Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Top 4 -- A Festival Of Mediocrity

The thing that really stood out for me during AI the Rock and Roll show was how incredibly biased Randy Jackson is toward David Archuleta at this point. Little David could sing Happy Birthday while taking a crap on the AI stage and Randy would pronounce it 'Da Bomb. At least if D. Arch did sing Happy Birthday while taking a crap it would be interesting. It would keep my attention. It would keep me awake during the show.


Instead he chooses to sing the oldest, most tired chestnuts he could dig up and the judges loved it. The kid is 17 years old, the theme is Rock and Roll and he sings Elvis and Ben E. King. Can't he sing something a bit more comtemporary, a bit more uptempo? It's like he's determined to be a 45 year old lounge singer. Maybe they should just let him win, right now, since he is the only one who will do justice to whatever schlocky single the 19 media people will want him to record.
What can I even say about his two songs? They were OK. He has a good voice, we know that, although I think it's nasally and overrated. He leaves me completely unimpressed.
And yes I'm a little cranky about last night's show. I can't help it after watching the last favorite that I have remaining on the show crash and burn. During Jason Castro's video package leading in to his second song, he mentioned that he was going to, "Stick with the Bobs...You can't go wrong." Well, sorry Castro, but you can go wrong. Very, very wrong.

His version of "I Shot the Sheriff" was a mess, there was no real vocal to speak of, he did nothing new to the arrangement. It was awful. And the second song, "Mr. Tambourine Man," was even worse. He forgot the lyrics, and he just didn't sound good. I don't know why he thought these two stoner anthem would be good song selections for American Idol. Especially at this crucial point in the show. I can only conclude that whether he realizes it or not, he is sabatoging himself. He really doesn't want to make it into that top 3. And I am sure that his wish will be granted.

David Cook was pretty good, as usual. He gave Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" a hard edge that it didn't have in the original version. But there was nothing new or unexpected about it. With David Cook we've come to expect the unexpected, and when he just sings a song in the traditional arrangement I for one am a bit let down. Same with his "Baba O'Riley" (the song that I always thought was called Teenage Wasteland, not really a big Who fan). I mean, I liked the way he sang it, as I like the way he sings almost everything. It just wasn't anything new. No worries for D. Cook, I'm sure he will be in the big finale, and rightfully so.

For me, the shining light of the night was Syesha. I have really resisted Syesha this season. I was surprised that she made it as far as she did, but I have to give the girl props. She has really brought the heat in the last few weeks, just getting better and better and better. Her "Proud Mary" was a little over the top with all of the Tina Turner dancing and whatnot, but as Randy would say, "She worked it out." But I thought she outsang everybody with her rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come." So I was really surprised and suspicious when Randy slammed her in his critique, saying that she was, "Trying for things that weren't there." Hello? What about that final note dawg? What does the guy want? I'm willing to bet if David Archuleta wasn't there Randy would have done a back flip over Syesha's performance.
Luckily, the other two judges are quite so obviously in Little David's back pocket and gave Syesha the accolades she deserved. Paula called it "beautiful" and Simon reassured her that "Randy got that utterly wrong."

And Syesha, in what for me was an incredibly touching moment, broke down and cried on the stage during Paula and Simon's critiques. It was so real and gave us a glimpse beyond Syesha's "actress" facade. I felt it made her all the more likeable to know that she is feeling the pressure like everyone else. And as Randy sputtered and tried to defend himself, Ryan (who as you may have noticed has redeemed himself a little in my eyes lately) cracked the best joke of the season, urging Randy to hurry up because "We're running out of time, Hell's Kitchen is gonna start."
All in all, I was incredibly disappointed by Rock and Roll night. I was just expecting so much more. And the beautiful Jason will probably be packing his bags later tonight. What more can I say. Phlerggg.




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