The audience! Wow, Fox actually spent some money or used some powerful influence, as the guest stars were more than appropriate for the television event of the year. Even the "meh" guests like Keith Urban and Queen Latifah weren't awful. In fact, the most awful thing was listening to poor Sarver and Cockring sing along with Steve Martin's fiddle playing. Screw comedy, fiddle is "serious business!" Kris won, but Adam was not disrespected by any means getting to be a lead singer with KISS and then sharing the stage with Kris and the remaining members of Queen. He's got so much vocal talent he could be the new Freddy Mercury or new lead singer for KISS. So perhaps this will turn out better for him, but the tweentards got their revenge for last season's Arculeta-fail. So congrats to the Dark Horse, the guy with less vocal talent than McBlind, Matt, Allison, Danny, and Adam to name a few.
Oh and even the cheesy Idol awards were good because they brought back the only three early-round contestants that mattered: Tatiana, Nick/Normund, and bikini girl. It's nice to see Idol appreciate what makes them so great while also doing it on their biggest stage for the real competitiors. Moment of the night goes to Kara dioguardi, who took a break from slobbering all over the sausage fest top 13 to show that she's got a tight bikini body and a better voice than "enhanced" bikini girl. Bravo Kara, bravo.
Oh and the Black Eyed Peas are back, which means no more solo Fergie awfulness on my radio for at least a couple years. Hallelujah!
THIS WEEK: 1/1
FINALS: 8/13 (61.5%)
OVERALL: 14/22 (63.6%)
Despite the upset, definitely looking forward to next season. Hopefully they learn from some mistakes this season and make it even better. After all, without Idol, just what the hell would I blog about? Have a good summer!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
American Idol Finale - Season 8 yawns to the finish
Unlike David Cook and David Archuleta, this showdown wasn't as good as a Gokey-Lambert showdown could have been. At least we have a rocker in the final 2 again, but Adam showed his softer side this evening to pander to the judges and probably to the voters. Which just made him look mediocre on the finale stage. Simon Cowell clearly learned from last year when he declared Arculeta a clear winner despite the clear evidence to the contrary...so he thinks Adam should win and rightfully so on the entire season's effort, but Kris held his own and always seems to get by these people with more talent than him (Allison, Gokey, and arguably even Matt Giraud had more talent than Kris). So if people are voting on tonight's performances, Kris will surely win. I'm guessing this will be much much closer than the past two season finales, and maybe the cloest Idol voting ever. If it is, Seacrest will let us know to further crush the feelings of whomever loses. Oh and Simon was spot-on about Kara's writing "talent," it's all a bunch of boundaries and hurricanes and shit. Blech.
Let's face it...the true winner this season was Normund Gentle. But anyways, here's my rapid fire grade of all the performances tonight.
PERSONAL CHOICE
Adam - "Mad World" - Everyone who DVR's Idol missed this entire performance and Simon giving him a standing O last time. This time was not as good. GRADE: B
Kris - "Ain't No Sunshine" - No no no. Kris, just play the damn guitar. Judges loved this performance and I thought he picked one of his weakest songs. Poor job. GRADE: C-
PRODUCER CHOICE
Adam - "A Change Is Gonna Come" - Best performance of the night, which is disappointing because this would've clocked in behind even Archuleta's best finale song last year. GRADE: A-
Kris - "What's Going On" - Kris unleashes his inner Jason Castro or his Chi Alpha (yes he's a holy roller and my college pastor emaild me personally to ask me to vote for him...eff that) breakdown performance and it's just meh. Good job for him, but meh. GRADE: B
WINNER'S SONG - "No Boundaries"
Adam - The song doesn't fit Adam and he's really stretching to make his voice work into the song. Plus it's cheesy as hell. Seems like a better song for Kris, sadly. GRADE: C-
Kris - Nope, doesn't fit his voice either. Sigh. Kris is pitchy as all hell trying to find the notes an octave too high in the chorus. GRADE: D-
So by my count, it's a knockout for Adam. But to be fair, I'm judging on talent, which has nothing to do with how tweentards vote. Adam probably scares them, which is a shame. But considering the absolute dogshit on David Cook's first album thanks to Idol producers, maybe Kris Allen is more deserving of the "honor" of that recording contract. Despite my better judgment, I'm calling for the "upset" of the show right here.
WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 8 - Kris Allen
The real winner in life - Adam Lambert
Let's face it...the true winner this season was Normund Gentle. But anyways, here's my rapid fire grade of all the performances tonight.
PERSONAL CHOICE
Adam - "Mad World" - Everyone who DVR's Idol missed this entire performance and Simon giving him a standing O last time. This time was not as good. GRADE: B
Kris - "Ain't No Sunshine" - No no no. Kris, just play the damn guitar. Judges loved this performance and I thought he picked one of his weakest songs. Poor job. GRADE: C-
PRODUCER CHOICE
Adam - "A Change Is Gonna Come" - Best performance of the night, which is disappointing because this would've clocked in behind even Archuleta's best finale song last year. GRADE: A-
Kris - "What's Going On" - Kris unleashes his inner Jason Castro or his Chi Alpha (yes he's a holy roller and my college pastor emaild me personally to ask me to vote for him...eff that) breakdown performance and it's just meh. Good job for him, but meh. GRADE: B
WINNER'S SONG - "No Boundaries"
Adam - The song doesn't fit Adam and he's really stretching to make his voice work into the song. Plus it's cheesy as hell. Seems like a better song for Kris, sadly. GRADE: C-
Kris - Nope, doesn't fit his voice either. Sigh. Kris is pitchy as all hell trying to find the notes an octave too high in the chorus. GRADE: D-
So by my count, it's a knockout for Adam. But to be fair, I'm judging on talent, which has nothing to do with how tweentards vote. Adam probably scares them, which is a shame. But considering the absolute dogshit on David Cook's first album thanks to Idol producers, maybe Kris Allen is more deserving of the "honor" of that recording contract. Despite my better judgment, I'm calling for the "upset" of the show right here.
WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 8 - Kris Allen
The real winner in life - Adam Lambert
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
American Idol 8 - The Cut To 2
So another week, another terrible results show. Skipped through the retarded beg for money and African kid dance, and still don't understand why they cannot come in under 1 hour on a results show with 24 seconds of substance. Kris and Adam were close in the voting, which bodes very poorly for Mr. Lambert next week because the tweentards back Kris and the red states back Kris. But I knew Danny was gone.
THIS WEEK: 1/1
FINALS: 7/12
OVERALL: 13/21
THIS WEEK: 1/1
FINALS: 7/12
OVERALL: 13/21
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
American Idol Top 3 - Judge's Pick
So this week we get the judge's pick. I sure hope Dream On and Ring of Fire are on the list, haha. We'll see what lame sappy songs the judges pick for our sausage fest 09. Off we go!
Danny Gokey - "Dance Little Sister" by Terrence Darby - Paula's Pick - Paula picks a song that feels straight out of her catalogue, but it's nice to see Danny do something upbeat that fits his voice and style. The bridge with the "doo doo doo" call and response with the saxophone was a pretty nifty little add-in. He was a little over the top as usual, but I cannot cmoplain about missing the pitch or anything like that. Good memorable song for the opener.
GRADE: B
Kris Allen - "Apologize" by One Republic - Kara and Randy's pick - Kris reminds us he can play piano too despite Matt and Scott having that most of the time this season. Worked out well for them too. Kris slows the song down which is a bad decision because it drags on like a funeral dirge a bit. Kris tries to show his vocal talent with spiking notes, but he cannot hit the glory notes in the chorus well enough. Mediocre as usual. The only thing memorable about this performance was the absolute boob show that broke out at the judge's table. WTF?
GRADE: C-
Adam Lambert -"One" by U2 - Simon's pick - Lambert has some interesting outfits in his closet amongst other things (har har), but this cloudy skies shirt is awful. Fits the song I guess. Simon picks a bad croony Bono song and of course the judges will love it but I don't think this presses any boundaries, which is what Adam is good for. He got a bit shouty in the center which was unenjoyable. This was mediocre, but what can you do with the song choice.
