at all.

Kristy Lee. Ditto for the blonde one I don;t remember. I do remember one fo the pretty blonde on es being really quite good, one being really quite bad and one just being a bit meh. I just wish I could remember which was which.

Ramiele. Hell YES. We like her. We like her a lot. She's got an amazing voice and just seems too, too cute. She's set her bar high but I have a feeling she'll be able to live up to it. She's the only one of the girls that actually looked comfortable on stage. She told the story of the song, used the camera brilliantly and never once looked out of place. She's the girl to beat at this stage.

Syesha. nd again, hell yes. Her actual performance wasn't as good as Ramiele's but she's damn good nonetheless. She's incredibly beautiful and graceful and makes it all look very easy. We liked her a lot too.

So top six girls... Actually, that's much harder than with the boys where the good are much better than the bad. Syesha and Ramiele should be dead certs. I'd like to see A'siah', Brooke and Alexandrea in there as well but the sixth spot I have no idea. Carly or Amanda maybe, but both of them need to do something brilliant this week to avoid missing out.

Least favorite to most favorite....

Jason... he just doesn't get it.

Luke... I can't stand his voice!

Robbie... maybe no one believes he's a rocker because he doesn't sound like one at all! He's too bland.

Danny... not bad, not good. I wish he was better because I like his sassy, girly personality.

Jason.... aw.... I liked him so much last week. This song did not work for him this week. He skipped the high notes and let the backup singers fill them in! Hello, this is a singing contest!

Michael...he picks songs that work for him, but he doesn't innovate much. I still want to see more.

David Cook...he did a good job. I'm not a big fan, but I don't dislike him.

David Hernandez... really good! I was surprised.

Chikeze... REALLY good! Loved it!

David Archuleta... I'm a total fan now! I knew Paula would call it beautiful, and that's what I thought.

Bleh... that's what this week was, for both the bois and the babes.


Let's discuss the guys first...

SASSING SIMON WON'T GET YOU INTO THE TOP !2 DEPT.

Robbie and especially David Cook-- who I thought was really good-- take heed. 'Sides, David, Simon's right-- you ARE rather bland when not performing.

AFTER THIS WEEK, I"M GLAD YOU DIDN'T GET CUT LAST WEEK DEPT.

Chikezie and "Moon River" Jason were much better for me this week. Jason's cuter than I originally thought... he gets boosted to an 8 lookswise.

I DON'T CARE HOW SO-SO YOUR SONG WAS, I LOVE YOU AND WANT TO FINGER-PAINT YOUR BODY DEPT.

That be-dreadlocked Jason Castro suRRRRRRRRe is puRRRRRRRty. And he's a very subdued hilarious. I loved his comments about hating to do interviews and all the other non-music suff he obviously doesn't care to do.

LET YOUR FLAME BURN BRIGHT, GIRL! DEPT.

I ***loved*** Danny's dedication to his missing lover Colton. I hope he makes it trough.

MIGHT AS WELL GIVE IT TO HIM NOW DEPT.

David Archuletta. Last week he was still sailing by on his adoreableness for me,but this week he really brought it home. Between his looks, his sweetness and his vocals, he may be unbeatable.

GO HOME NOW!!!! DEPT.

Luke, I detest you... I don't care how handsome you are, you suck, suck, SUCK!!!! Colton should still be here and he isn't because of YOU!!! **grrrrrrr!** Damn you.

AND THE REST

Michael and the Latin David. S'alright. They ain't going anywhere.

and the lasses...

to be honest, I was late getting back from work and only saw the first 3 performances' snippets at the end, but saw the other 7 in their entirety.

From the looks of it, Carly was about the only one who was dead-on tonight. Which in a way is cool because Carly is one of my favorite girl-names,but it's also bad because I don't want her to win for some reason. Not sure why. Just don't. Maybe that will change.

Syesha looked like she was taking a risk with "Me and MISTER Jones". How'd she do? Might have been more fun if she had left the original lyrics intact... heh heh.

The glimpse I caught of Brooke covering Carly Simon was too quick to get anything from... she was the one I really wanted to see, too... I'm drawn to her and want her to do well.

Now for who I did see...

Rameile... it was okay.

Kristy Lee Cook did better this week, still not wowed. Perhaps if she had sung a disco version of "Amazing Grace"...?

Space-toothed Carrie Underwood Alaina BOTCHED "Hopelessly Devoted..."! ANd I like her, too. *sigh* What she needs is someone to coach her. DO BETTER! I'm going to shake you until you DO BETTER, ALAINA!!!!!!

Amanda Overmeyer. How I adore you. Why won't you WOW me? Is that too much to ask? Do you need a good shaking?

Alexandrea. Just terrible, I thought, and I *love* her. She obviously needs a good yelling at followed by a thorough shaking.

Kady Malloy,if you ever destroy a Heart song like that again, you are going to get shaken senseless.

Asia'h. note to Bevis: I deal with the silly "'" in her name by pretending she originally hails from the Shi'ar Empire. Now, Asia'h... First of all, love once again your massive earrings. Second: *krack!!* That was me ready-ing up my hands to administer a good shaking. BAD ASIA'H!!!! Good Lord, girl, leave those types of songs for Danny to sing.


So yeah, this week was bleah for AI. But even when the show is bad, writing the reviews here (and reading everyone else's) is FUN!

I haven't read anyone else's review yet....

Wow, the girls did not impress much tonight.

Worst to best...

Amanda... she sounded terrible. I had high hopes for her. However, I thought she looked AWESOME! Cruella DeVille!

Kady just doesn't do anything memorable onstage. She should be an actress or comedienne who sings.

Asia'h... I agree with the judges. The song was too big for her.

Carly... she's like the female Michael Johns... good in theory, but not in practice.

Alexandrea did fine, but she seemed like she was annoyed with herself during the song. She should play it off.

Kristi Lee... cute girl, good job.

Ramiele... I thought she did better than the judges did.

Syesha... again, I think it was better than judges thought.

Alaina... nice!

Brooke... my favorite.

Honestly, I never felt the WOW! happen. The best got a "B" and the worst got a "C" in my book.

David Archuleta is the best of the top 20, IMO.

Hah! Lash and I have very similar reviews! No surprise there, I guess.

Ah, Lash my child, I am gald to see that you are learnign from my example and not holding back with your reviews. not that you really did before, but you seem to be breaking free this season even more.

It's an odd bunch this year. There's no-one who is really appalingly bad straight away btu it does seem to have a lot of singers who appear to have a huge amount of potential that simply aren;t actually delivering in the way that they should. Sure we're only into the second week of performances proper but apart from little David noen of them seem to be blowing people away. It's a shame because I think there's the potential there for this to be the best series of AI for a good long while and yet it's shaping up to be almost as bland as last year if they're not careful.