Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine American Idol

I think VFTW are probably going to ahve a hard time this year. There isn't anyone spectacularly bad (or at least they haven't been so far). Kristi is probably the worst but isn't really awful and Amanda has had some pretty shoddy performances but is no Sanjaya or Bucky. On the other hand I'm also having a hard time guessing who is likely to be in the top three since pretty much everyone ahs had at least one brilliant performance and a few mediocre ones so a lot of it's going to depend on how they develop as performers.

"jai guru deva.....om...."

"nothin's gonna change my world.."

I'll agree with Simon, 2 weeks of Beatles was a mistake. What a bleah week.


THE OFFICIAL I'VE GROWN WEARY OF THEM SQUAD ROLL CALL


David Archuleta.... if li'l Miss Perfect wins, I can already hear in my head the crappy cd he'll put out (through no fault of his own largely). 1 part 2000-style Justin Timberlake, 1 part crappy ballads, 1 part forced pseudo-hip-hop. Euuuugh.

David Cook.... To borrow from Simon, he's getting indulgent. Try something a little different, David, I want to like you next week!

Michael Johns... He just hasn't wowed me yet. He reminds me of an excellent karaoke singer, not an American Idol.


THE TABLES (FOR ME) TURNED

Carly... She makes these faces that are painful to look at when she sings, but I'm warming to her.

Kristi Lee Cook... Once again, I thought she was a lot better than the judges did. As the only country-esque performer this year, I hope the country fans keep her in.

Chikezie... the first version of "I've Just Seen a Face" I ever heard was a totally country hoe-down by 80s country girl-band Calamity Jane (who would later become lesbianic duo Kennedy/Rose). It was my favorite performance of his to date.


JUST OKAY FOR ME

Shyesha... how I hoped she would do the En Vogue version of "Yesterday".

Ramiele... It was fun enough, but seemed sorta amatuerish.


GIMME GIMME MORE


Brooke... this lass is awesome. I cannot wait to spend money on her first cd. The judges shocked me that they didn't like it. I thought it was sweet, fun, great.

Amanda Overmeyer... She made a great point about what her shows would be like. She's not fantastic, but she's a LOT of fun.

Jason Castro... If I'm totally honest, based on vocals, Jason should go home this week. However I'm so drawn to him, I hope Simon's right about his charm and face carrying him through. After this performance, though, I'm putting him on notice, despite his choosing the song for and dedicating it to me, his future husband.


bottom 3?

I'm worried for Jason. Kristi Lee seems to be a permanent member. And possibly Michael?


I cannot WAIT to see my Pickles sing tomorrow night! (Kat McPhee kicked ass last week, too!)

It's hard to not read Lash's post as I write this, but here goes...

Worst to best:

Kristy Lee. She just sounded off the whole time.

Michael. Last week it was nice that he dedicated the song to someone close to him. This time it came across as self indulgent (to borrow a common statement Simon makes). His choice was really bad for this format.

Ramiele. I'm losing faith in her. Her voice is pretty, but she might be better in a smaller niche, not in the international superstar market.

Carly. When was her 50th birthday?

David Cook. The magic faded. He should have done something different. The Peter Frampton mouth thing was wierd. But he's still good, overall.

Jason. Still charming as ever, but he should learn how to sing with more power.

Brooke. Should have been good, but it was weird.

Chikeze. I really liked it. He could have skipped the harmonica, though.

Amanda. I love her and I love her reaction to Simon's comments. The performance was great. I love her strut step/hair flip. Ow! Oh yeah, her raspy rocker voice works for me.

David Archuleta. This is him in his element. The whole time I was waiting for the lyric flub and it never happened! Yay!

Syesha. I loved the tender, nearly crying singing style on this one.

Hah! Some of Lash's and my comments are nearly identical.

OHMIGAWD!!!!!!!

This totally did not go the way I expected--

but I was okay with it.


DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW


If the bottom 3 had to consist of Amanda, Kristi Lee and Carly, then based strictly on vocals, the right person went home.

I could, however, make an arguement that based on performance, the right person did NOT go home.

It's all good as long as my future husband is safe! We're planning our wedding as I type....

Pickles ruled. I can't wait to get her new CD!