GRADE: C+
So the judge's picks were kind of lame, no surprise there. Carrie Underwood had the highlight of the night, asking an Afircan lady if her child has had malaria. She says no, and that "proves" the malaria bed nets are working. WTF?
Danny Gokey - "You Are You Beautiful" by Joe Cocker - No surprise, Danny had to go slow pace since Paula forced him to go upbeat. You know what made this song great for Joe? The voice. Danny has a nice voice but this song does not seem to fit him for that reason. As usual, the Gokester shouts through the only strong part of the song. This cheapens the glory note at the end since he's been oversinging for 15 seconds. This was merely OK. Judges loved it of course.
GRADE: C-
Kris Allen - "Heartless" by Kanye West - So we go from one mediocre overpopular R&B artist to another. Wonderful Kris. And we're back to the guitar. Going without the band is a pander to the judges. The problem is that Kris cannot carry a song with a distinctive of superb voice. He's merely OK, and this song choice just lets him meander around musically. The guitar playing is kind of meh. Better than Gokey which should make this interesting.
GRADE: C+
Adam "in the finals already" Lambert - "Cryin" by Aerosmith - Adam is just rubbing it in Gokey's face for last week, and I love it. I don't know how I feel about the loud backup singer, kind of detracts from the performance though I know it's used in the original. Glambert finds a way to glory note even more than Stephen Tyler which is hard to do! Nevertheless, this is the best performance of the night by a wide margin.
GRADE: A-
So there's your final three. I was expecting repeats, but this year no repeat performances and thank God. I don't watch to see repeats on this show. This will be very intriguing, as I really have no clue who is going home. VFTW doesn't have much pull at this stage, but maybe just maybe they can help Danny past Kris. I hope so, though the tweentards are coming out in force behind the worst contestant. I think the judges are throwing Adam in the final without thinking about it and that backfired last year with the Archulator in the final.
TOP PERFORMER: Adam Lambert
SAFE: Kris Allen
GOING HOME: Danny Gokey
Danny Gokey - "Dance Little Sister" by Terrence Darby - Paula's Pick - Paula picks a song that feels straight out of her catalogue, but it's nice to see Danny do something upbeat that fits his voice and style. The bridge with the "doo doo doo" call and response with the saxophone was a pretty nifty little add-in. He was a little over the top as usual, but I cannot cmoplain about missing the pitch or anything like that. Good memorable song for the opener.
GRADE: B
Kris Allen - "Apologize" by One Republic - Kara and Randy's pick - Kris reminds us he can play piano too despite Matt and Scott having that most of the time this season. Worked out well for them too. Kris slows the song down which is a bad decision because it drags on like a funeral dirge a bit. Kris tries to show his vocal talent with spiking notes, but he cannot hit the glory notes in the chorus well enough. Mediocre as usual. The only thing memorable about this performance was the absolute boob show that broke out at the judge's table. WTF?
GRADE: C-
Adam Lambert -"One" by U2 - Simon's pick - Lambert has some interesting outfits in his closet amongst other things (har har), but this cloudy skies shirt is awful. Fits the song I guess. Simon picks a bad croony Bono song and of course the judges will love it but I don't think this presses any boundaries, which is what Adam is good for. He got a bit shouty in the center which was unenjoyable. This was mediocre, but what can you do with the song choice.
GRADE: C+
So the judge's picks were kind of lame, no surprise there. Carrie Underwood had the highlight of the night, asking an Afircan lady if her child has had malaria. She says no, and that "proves" the malaria bed nets are working. WTF?
Danny Gokey - "You Are You Beautiful" by Joe Cocker - No surprise, Danny had to go slow pace since Paula forced him to go upbeat. You know what made this song great for Joe? The voice. Danny has a nice voice but this song does not seem to fit him for that reason. As usual, the Gokester shouts through the only strong part of the song. This cheapens the glory note at the end since he's been oversinging for 15 seconds. This was merely OK. Judges loved it of course.
