Idol Chatter - 2/26/08 - The Guys

[Sir_Galahad]

OK. Let's call it off. I think we can all agree as to who the standout is in this group. Not only does he have the best voice by a country mile but he has the personality to go along with it. So, who is he going to be paired with in the final?

There were only three other songs for the night that I even enjoyed listening to. I thought David Hernandez did a great job on one of my favorites in Papa Was a Rolling Stone. And he would be the top pick were it not for the other David. I thought Chikezie did a good job with the Donny Hathaway number and David Cook was not bad with a song I can't stand in All Right Now.

I thought Luke's rendition lacked the charisma that Freddie Mercury used to put over Killer Queen. Although the vocal wasn't bad, there was just no Wow factor. I could have liked Michael singing Go Your Own Way if it were on key more and the rest were completely forgettable.

Who's leaving on Thursday? I will pick Jason Y and Luke.

[mrkelley23]

I have nitpicky stuff tonight. I agree that Chekezie, David A, and David H were the two best performances of the night, but I had a problem with David A's rendition. To me, Imagine should either be sung by an older person with the life experience to really MEAN the lyrics, OR by a child with the simplicity of a child. For David to do this very sophisticated AI-ish arrangement rubbed me the wrong way. It's probably just a personal thing.

David H showed Luke what could have been. If you take on some of the best pipes in pop music, you shouldn't try to duplicate their vocals. Luke tried, and failed, to live up to the ghost of Freddy Mercury. David H didn't try to imitate or live up to the mighty might Temptations, and so was much more successful.

If I had been home to see it live, I would've been voting for Chekezie. That was major fun.

[T_Bone0806]

Spoiler

Simon was very lowkey and almost kind (for him) during the auditions. Now it seems he is going the opposite direction over the last three shows. I think some of his remarks have been downright cruel for the sake of being cruel.

Anyway, I thought this was gonna be another ho hum night for the guys. Then we got three of what I thought were the first real highlight performances of the season.

1-DAVID ARCHULETTA-"Imagine". The kid is the total package. At 17 no less. Perfect pitch, excellent control,well placed vocal runs and shading, terrific stage presence, and he even improved his acceptance of praise reaction from the annoying "aw shucks I totally can't believe you like me" act to a humble yet confident thank you. Judging by crowd reaction, this race may be over already. A+

2-DAVID HERNANDEZ-"Papa Was a Rolling Stone". Another one for the highlight reel. Hey, how easy is it to sing all of the Temptations' parts? An excellent job on an unusual song choice. The ending was killer. A+

3-CHIKEZE EZE "I Believe to my Soul". HUGE improvement over last week. Lotsa soul, lotsa power, lotsa fun. I'm guessing he saved himself withthat performance. A+

4-LUKE MENARD-"Killer Queen". Much better this week than last. Showed he can sing. Kinda stiff on stage, though. Don't know if he made enough of a connection with viewers to save him. B

5-DAVID COOK-"All Right Now". May have been trying so hard to look cool that it caused him to blow the lyrics on both verses. Just a basic bar-band performance. If I could top it, it wasn't that good. B-

6-MICHAEL JOHNS-"Go Your Own Way". I liked the song choice. Had potential, but he veered offkey too often. And has his voice always been that quivery? I don't recall it being that pronounced before. B-

7-JASON COOK-"I Just Want To Be Your Everything"> Never liked the original, but I kinda liked the John Mayer/Jack Johnson spin they took with this arrangement. I could easily see this being a hit remake with this arrangement. Umm, providing Jason sings it better than he did tonight C+

8-ROBBIE CARRICO-"Hot Blooded". Try "Lukewarm Blooded". Sounded like David Cassidy singing Foreigner. No guts, no glory. C+

9-JASON YEAGER-"Long Train Running"-Well, he hit all the notes, but he sounded like the singer in a proficient Holiday Inn band. Very antiseptic. C+

10-DANNY NOREIGA-"Superstar" Bad idea to tackle this iconic a song in Idol history if you're not gonna nail it. Offkey often. His stage presence is good while singing but then while talking he does that head-bobbing eyerolling stuff that annoys the crap outta me. Be that as it may, his singing was not impressive tonight at all. D+

I'd guess that Jason Y and Luke are in danger Thursday.