I can't believe Christie is STILL around - her performances are AWFUL!!!!!!! Off key, terrible vocals & she butchers every song she does

Amanda should have stayed

Ditto, Asky!

I'm an Amanda Fanda, so I'm bummed out.

Eh, I'm happy with that. She was pretty cool (despite the horribly dated hair and clothes) but every single performance she's done has been the same and there have been points where not only have the lyrics been completely unintelligable but she's been pretty much just shouting as well. And to be fair she never really stood a chance of winning either so going this early probably doesn;t make any difference. I am slightly surprised that she went over Kristi though.

Andrew Lloyd Weber has just been confirmed as one of the mentors for this season. So we've got him (eh, might be good), Mariah Scary (urgh) and Dolly Parton (Yay!) all confirmed as mentors. Has there been anyone else mentioned that I've missed hearing about?

I am an Amanda fan too but I knew she would never make the Top 2 but I at least wanted her in Top 10 so she could go on the tour. Kristie definitely does not deserve to be in Top 10 - she has consistently been on bottom 2 EVERY week.

I think it will come down to the 2 Davids - both are good though young David might end up winning since he is the most popular/cute.

Finally getting round to watch this week.

Amanda. Fnurg blart snort blargh USSR! Blart! I thought we didn't have a Bucky this year, it appears we did. I was bored with Amanda anyway so I'm not missing her.

Kristi. She appeared to be singing a different song from what the band were playing. Plus apart from the big notes she sounded off the entire song. She's not going to last if there's any justice.

David A. Little David has an incredible voice but my gods he's picking shitty songs at the moment. Maudlin, dull or just plain crap. He's in really serious danger of coming across as moping and rippy and that I cannot be doing with. He's got to do something great to turn things around for me because much as he has the best voice in the series if he keeps churning out the same performances every single week then people are going to get bored with him and he won't get the votes.

Michael. So, so disappointing. He's hot, he's got a great voice and he's a very competant performer. But he's just... he's not as good as he should be. I think he'll be around for a while yet but he's not going to win unless he can do another Bohemian Rhapsody. I want to like him as much as I liked Chris Daugherty but he's just missing the something that makes Chris so good.

Brooke. Ever so slightly flat in plaves but the right song for her personality and she's got a brilliant stage presence. A very nice voice, if maybe not technically the best of the bunch, but she's an incredibly engaging performer. She's my dark horse pick for the winner, even if the judges weren't keen on it. She's also got a lovely personality. She talks back to the judges but with great humour and sun and is clearly a very bright girl. I think she's got a career whatever happens here.

David Cook. Just shave your hair you munter. His performance was affected and consisted mostly of shouting and posing with his geeetar. And then the self-indulgent garbling with the vocal effects just made me want to throw bricks at him. Yuk.

Carly. Dear Lord that top she had on was hideous. Odd arrangement of the song, but then again I only really like Bernadette Peter's version. Not a bad performance at all, but a fairly pointless song in a contest like this. Didn't deserve to be bottom three but then nor was it one of the best.

Jason. OK, I liked Jason to start with. Now I just want to slap him. He's gone from pleasant to cloying and wet. Oh, and really rather boring.

Syesha. This song makes me want to rip my ears off. It's so bloody awful it makes me want to scream. Syesha actually managed to sing it quite nicely though. She just let her voice be the thing that carried the performance rather than trying to be something that she might not be. I'm not sure she's really got any chance of winning or has anything really unique about her in the long run but I do rather like her.

Chikizie. Cheesy. And oddly sounded like he was out of time for half of it. And then he 'played' the harmonica and it all went to utter shit. It's like he was having some kind of mental breakdown live on stage. Absolutely godawful tripe.

Ramiele. Wierdly off-key at the start at least. Not a bad choice of song but something missing slightly. Like Michael she's someone I want to really like and she's not really impressed in the way she should, whihc is a big shame.

The audience this week were awful though with the constant shouting through every single performance so that they drowned out the singing a lot. It's not the first time they've done that of course but it was especially bad this week.

Bevis, you were not amused, were you.

Not really. I think Simon was right in saying that a second week of Beetles songs was a mistake. They've got some really good singers this time but they pretty much all seem to pick really bad songs. I think I'm more annoyed this year by the seriously lacklustre performances because so many of them have the potential to be great and they're missing time and time again. It's not good.

