American Idol: Mariah Carey Night, or “I Don’t Think We’re In for a Lot of Laughs Tonight”

April 16th, 2008 | 5:30 pm est | AMG Staff

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
David A: I may not have produced a hit version of “When You Believe,” but like Simon, I knew that would be the song that little David Archuleta would pick this week. How so? Because at heart, David A. is a Christian pop singer and will always go for an inspirational song if given the option, which he did last night with this refugee from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack — a song that managed to be widely forgotten despite being a clash of the titans duet between Maria and Whitney. David A. did his typically overblown pageantry on this, blowing it up to proportions that can fill theaters from Branson to Vegas, and although he does it well — good enough that he may win — he’s about the dullest contestant to ever get this far on Idol, always giving exactly the performance you expect week in and week out.

Carly: Oh of course Carly was going to pick “Without You” — a big ballad with rock pedigree, it’s perfect for her. And she sang it not badly but not greatly either, investing way too much in the wailing coda and not enough in the verse and, worse still, it was possible to hear her consciously crank up the intensity phrase by phrase, which is what Simon was talking about when he says she over thinks it all. And she does — she’s that desperate to win, a desperateness that shows through too strongly in her interviews, a desperateness that could very well keep away voters. Speaking of alienating voters, the producers compensated for Carly’s discreet covering of her arm tattoo by clearly lighting for the first time ever her husband with the tattooed face. That’s bound to keep some people from dialing in. (Side note: Last night, it struck me that Nilsson’s version of “Without You” really is the template for all this showy diva singing, as his cover builds to those wild glory notes at the end, which is what all these wannabe divas have done ever since.)

Syesha: Syesha is so in love with what she can do with her voice that she never thinks of singing something the audience wants to hear — she only picks songs that show off that range and, by now, we all know that she can pull them off, at least technically. But she never injects personality into those technical exhibitions, so she winds up being forgettable week after week, especially when she’s picking songs like “Vanishing” that are memorable for how they were sung instead of what was sung.

Brooke: Brooke took the right approach to Mariah, turning a ballad into a soft singer/songwriter thing but her touch was a little shaky, as she wavered out of tune a couple of times and sped up her piano at others. This might have made for the roughest performance of the night, but there was a human element to it that I found endearing. I also like that she took the criticism she received for “Every Breath You Take” to heart and didn’t bring in the full band later. Not the best performance of the night, but it has to be said that she was the only one of the female contestants that attempted to re-arrange a Mariah song — something she may have been forced to do because of her style, but it still separates her from the pack at least a little.

Kristy Lee: Unlike Brooke, Kristy Lee pretty much stuck to Mariah’s big ballad template but ever so slightly spun it toward a Faith Hill-kind of country ballad, usually by just emphasizing the twang in her voice. She doesn’t quite have the vocal chops for this but she tries valiantly, and while the effort is appreciated her performance just wound up being a tad forgettable, so she may go this week — that is, if Syesha’s forgettableness doesn’t wind up trumping Kristy Lee’s.

David C: As David’s completely predictable somber post-grunge rearrangements of pop songs go, “Always Be My Baby” was one of his better ones, partially because it was original, partially because it wasn’t overblown. Although he completely swallows his words on his lower register, he reigned in his tendency for hernia-inducing histrionics, which made this one of his better performances.

Jason: This is as good a time as ever to mention that Mariah was in top form on Idol — she looked great, she was charming and, best of all, really gave the contestants savvy advice. Unlike some of the other contestants, Jason really followed through on her advice, which helped his rearrangement of “I Don’t Want to Cry.” It was a perhaps predictable slice of sunny, strum-along hippie folk, but he pulled it off, partially due to his ingratiating presence but what really made this stand out was that unlike every other performance last night it flowed easily, never seeming labored or forced. Even so, Castro’s charm is so casual, it’s also easy to have the performance fade a bit in memory after the show was done.

Andrew Leahey
It’s important to note that during last year’s Top Seven week, we finally managed to send Sanjaya home. One year prior to that, TV viewers bid a half-hearted adieu to Ace Young. Knowing such statistics won’t do you any good (at least not until Fox comes out with an “American Idol Trivial Pursuit” board game, which is totally likely), but it does prove that this season is, in fact, a relatively good one. And that’s comforting to remember during Mariah Carey Night, an evening that almost promises to be a letdown due to the diva’s superiority to 99% of America’s vocalists. Unless you’re on par with Kelly Clarkson (and who is, really? Even Kelly Clarkson isn’t on par with her former self), your best bet is to break down these tunes and resurrect them as something else entirely.