[Ritterskoop]

Oh. My. Goodness.

I was nervous when I saw David A. was doing the most important song ever written. But he blew it away. And then I remembered I needed to post photos of my gold record. The title plate is a piece of the doors of the home where the song was composed.

[Ritterskoop]

I can go smaller on those photos but then I don't know if it will be too small....

[Ritterskoop]

Crap. I have saved them smaller at photobucket but the links remain to the large versions, even when I paste them in again.

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

Crap. I have saved them smaller at photobucket but the links remain to the large versions, even when I paste them in again.

I like the big photos, because I can read the details on the gold record.

[Ritterskoop]

I guess most folks have monitors larger than my 19", and this will not be too inconvenient.

Now I have to see about a new avatar.....

[Sir_Galahad]

6-MICHAEL JOHNS-"Go Your Own Way". I liked the song choice. Had potential, but he veered offkey too often. And has his voice always been that quivery? I don't recall it being that pronounced before. B-

Yes. To me, he has sounded a bit flat on every song he has sung thus far. I don't know why the judges aren't hearing this. To me he was pretty far off last week on Light My Fire and he was just as off this week.

[minimetoo26]

It took a while to get things going last night....


1-DAVID ARCHULETTA-"Imagine".

Yowza.

2-DAVID HERNANDEZ-"Papa Was a Rolling Stone".

Wowza. Boy can sang! Said so last week, and repeat it with an exclamation point this week.

3-CHIKEZE EZE "I Believe to my Soul".

Thank goodness! Now I can take away the "affirmative action" tag I gave him when he wasn't booted last week. Love the smile.

4-LUKE MENARD-"Killer Queen".

Unctuous, but cute. Decent voice. May make the finals based on looks--it works on the distaff side! Don't particularly like the guy, but he doesn't make me itch. Still looks like McDreamy....

5-DAVID COOK-"All Right Now".

Okay, THIS guy makes me itch. Poser. Still can't look at him. Middle-of-the-road singer.

6-MICHAEL JOHNS-"Go Your Own Way".

I just don't get him. There's no 'there' there, if you get what I mean. He's one of those guys who seems to have it all going on, but there's just something missing, which is probably why he didn't make it as a big star even though he already had an album out, IIRC. He's just...eh.

7-JASON CASTRO-"I Just Want To Be Your Everything".

I loved the arrangement, and Jason's easy-going style, but he didn't bring it and the guitar is starting to look like a crutch. I'll still adopt him, but he can't bring weed in my house...


8-ROBBIE CARRICO-"Hot Blooded".

Poser.

9-JASON YEAGER-"Long Train Running".

Boy can sang, but didn't really sing that one very well. He tries, but came off as more smarmy than anything. And smarmy and Doobie Bros just doesn't work. I think his little boy will be enjoying more Daddy Time this weekend...

10-DANNY NOREIGA-"Superstar".

I really enjoyed this performance. Mostly the one by Simon trying to praise him so the reactionary voters wouldn't try extra-hard to annoy Simon. He really WAS much better than last week, but last week was Flaming Elvis....

Jason Y is out the door, and if Danny doesn't follow Robbie might have to worry. Luke might have the middle-aged females who don't just want to pinch David A's well-scrubbed cheeks....

[KillerTomato]

OK. Let's call it off. I think we can all agree as to who the standout is in this group. Not only does he have the best voice by a country mile but he has the personality to go along with it. So, who is he going to be paired with in the final?

That ain't sayin' much, in my opinion. These guys are snores.

David A. did an OK job with "Imagine" (one of the best songs ever written), but it wasn't great (again, MHO). It will be better when (as I said before) his voice breaks and he sings down an octave. Ditto Luke...I've mentioned how much I loathe falsetto ad nauseum, so you can imagine how little I like his "style".

About the only performance I really liked last night was Chikezie's Donny Hathaway number. The others were eh. And a couple were laughingly bad.