A little late, but still plenty o' time in my timezone...
They're doing "the songs of John Lennon and Paul McCartney". Um ... couldn't get the rights to "The Beatles"? And WHAT is Siobhan wearing? Looks like a hoochy Amadeus outfit. I like :)
Interesting that they're starting with Aaron. He's doing The Long and Winding Road because of his Idol journey ... A little rough start, but I'm so happy he's gotten rid of the country thing he was doing at the beginning of the season. He's lost some confidence from last week -- not sure what happened, but you can really hear the nerves in his voice. It's not horrible, but I don't love it. I'm just "meh" on this one. If the judges start out their critiques with "um", you know it's not that great. Ellen's right -- it was a long and winding song. The Proactiv is really working for him, though. Nice to see his face cleared up.
They must be going by age tonight. Katie is up next, singing Let It Be, which her dad used to play in the car. She wanted to do a song she recognized :) I'm trying to figure out her hair/boring dress combo and also pay attention to the singing. I'm distracted by this awful t-shirt dress. She sounds pretty good, but it's kind of a downer instead of sounding inspirational. So if the question is "could it be on the radio", the answer is a resounding "no". But is this good? I don't know. She has a great, overly mature voice, and sounds good, but I wouldn't buy any sort of album of hers based on anything I've heard yet this season. That might be my favorite song of hers so far, though. But so melancholy. Shouldn't that song be uplifting? Randy agrees with me -- he says it's her best performance ever. Whoa! The dress is all cutout in the back. Blech.
Andrew is going to sing Can't Buy Me Love, which I'm happy about because I was about to fall asleep on those first two songs. Love the funky acoustic, free-styling sort of beginning. Creative without disrespecting the original. This is great for him. Sort of Buddy Holly-ish. This won't be on the radio either, but I just like it. It's great for his voice, it's a great arrangement, and it's fun. Now he just needs to smile. Seriously, is it his eyes or his glasses that makes it look like he's falling asleep while he's singing? That was a nice job, but *yawn* if you were watching his face.
Big Mike is up to sing Eleanor Rigby. Interesting choice. He says it's a story, and he loves to tell stories. Ooh -- this is GOOD! It's a little Billy Joel sounding in the first verse. I love how he's hitting the melody on the verses. Love! And he's right -- the strings are gorgeous in this, and the arrangement is highlighting them well. This COULD be on the radio tomorrow. Best one of the night, and I'm usually in the "I like Big Mike but all the songs sound the same" camp. Seriously, that was goooood. Creative, still recognizable, really ... really well done.
Oh yay! Crystal is up next. I'm expecting a slow song, but she's in jeans! She's going to sing Come Together, simply because it's a fun groove (which is a first for her, she says). Ooh -- this is going to FABULOUS. It starts with a didgeridoo and then just has a funky acoustic-ish rock sound. It's great. I mean great. She has total control over her voice, the arrangement, the sound ... this is really really well done. Also contemporary and could be on the radio tomorrow. I hope I don't have to choose between her and Siobhan tonight, because I like them both. She's just *this much* more in control of her voice and knows who she is as an artist. I think there's space in the music industry for both of them, but that was fab.
And now Tim is up to sing a song that is fun and puts a smile on people's faces. He's singing All My Lovin', which starts slowly and with just an acoustic guitar. Still very very Jason Mraz, which isn't a bad thing, but not so original. I like how it's sort of building as it gets going. I wish he wasn't by himself on stage, though. It's cute, but a little nightclub-y. No pitch problems, and no nerves in his voice (take note, Aaron!). He's comfortable, but I think the judges will be hard on him because it's nothing special. It's cute and charming, but that's about it. You know what? I could hear it as the song a contestant on DwtS has to dance to. So ... good, but not something on the radio. I have to say I'm surprised the judges were so positive about this performance!
