We're in the homestretch of American Idol, but just like a marathoner I seem to "hit that wall" right about this time each season. I don't know if it's I'm just tired of the show... or the contestants are tired of the show... probably a bit of both.
With the exception of Syesha's "A Change Is Gonna Come" nothing much captured my attention, but I'll get into it later... but allow me this digression... that Sam Cooke classic, largely due to it becoming an Idol regular, has become one of my favorite all-time songs. If I had any skill creating/editing videos, I would have come up with Obama montage with that song as the back-drop... though given my Democratic nom preference I imagined mega-mixing it with Hillary and "I Am Woman."
Ok, now what was I saying about being indifferent to last night's show...
My usual performance picture "borrowing" source wasn't waiting for me this morning... so I'll present you with this group shot of the Final 4. My overall order was probably Cook, Archuleta, Syesha, and Jason... Todd's order was just as you see below from left to right... and honestly it wouldn't take too much convincing to make me agree with that either.
David C ("Hungry Like The Wolf" / "Baba O'Riley") - Given the trajectory of the Idol winners, I am guessing David Cook would not too terribly disappointed not to become the 7th member of that group. Given that alleged 500 songs available for choosing, it did seem odd to go with Duran Duran... granted a classic Duran Duran, but really? Likewise, both were "spin-free" which has been where Cook has been most impressive this season, so why not go for a "moment" on at least one of the songs? Again, my conspiracy theory is figuring out a way not to win the show.
David A ("Stand By Me" / "Love Me Tender") - Cook may not have to worry about that, if the seemingly never-ending tween screams after Archie's performances are any indication of who will win this year. I had no complaints about Archie's vocals last night, but they just left me a bit bored. It's not that I am expecting anything shocking and different from Little David, he is, as Randy said, consistent and consistently good.
Syesha ("Proud Mary" / "A Change Is Gonna Come") - As noted above, Syesha almost stole the night, but she totally lost me when she got to the sped-up (or as Ms. Turner refers to it, the "rough") portion of "Proud Mary".. the whole Tina spin and subsequent dance moves just had me "ohhhh girl, don't go there." And the Syesha that becomes her own worst enemy whenever she speaks of herself also overshadowed any of her vocal prowess... whether it was taking on Tina, speaking of looking forward to the tour so she can meet all her fans, or the biggest cringe of the night... likening her journey on Idol to the civil rights movement... yikes!
Jason ("I Shot The Sheriff" / "Mr. Tambourine Man") - Pretty much the last time we saw a halfway decent showing from Jason was three weeks ago during Mariah Carey night. The dreadlocked one has been slowly backing out of the room with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Neil Diamond... and pretty much shut the shut behind him last night with an incredibly messy Bob Marley song and skipping a whole bunch of lyrics on the Bob Dylan. One could have given him the benefit of the doubt in being outside his comfort zone, but telling Entertainment Weekly last week that he was "ready to go home" leaves little debate that last night he was purposely tanking. Again, I understand the not wanting to win strategy, but I think this did himself no good on the "being professional" front and it certainly wasn't respectful if anyone else gets the boot tonight. Jason obviously has a fanbase and I'm not completely sure they'll let him go... which is bad news for Syesha... or even, as Ryan reminded us (this often being upset/shocker week from past seasons)... one of the Davids.
BTW, this will be my last Idol performance review post of this season... we like to bump our vacations up against Memorial Day weekend... we'll be around for next week's performance show, but then hitting the road (or, I should say, the air)... so that means catching the last elimination and the finale after the fact. Thanks for reading yet another season's worth of Idol posts!
Did you see that Carly was in the audience? I just groaned on her behalf when Jason Castro was so terrible. At least she seemed like she wanted it!
Posted by: jen maiser | Wednesday, May 07, 2008 at 05:03 PM