Least favorite to favorite....

Ramiele. Just not very interesting. I'm getting tired of people doing that song on Idol now, too. Lessee... Carrie Underwood did it. Someone else did it. Carly did it this season.

Jason. Too subdued. He needs to step up. Or cry. Or something. I barely remember what he did.

David Archuleta. I don't know the song and it wasn't very interesting. He didn't seem to be enjoying himself, either. Weird to have him so far from the top.

Carly. Such a karaoke song. In fact, that song is more fun out at karaoke and I know I've said as much here before. I wish she would do really cool, obsure songs that I don't know but that are interesting and show her talents. She's actually pretty dull to me.

Brooke. Such a tired song. I mean, I used to love it. And Brooke is too sweet to pull off a creepy/stalker type of vibe for it, so it just fell flat. Plus she made an error in the beginning.

Kristy. She was very good, and as Simon said, very clever. Unless she totally blew it, who's going to vote against the USA? Wow! Kristy was better than Brooke, IMO tonight.

Chikeze. I thought Simon and Randy were too hard on him. I thought he did a great job with it. Here's kind of a shallow comment... it'd be nice if he was better looking. I think Chikeze has a lot of potential as an entertainer, but there are a lot of talented, good looking guys who can do what he does. Hey, maybe he and Jason can trade songs and see how it goes?

Michael. Maybe he should just always try to do Queen songs? Well, it worked this week anyway. I think the judges are right though. He's best when he pushes himself and gets really into it.

Syesha. She sounded and looked really good. I loved it!

David Cook. I never knew we'd be in store for such great entertaiment from him! He's been very consistent and quite good, IMO.

Tonight, no one even came close to David Cook with his unbelievable version of Billy Jean (a song I usually hate but loved tonight). David is so original, and as the judges said, he deserves to win this thing.

The worst tonight, to get it out of the way, was David Archuleta. I'm getting tired of this super nice kid. All I can think of watching him is Alfred E. Newman from Mad Magazine. Bobbing around like a singer on an after school show for 4th graders, he really is getting irritating, despite his charm.

That said, we all know David Archuleta is safe. So the bottom three are probably going to be Ramiele (and I think she's going), Chickezie (who was really boring tonight, but has such a nice voice) and Kristie Cook.

Kristie sang very well tonight, but she was so obvious and pandering in choosing to sing "God Bless America." It was like a dare - How can you vote me off when I sang a patriotic song? It would be un-American. I think for that very reason, the pandering, she should go.

The others were okay. Michael Johns gave his best performance, but in retrospect, it paled in comparison to David Cook's performance.

Jason was decent and I enjoyed him.

Carly was a bit predictable, but she's got a good voice.

Brooke White wasn't great tonight with Every Little Step You Take.

Sayesha was quite good and should not be in the bottom three.

So, those are my opinions, for what they're worth (not much, probably).

For me, the bottom three were Ramiele, Jason and Kristi.

Ramiele should definitely go tonight. She's sweet, but just boring, you know?

Jason's just the same guy every week, and if they put out an album with the songs he's done here, I'd simply fall asleep!

Kristi...yes, she sang pretty well tonight, but the song choice--very high school chorus. I mean, when I was in high school, it seemed like we did that song every year, either as a group or as a solo. It's a crowd pleaser, yes, but a very, very cheesy, pandering one.

If this were a bottom four, I'd definitely put David A. in that spot. Simon nailed what was wrong with the song when he said it seemed like it belonged in a theme park a la "It's a Small World"--very Mickey Mouse Club! In fact, I was absolutely stunned Simon didn't call out Kristi for the exact same thing! David A. needs to branch out, badly--such a great voice should never be boring!!

So, hopefully, we'll say goodbye to Ramiele tonight (though I wonder, since she hasn't been in the bottom three the last two weeks).

Otherwise, I rank the Top Six, this week, as follows:

1) David Cook--absolutely brilliant!

2) Michael Johns--Queen definitely brings it out in him! (though the jdges curiously didn't call ot some flaws in his vocals)

3) Carly--I LOVE "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and Carly gave me goose bumps singing it. I hope last week's appearance in the bottom three and the judges inexplicably negative comments don't point to her being out this week.

4) Sayesha--really stepping up her game the past two weeks!