Casey is up to sing Jealous Guy, which may be the only Lennon/McCartney song I've never heard of. Um ... I don't like this. I've never been a fan of the Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears audible breaths, and I really don't like the weird vibrato he's got going on. In fairness, he's on pitch, and obviously in control of the arrangement, but I do not like this. And I wouldn't listen to the radio station that played it. Seriously, Casey, that nervous-sounding-that's-not-nervous vibrato is painful. The judges did NOT hear the same song I did. I'll just leave it at that.
Siobhan is second to last. Can't wait to hear what she's doing! She's doing Across the Universe, in hopes that it's a "totally different kind of performance". And now I get the crazy skirt. I like it on the stool. Note to the stylists: the curls in the hair are too much with all the lace and ruffles. She should have had straight hair, up. I love the line "nothing's gonna change my world". This sounds great, and is lovely. You can tell from a slow song if the person has actual control of their voice or not. She does. Not total control, but pretty good. The bridge? to the chorus is a little awkward, but this is good. I wish she'd get the sound out of her nose -- it's a little froggy, but this is pretty. And her makeup is fab. Nice job, Siobhan. I'd listen to that on a radio, too. Ok, so I got all choked up when Simon asked her what she was thinking about in that song. *sniff*
I think Lee is gonna knock our socks off! (LOL I love that Crystal says he and his roommate Andrew can have little Danny Gokey babies!) Oh yay, he's doing Hey Jude! Whoops -- he's nervous. The first real obvious pitch problems of the night. I like this arrangement, but the pitch at the beginning concerns me. He has such a great sound, but he's just not confident of this one. THERE'S A BAGPIPER COMING DOWN THE STAIRS BEHIND HIM! I like the na-na-nas, but there might be too much of them for us to hear him as he asks the audience to join in. Hmm ... that had the potential to blow the roof off the theatre, but didn't quite hit it. Not awful, but not what it could have been, either.
Predictie McLeaverson knows that the East coast probably already knows who is getting kicked off, but... Also, I'm going to say who should be voted off based on performance, because at this point, there's no accounting for taste. The people we should say goodbye to are Aaron, Andrew, Tim, or Katie. Or Casey. Maybe I should say who should be safe: Crystal, Siobhan, Mike.
Interesting that they're starting with Aaron. He's doing The Long and Winding Road because of his Idol journey ... A little rough start, but I'm so happy he's gotten rid of the country thing he was doing at the beginning of the season. He's lost some confidence from last week -- not sure what happened, but you can really hear the nerves in his voice. It's not horrible, but I don't love it. I'm just "meh" on this one. If the judges start out their critiques with "um", you know it's not that great. Ellen's right -- it was a long and winding song. The Proactiv is really working for him, though. Nice to see his face cleared up.
They must be going by age tonight. Katie is up next, singing Let It Be, which her dad used to play in the car. She wanted to do a song she recognized :) I'm trying to figure out her hair/boring dress combo and also pay attention to the singing. I'm distracted by this awful t-shirt dress. She sounds pretty good, but it's kind of a downer instead of sounding inspirational. So if the question is "could it be on the radio", the answer is a resounding "no". But is this good? I don't know. She has a great, overly mature voice, and sounds good, but I wouldn't buy any sort of album of hers based on anything I've heard yet this season. That might be my favorite song of hers so far, though. But so melancholy. Shouldn't that song be uplifting? Randy agrees with me -- he says it's her best performance ever. Whoa! The dress is all cutout in the back. Blech.
Andrew is going to sing Can't Buy Me Love, which I'm happy about because I was about to fall asleep on those first two songs. Love the funky acoustic, free-styling sort of beginning. Creative without disrespecting the original. This is great for him. Sort of Buddy Holly-ish. This won't be on the radio either, but I just like it. It's great for his voice, it's a great arrangement, and it's fun. Now he just needs to smile. Seriously, is it his eyes or his glasses that makes it look like he's falling asleep while he's singing? That was a nice job, but *yawn* if you were watching his face.