That is, unless you’re Syesha. In that case, you completely ape the original and spend the final 30 seconds (a third of the total performance) doing vocal acrobatics around two words: “vanishing” and “away.” If Kristy’s performance was “like ordering a hamburger and only getting the bun,” then Syesha’s derivative diva diatribe was the equivalent of ordering the complete Mariah Carey discography on iTunes and only getting an .avi file of “Glitter.” And just for the record, I rather liked Kristy’s performance. Relocate that girl to Nashville, give her a crash course in stage presence, and put her through the same machine that molded Kellie Pickler into the award-winning darling of CMT. She’d sell records.

Although they’re currently outnumbered by the girls, the three remaining guys still own this competition. I just wish that Jason Castro had returned to the chorus during “I Don’t Wanna Cry,” because those 30 seconds were pretty great. He’s another person who could stand a little machine molding — not so much that he loses the genuine aloofness that we all love, necessarily, but just enough to hone his voice and sharpen that falsetto. Here’s to hoping he sticks around, because regardless of how many times David Archuleta nails his runs or David Cook nails his high notes, Castro is the only contestant whose album I’d consider buying.

Of course, David Cook will likely outlast Castro on our way to the finale, and for good reason. Cook’s brother was in the audience last night — a rare occurrence given his hospitalized battle with cancer — and David deserves props for not parlaying that into a much-deserved sympathy vote. We’ve already heard about Kristy’s bronchitis, Syesha’s loss of voice, Brooke’s inability to attend a wedding, and Archuleta’s inability to attend prom. David Cook has remained silent, though, and he’s probably had to battle with Idol’s producers to keep his brother’s condition under wraps. I fail to see how that’s at all pompous, and the fact that he bounced back last night (no more Our Lady Peace songs, thank God) only sweetens the deal. Like it or lump it, all signs point toward a David-versus-David finale.

Matt Collar
Ruminate on this: Mariah Carey is the Led Zeppelin of diva vocalists. Like Zep, her influences run deep and from the source and with her obvious technical abilities she herself is unique. Unfortunately, everybody who came after her is heavily influenced by her and her alone. Subsequently, as they ignore her influences — and since most of them simply aren’t as good singers as her — they are only pale, watered down copies of an original. So, again like Zep, Carey is both praised and vilified for being an influential artist and a derivative corporate entity.

Now, you could argue that Whitney Houston is the Led Zeppelin of diva vocalists, but you’d be wrong. She’s the Rolling Stones of diva vocalists.

Okay, the performances: I enjoyed Jason, who is finally delivering on Europe’s long-awaited dream combining French tennis-star-turned-reggae-sensation Yannick Noah, Latin boy-toy Enrique Iglesias and Texas pot-head sex symbol Matthew McConaughey into a super pop idol. A world of Speedo endorsements and Nutella ads are his for the taking! Similarly enjoyable was Brooke who looked gorgeous in that gray sparkly dress, even if she was a bit of a nervous poodle on the piano. And, although I’ve heard better arrangements of “Without You,” Carly sang it with her usual raw conviction. Unfortunately, she still hasn’t really given us more than a display of her great chops and I think she desperately needs to prove she’s more than just a dazzling cover-band singer. Nonetheless, anybody that covers Badfinger is alright in my book.

I am going on record here: With his performance last night, David Cook won the competition. This isn’t to say that I’m a big fan of Cook. On the contrary, I’ve not been fond of his smug, post-grunge yawping. However, he does have a knack for delivering memorable performances with melodic, no-fuss arrangements that perfectly showcase his abilities. I also completely agree with Paula that Cook’s “Always Be My Baby” is totally soundtrack-ready. Furthermore, Cook seems less and less post-grunge and more alt-emo rock — this especially in light of last week’s admittedly less than stellar Our Lady Peace performance. Add in that fact that he cried and was truly overwrought by his brother being in the audience and you have a perfect storm of talent, taste, emotion, and zeitgeist to carry him to the finals with a big win. I do think David Archuleta is the frontrunner, but next to Cook’s savvy rock cred, lil’ David is looking more and more like the coached Pinocchio we assume he is.

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