5) Chikezie--don't understand the negative comments on him either from the judges.

6) Brooke--in danger of becoming boring. I hope she finds a way to mix it up next week. (I don't see her being in danger yet.

Go David Cook! He's quickly becoming my favorite!

1 post for both shows...

SPECIAL NO-HOLDS BARRED EDITION

TUESDAY

Ramiele... Absolute garbage. The original version has lyrics absolutely soaked in and dripping with lonliness and depression, the chorus to me is secondary to the emotion in the lyrics. Ramiele choed on both. BOTTOM 3.

Chikezie... Is he still here? His gender-switching of lyrics is annoying to me. Time to go. BOTTOM 3.

Jason Castro... Despite my love for him, I wouldn't buy any album he released. I would, however, watch any show he was on or buy any magazine spread (I.E. Playgirl) he appeared in. Time to go to Hollywood and audition, don't bother booking studio time. BOTTOM 3.

(2 of my 3 predictions were correct)


David A... Poor li'l thing... Simon's going to break him yet. Bad this week.

Carly... fading in and out... I've decided that all future HEART songs should be done by her and her only.

Syesha... I thought was great, didn't deserve bottom 3.

Kristi Lee... I was impressed Simon knew who Lee Greenwood was... though my favorite song of his remains "IOU" (download it TODAY!) he of course never had to work again after this song. She did well on it.

Michael Johns... FINALLY. Something else else worthwhile. And he really IS hot, isn't he?

Brooke White... part Tori, part Lucinda, part Sarah... I absolutely STILL adore her. Release CD now, please.

David Cook... My prediction for winner, to make up for the Chris Daughtry fiasco.


WEDNESDAY

No prob with tonight's exit, at all.

Well I'm super-bummed.

Chikezie had a great voice IMO and when he wasn't doing boring Luther Vandross power-ballads he was easily the most entertaining performer to watch on the stage. His "She's a Woman" is one of my favourite Idol performances ever.

As soon as he started singing last night though I knew he was gonna be a goner today. Song choice is SO crucial for those 'on-the-bubble' contestants that don't have the raging fan-bases that people like the Davids (and maybe Michael and Brooke) have. They need to stick to popular songs and stay up-tempo I think.

Bye Chikezie. I'd buy your album (so long as you stay faaaarrrr away from boring Luther Vandross).

On another note, I'm glad to see Mike *finally* stepping up. I really don't get why he's been so stiff and uninspiring in his performances so far since he has a background in theatre and performing arts but I think the upcoming Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond and Andrew Lloyd Webber weeks should play to his strengths. He did an *amazing* version of Neil Diamond's "Crunchy Granola Suite" in high school so I'm wondering if he'll do that again here.

Ramiele. Oh dear. Shouty, completely lacking any real emotion and outclassed by the backing singers by a mile. I am *so* horribly disappointed by her because she was so good in the audition rounds.

Jason. It doesn't matter if you're cute and have a pleasant voice if you turn out to be a one-trick-pony. Every single week has been almost exactly the same song and performance. This week was no difference. I'm so completely over him. He's utterly dull and doesn't deserve to be in AI if he can't do anything else.

Syesha. Gosh, that was a horribly bad song choice. It just doesn't seem to go anywhere. Leaving that aside even though there was something slightly Whitney-lite about the performance I thought the vocals were very good. No idea why she ended up in the bottom three. Maybe people just aren't feeling her or something.

Cheesy. Chris pointed out that this kind of performance is the bit in a concert where you go to the loo because you're not bothered about missing the song. Again it seemed to be more a problem with the song choice than the actual performance sing his vocals weren't awful but it was really bloody dull. It wasn't as monstrously bad as last week, but then again very little could have been.

Brooke. Ooops, cock up at the start there but she didn;t let it phase her, which is good. Looked absolutely stunning this week too. Hate the song but more and more I *love* her voice. She's not one to blow you away with a storming performance but she's brilliant at doing the simple, engaging performances in the same kind of way that Tori Amos or Shelby Lynne are. She's never going to be a chart topping pop star because that's not the kind of market she's going to appeal to but if she becomes the artist that she almost is already then she could have a superb career.

