DCook Flashback: Top 24

[liza1131]

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Let me just say that the mp3 of this performance is one of my favourites. He sounds amazingly good on the mp3. The tone of his voice, his phrasing. And he completely made this song non-boring and non-corny (Hi Brooke!). I really like the arrangement, with the quiet opening (awesome creepy stalker/seductive vibe going on) building to the mini-glorynoting at the end. Nice Cook, niiiice.

ANYWAY.

That 5 second snippet of I'll Be kills me. It haunts me. Why AI, why did you not show me more of that awesomeness? His voiiiiice! *flails* God I love him so much when he sings romantic songs.

Two details that amused me: in Hollywood, he was wearing black nail polish and he still had the faux-hawk! Oh, bb.

"It's nice to have people outside of your circle say hey you don't suck." = HEEEEEE! :D

Okay so I've raved about the vocals, let's talk about the performance itself. The thing that made it most awkward was that he didn't (yet) know how to work the camera. It came off smaaarmy. And the mic-twirling! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAH WTF. It was quite evident, though, that he was comfortable onstage. There wasn't any kind of lost sheep wandering around the stage vibe, hahaha.

The outfit is a variation on the Hollywood vest outfit, complete with hankie. It's nice, I like it. The only thing that spoiled EVERYTHING (I'm shallow, sue me): Hair Tragedy.

The person who decided it was a good idea to flat-iron his hair should be FIRED. That was a criminal act. The hair wasn't perfect in his intro package (too long at the sides and back), but it is more acceptable than FLAT-FUCKIN-IRONED HAIR. And David, how could you let them do it??!? Did you lose a bet? Did MJ bribe the haristylist? What happened here man??!? I'd take the freakin' red bangs and faux-hawk over flat-ironed hair!

Why why whyyyyy... I hope the 4 Horsemen laughed long and loud over the hair.

The Ultimate Hair Tragedy detracted from what was a really good performance. And it totally camouflaged his hotness. Woe! But then, that did mean we were all really surprised 4 weeks later! ;)

Judges' comments:
Randy says something helpful and coherent OMG! More prophetic words: "If he can pull this off, he can do anything!" YES HE CAN! I didn't realize that Randy was initially on the Cook bandwagon. Paula babbles as usual. Yet more prophetic words from Simon: "I've never heard that song sung that way before." That is the magic of DCook, Simon. That's the magic.

Aaah, I love his little nonchalant shoulder shrug to Simon. And his giddy smile at the beginning of Randy's critique. /random

HI BETH AND ANDREW! (Do the Cook brothers share a stash of vests?) So cute how Andrew is uber-excited.

Okay, I think my love for him is so blind now that I can watch this video on repeat. :P

Watching this in retrospect puts a few things in perspective. Like the fact that Dave had his musical identity from the beginning. He has this big voice and he knows the right thing to do with it, the songs he should sing, the way to bend the songs to fit his vibe. That he made the effort, above and beyond everyone else ever (except maybe Blake Lewis), to not sound like karaoke hell. He always added a little David Cook to the songs he did. He just knew what he was doing. The seeds of his future awesomeness are here in this first performance.

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