GRADE: C-
Kris Allen - "Heartless" by Kanye West - So we go from one mediocre overpopular R&B artist to another. Wonderful Kris. And we're back to the guitar. Going without the band is a pander to the judges. The problem is that Kris cannot carry a song with a distinctive of superb voice. He's merely OK, and this song choice just lets him meander around musically. The guitar playing is kind of meh. Better than Gokey which should make this interesting.
GRADE: C+
Adam "in the finals already" Lambert - "Cryin" by Aerosmith - Adam is just rubbing it in Gokey's face for last week, and I love it. I don't know how I feel about the loud backup singer, kind of detracts from the performance though I know it's used in the original. Glambert finds a way to glory note even more than Stephen Tyler which is hard to do! Nevertheless, this is the best performance of the night by a wide margin.
GRADE: A-
So there's your final three. I was expecting repeats, but this year no repeat performances and thank God. I don't watch to see repeats on this show. This will be very intriguing, as I really have no clue who is going home. VFTW doesn't have much pull at this stage, but maybe just maybe they can help Danny past Kris. I hope so, though the tweentards are coming out in force behind the worst contestant. I think the judges are throwing Adam in the final without thinking about it and that backfired last year with the Archulator in the final.
TOP PERFORMER: Adam Lambert
SAFE: Kris Allen
GOING HOME: Danny Gokey
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
American Idol 8 - The Cut to 3
So Allison continued the roller coaster in style, losing votes so much this week she went home. Surprised me but I guess people were comparing her directly to Adam thanks to duos or expected more out of her in her rock week. So it's officially sausage fest time, although a little later than expected and that's a good thing. Good luck to Allison.
THIS WEEK: 0/1
FINALS: 6/11
OVERALL: 12/20
THIS WEEK: 0/1
FINALS: 6/11
OVERALL: 12/20
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
American Idol Top 4 - The Real Talent Takes on Slash
So it's like Guitar hero, except this is really Slash and this is American Idol. But the real talents are left now and we have duets! That's right, the producers and judges cannot fit 8 songs in so they are doing duets! Let the terribleness commence woot woot! Slash knows how to actually do his own thing and has the Idols go full bore with a band. Nice!
Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zepplin - Adam actually picks a damn good band and a rocking song, so kudos from the start. the outfit is pure punk rock, which may scare the tweentards. Unlike when he did Ring of Fire, this song actually is sexual and he flaunts it. The performance is good but did get a bit shouty at the beginning. Still, better than most on his theme night. At this rate there will be no bottom 2 this week.
GRADE: A-
Allison Iraheta - "Somebody to Love" by Janis Joplin - Allison goes to the glam crew of Adam this week, getting true rocker hair like amanda overmyer and some pants that looks like they came out of Disco Adam's closet. Joplin is a safe choice for her voice, but perhaps that is what she needs since the roller coaster ride is due to take her down this week if the trends continue. The performance was just mediocre, which is trouble in the top 4 stage.
GRADE: C
Kris and Danny duet - "Renegade" by Stix - This was a solid rock choice for a duet of guys, and surprising because so far the songs have actually been rock and not soft pop rock. Kris and Gokey's voices go not match very well in harmony. Kris was a little blah and Danny was little shouty, because otherwise Danny would have knocked Kris out of the park. This is a nice chance to really compare voices of guys and guys and girls and girls (sorry Adam!). Performance overall was OK.
KRIS GRADE: D+
DANNY GRADE: C+
Kris Allen - "Come Together" by The Beatles - Kris has a douchy moment with Slash, but at least he got to pee his pants while playing the best guitar he'll ever touch. Kris should've stuck with Revolution as this song doesn't fit him well. He's forcing his voice to be low and soulful which is more of a Gokey thing. Kris actually plays an electric guitar and does it decent. There's no glory notes in this song but Kris makes one. Something just doesn't seem great about this performance, maybe song choice.
GRADE: C-
Danny Gokey - "Dream On" by Aerosmith - Wow Danny picks a song where he can scream and shout louder than ever before. VFTW may indeed be onto something here, as he may be truly worse than Kris...but I like him better. Gokey even wears a vest and bright shirt like Stephen Tyler would, nice roleplay. Yeah doo doo doo not crap all over the middle of the riffs in the chorus please, there's enough flair in the song already. The signature scream was as bad as you would expect. This turned out to be god awful at the end.