Michael. Erm, was it me or did some of the backing singers cock up really badly in the first chorus? Heh. Hmm. I'm not entirely sure. I don't think it was the best Queen song (or songs really) for him because it doesn't quite show the full range of his voice. It's still not the level of his Bohemian Rhapsody but it was an awful lot better than anythign else he's done since then. He's very hot, but he's not as good as I want him to be. Or at least he's not shown how good he could be.

Carly. The backing singer seemed to be way out again. That's not good. Plus the lack of a wing machine and huge hair clearly detracted from the song. Plus boo-boo with the lines not good. Oh, and really duff note at the end. Almost too easy a song for Carly since it either seemed too obvious or not interesting enough for her. Possibly Simon was right and it was something about her attitude or tension. It may just have been that the song had been cut diwn too much. Not sure.

David A. I often havea go about the judges criticising people for doing songs that were 'too old' or 'too young' for them. In this case he is way too young to sing a sing like this. It just seemed stupid. Add that to the really dodgy vocals (a first for him) and it meant he had a pretty bad night. At first I thought he was a cert for the final, but I'm not sure if that's the case any more because he's been pretty forgettable the last couple of weeks.

Kristi. OK, vocals this week were much better but she needs to be thrown through a window for picking such an appaling, vapid, nauseous, jingoistic pile of claptrap. She's cynically suddenly become a country singer because Simon said she should become one and then she comes out with a song like that clearly designed to get votes simply because of the sentiment. That gets any credit she got for her vocals thrown out.

David C. Take off his wig, adjust the colour and what do you get? Why yes, it's Homer Simpson. Only without the charm. Utterly, utterly self indulgent and yet at the same time derivative. His whole vocal technique, inflections and phrasing sounds like it's been lifted from other performers. Plus as the song went on it became an absolute bloody dirge. The vocals, technically, were fine but I cannot, absolutely cannot, understand why people like this man so much. There is no way in hell he deserves to win if he's going to come out with a performance like that which veered from histrionics to suicidal dirge in the space of two minutes. Utter pish.

Based purely on vocals Ramiele should probably have gone. Jason desereved to go for just being brain numbingly tedious but if I'd had my way David C would have gone for being a self absorbed plank of vileness. Cheesy going doesn;t bother me though.

On the other hand Brooke really cemented her place at the top for me this week. She came across as sophisticated and classy and still seems to be a very nice, personable, modest woman without being *too* nice. She's the only one that I'd buy an album from at the moment though.

I still believe that Ramiele should have been the one to go. Sometimes I just don't understand the voters' choices.

I have to admit that I don't find David Cook to be very interesting or charming as a person, but I find his performances quite entertaining. I like that he does interesting renditions of known songs. That reminds me, I must seek out Chris Cornell's version of Billy Jean.

Honestly, I'm dreading the upcoming mentor weeks. Dolly, Neil, Mariah... there are some beloved songs that could really get butchered! I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Dolly and Neil, even Lloyd Weber, I can see being pretty good because they have such a wide range of songs to chose from and they all have songs that could be intepreted in very different ways. Carey though I'm just sceptical about. If they're going to have to do her songs then they're pretty limited and it's really not going to suit a fair few of them. If they're going to be doing something other than Carey songs then what's the point of having her as a mentor?

Overall, Dolly Parton night wasn't as bad as I feared. I like her enough, and I know her big songs, but I certainly don't know most of her 3000 songs!

Least favorite to most favorite...

Ramiele. Despite her cute factor, and the fact that she actually can sing, I'm just not impressed by her.

Carly. It was pretty but quite dull. I want to like this girl, but I just don't.

Brooke. It seemed like she was just getting it done instead of actually trying to win.

Kristie Lee. She sounded fine, but she's so dull to watch, which is weird because she's beautiful.

Jason. There was nothing wrong with his performance, it was just sort of forgettable.

Syesha. It started off tender and pretty, and then it turned into a Whitney Houston impersonation... except that one extra long note. That was cool.

David Cook. I didn't know that song, but I thought he "did his thing" with it. I liked it a lot.

David Archuleta. In his zone. Again, a song I don't know, but it was very good.

Michael Johns. I didn't know the song, but the way he did it was just perfect for him. I liked the bluesy feel. I'll definitely be seeking this out. I love when this happens. This is what I expected from him all along!

Okay, but hang on... was Michael wearing an ascot?