In one of the more bizarre, critically-panned “American Idol” seasons to date, one thing has been consistent: Crystal Bowersox always brings something special to the stage. But in recent weeks, some of the other contestants have found ways to join her at the top of the heap.
In the first week of the finals, it was Siobhan Magnus making an impact with a show-stopping rendition of “Paint It, Black.” Last week, Michael Lynche and Lee DeWyze took their games to the next level.
This Tuesday, on a show that featured the contestants performing songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney (not restricted to the ‘Lennon-McCartney’ songbook), it was Casey James who proved he is for real.
Casey dominated with a brilliant rendition of “Jealous Guy.” Heartfelt and vocally-stunning, Casey proved he is not simply a competent rocker with a passion for cheesy Huey Lewis songs–he is a bluesy, soulful artist who can really make a crowd feel. Everything about Casey’s performance was contemporary and genuine; nothing existed to convince America that he should not be headlining his own modern rock shows. The “shine a lighter or a cell phone” performance was, to put it simply, the best of the night.
Close behind, obviously, was Crystal Bowersox with a strong rendition of “Come Together.” The performance lacked the dramatic flair of Carly Smithson’s fantastic season seven performance, but the soulful, somewhat understated rendition “screamed” Crystal and proved, once again, why she’s the odds-on favorite to win this year. Though it lacked the “special moment” of a performance like “Me and Bobby McGee,” everything about the showing was honest and perfectly-crafted. Crystal accomplished what she wanted, and the consistent strength of her performances is becoming scary to an Adam Lambert degree.
While the judges nailed it with their rave reviews of the aforementioned performances, there were some oddities on the night. Notably, the judges were a bit too kind to Lee DeWyze, who performed the classic “Hey Jude.” There was a lot to like about the performance–Lee’s phenomenal vocal tone added a fresh perspective to the song, and the level of showmanship he infused into the performance was absolutely a step in the right direction. At the same time, the notes were often all over the place, and there were times that the performance screamed “drunk frat boy.” And then there was the bag pipe player. Some things are better left uncriticized.
The judges also, again, refused to really take it to Aaron Kelly. Perhaps it is because they would rather the tween female audience support Aaron than Tim Urban, but the utter reality is that his rendition of “The Long and Winding Road” was atrocious. A desperate attempt to further the comparisons between himself and season seven runner-up David Archuleta, who delivered an admirable version of the song, Kelly demonstrated absolutely no connection to the lyrics and, quite frankly, stumbled his way through the song. With no emotion or texture in his voice, clueless stage maneuvering and no relationship with the audience, Aaron Kelly was terrible this week. Yet the judges gave the impression it was simply old-fashioned and forgettable–that says nothing about the degree to which he disappointed.
That is not, however, to suggest Aaron Kelly was the worst of the night. He was not. Securing that honor is Andrew Garcia, who threw away last week’s progress with an abysmal rendition of “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Everything about this was bad karaoke, and his stage presence was simply nonexistent. Garcia showed last week that he does have something to offer, but this was yet another performance that proves for as pleasant as his voice might be, he is, on an overall basis, not an “American Idol” caliber performer.
The split between the judges was particularly compelling for Michael Lynche, who served up an R&B rendition of “Eleanor Rigby.” For three of the judges, it was incredible. For Simon Cowell, it was dated and disappointing. The reality lies somewhere in between. It was definitely not amazing–and the arrangement, particularly the beginning, sucked a lot of life and emotion out of the song. At the same time, contrary to what Simon was saying, it absolutely was a current-sounding performance. The melody is hard to turn into cutting-edge pop, but the more urban-flared beat was absolutely believable for a contemporary performance. Lynche’s confidence and smooth vocals were also at a high point, assuring that even fans furious over his interpretation of such a classic song would be forced to admit it was entertaining.
Last week, emerging frontrunner Siobhan Magnus was exposed. There had always been an odd, whiny, “bellow” to her voice, but she was usually able to mask it by obliterating seemingly-impossible notes. She missed her notes last week, so the vocal tone started to become painful. This week, however, she brought things back home with “Across the Universe.” It was not a particularly inspired or interesting take, but in singing the hell out of a song that featured some challenging note choices, Siobhan still delivered a strong performance. Save for her embarrassingly ridiculous “explanation” for why she sang the song, the overall performance was strong and showed that she is not yet ready to be counted out of this competition.
The ever-improving Katie Stevens hit a big high with “Let it Be” this week. A tough song, both due to its status as one of The Beatles’ most recognizable and due to the brilliant renditions that have been offered on the “Idol” stage, this easily could have been a disaster. But it wasn’t. Katie gave a great, straight-ahead take that incorporated some runs and melody adjustments without turning the song into a generic Diva ballad. Katie also gets a few bonus points for the level of charisma she showed in the video packages throughout the evening. Her confidence and humor was very “star-like,” and coupled with a powerful performance, lended some credence to the idea that she could still make an impact in the music business.
And then there was Tim Urban, who will be critiqued not under Randy Jackson’s ridiculous “Tim standard” but as one of the top nine on “American Idol.” He was perfectly fine on “All My Loving,” but that was exactly the problem. That song has such a dated melody–it’s one of the few Beatles songs that is not universally and endlessly brilliant. Tim did nothing to change that. He sang it perfectly fine–and actually sounded really good at times–but he really needed to do something different with the song. It proved Tim had some talent, but it did not prove he has the kind of star quality or musical excellence to belong at this phase of the competition.
It was also interesting to hear Simon give Tim the “Sanjaya speech” regarding manhood in taking criticism.
Top 9 Performance Rankings
*Based on performance quality, not predicted vote total
Casey
Crystal
Katie
Michael
Siobhan
Lee
Tim
Aaron
Andrew