GRADE: D-
Adam and Allison duet - "Slow Ride" by - I'm pretty sure Adam picked the song, but these are the true rockers tonight. Still would've liked to see Adam blast Danny off the stage in a duet, as it's not fun watching him blow Allison out of the water. Allison holds her own and has a decent performance. Adam is spot on again and is erasing the doubts right as Gokey has his first true missteps at the most critical time. This could be a finale preview, and that would be awesome if it comes true.
ADAM GRADE: A
ALLISON GRADE: B
So they actually did rock songs, and Danny fell flat on his face. While this is supposed to be the week Allison goes home if the pattern stays true, I went against my gut last week and should've picked Matt for the lock solid 4 in a row. Starting a new streak this week I hope.
TOP PERFORMER: Adam
SAFE: Adam, Allison
BOTTOM TWO: Danny, Kris
GOING HOME: Kris Allen
Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zepplin - Adam actually picks a damn good band and a rocking song, so kudos from the start. the outfit is pure punk rock, which may scare the tweentards. Unlike when he did Ring of Fire, this song actually is sexual and he flaunts it. The performance is good but did get a bit shouty at the beginning. Still, better than most on his theme night. At this rate there will be no bottom 2 this week.
GRADE: A-
Allison Iraheta - "Somebody to Love" by Janis Joplin - Allison goes to the glam crew of Adam this week, getting true rocker hair like amanda overmyer and some pants that looks like they came out of Disco Adam's closet. Joplin is a safe choice for her voice, but perhaps that is what she needs since the roller coaster ride is due to take her down this week if the trends continue. The performance was just mediocre, which is trouble in the top 4 stage.
GRADE: C
Kris and Danny duet - "Renegade" by Stix - This was a solid rock choice for a duet of guys, and surprising because so far the songs have actually been rock and not soft pop rock. Kris and Gokey's voices go not match very well in harmony. Kris was a little blah and Danny was little shouty, because otherwise Danny would have knocked Kris out of the park. This is a nice chance to really compare voices of guys and guys and girls and girls (sorry Adam!). Performance overall was OK.
KRIS GRADE: D+
DANNY GRADE: C+
Kris Allen - "Come Together" by The Beatles - Kris has a douchy moment with Slash, but at least he got to pee his pants while playing the best guitar he'll ever touch. Kris should've stuck with Revolution as this song doesn't fit him well. He's forcing his voice to be low and soulful which is more of a Gokey thing. Kris actually plays an electric guitar and does it decent. There's no glory notes in this song but Kris makes one. Something just doesn't seem great about this performance, maybe song choice.
GRADE: C-
Danny Gokey - "Dream On" by Aerosmith - Wow Danny picks a song where he can scream and shout louder than ever before. VFTW may indeed be onto something here, as he may be truly worse than Kris...but I like him better. Gokey even wears a vest and bright shirt like Stephen Tyler would, nice roleplay. Yeah doo doo doo not crap all over the middle of the riffs in the chorus please, there's enough flair in the song already. The signature scream was as bad as you would expect. This turned out to be god awful at the end.
GRADE: D-
Adam and Allison duet - "Slow Ride" by - I'm pretty sure Adam picked the song, but these are the true rockers tonight. Still would've liked to see Adam blast Danny off the stage in a duet, as it's not fun watching him blow Allison out of the water. Allison holds her own and has a decent performance. Adam is spot on again and is erasing the doubts right as Gokey has his first true missteps at the most critical time. This could be a finale preview, and that would be awesome if it comes true.
ADAM GRADE: A
ALLISON GRADE: B
So they actually did rock songs, and Danny fell flat on his face. While this is supposed to be the week Allison goes home if the pattern stays true, I went against my gut last week and should've picked Matt for the lock solid 4 in a row. Starting a new streak this week I hope.
TOP PERFORMER: Adam
SAFE: Adam, Allison
BOTTOM TWO: Danny, Kris
GOING HOME: Kris Allen
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