Big Mike is up to sing Eleanor Rigby. Interesting choice. He says it's a story, and he loves to tell stories. Ooh -- this is GOOD! It's a little Billy Joel sounding in the first verse. I love how he's hitting the melody on the verses. Love! And he's right -- the strings are gorgeous in this, and the arrangement is highlighting them well. This COULD be on the radio tomorrow. Best one of the night, and I'm usually in the "I like Big Mike but all the songs sound the same" camp. Seriously, that was goooood. Creative, still recognizable, really ... really well done.
Oh yay! Crystal is up next. I'm expecting a slow song, but she's in jeans! She's going to sing Come Together, simply because it's a fun groove (which is a first for her, she says). Ooh -- this is going to FABULOUS. It starts with a didgeridoo and then just has a funky acoustic-ish rock sound. It's great. I mean great. She has total control over her voice, the arrangement, the sound ... this is really really well done. Also contemporary and could be on the radio tomorrow. I hope I don't have to choose between her and Siobhan tonight, because I like them both. She's just *this much* more in control of her voice and knows who she is as an artist. I think there's space in the music industry for both of them, but that was fab.
And now Tim is up to sing a song that is fun and puts a smile on people's faces. He's singing All My Lovin', which starts slowly and with just an acoustic guitar. Still very very Jason Mraz, which isn't a bad thing, but not so original. I like how it's sort of building as it gets going. I wish he wasn't by himself on stage, though. It's cute, but a little nightclub-y. No pitch problems, and no nerves in his voice (take note, Aaron!). He's comfortable, but I think the judges will be hard on him because it's nothing special. It's cute and charming, but that's about it. You know what? I could hear it as the song a contestant on DwtS has to dance to. So ... good, but not something on the radio. I have to say I'm surprised the judges were so positive about this performance!
Casey is up to sing Jealous Guy, which may be the only Lennon/McCartney song I've never heard of. Um ... I don't like this. I've never been a fan of the Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears audible breaths, and I really don't like the weird vibrato he's got going on. In fairness, he's on pitch, and obviously in control of the arrangement, but I do not like this. And I wouldn't listen to the radio station that played it. Seriously, Casey, that nervous-sounding-that's-not-nervous vibrato is painful. The judges did NOT hear the same song I did. I'll just leave it at that.
Siobhan is second to last. Can't wait to hear what she's doing! She's doing Across the Universe, in hopes that it's a "totally different kind of performance". And now I get the crazy skirt. I like it on the stool. Note to the stylists: the curls in the hair are too much with all the lace and ruffles. She should have had straight hair, up. I love the line "nothing's gonna change my world". This sounds great, and is lovely. You can tell from a slow song if the person has actual control of their voice or not. She does. Not total control, but pretty good. The bridge? to the chorus is a little awkward, but this is good. I wish she'd get the sound out of her nose -- it's a little froggy, but this is pretty. And her makeup is fab. Nice job, Siobhan. I'd listen to that on a radio, too. Ok, so I got all choked up when Simon asked her what she was thinking about in that song. *sniff*
I think Lee is gonna knock our socks off! (LOL I love that Crystal says he and his roommate Andrew can have little Danny Gokey babies!) Oh yay, he's doing Hey Jude! Whoops -- he's nervous. The first real obvious pitch problems of the night. I like this arrangement, but the pitch at the beginning concerns me. He has such a great sound, but he's just not confident of this one. THERE'S A BAGPIPER COMING DOWN THE STAIRS BEHIND HIM! I like the na-na-nas, but there might be too much of them for us to hear him as he asks the audience to join in. Hmm ... that had the potential to blow the roof off the theatre, but didn't quite hit it. Not awful, but not what it could have been, either.
Predictie McLeaverson knows that the East coast probably already knows who is getting kicked off, but... Also, I'm going to say who should be voted off based on performance, because at this point, there's no accounting for taste. The people we should say goodbye to are Aaron, Andrew, Tim, or Katie. Or Casey. Maybe I should say who should be safe: Crystal, Siobhan, Mike.