Heather Phares
If there was any doubt that Simon Cowell is the only person on American Idol with half a clue, Tuesday night’s show erased it — and if the powers behind the show are serious about making real changes to the show (not just novel but mostly ineffectual ones, like letting the contestants play instruments), they should get rid of Randy and Paula. The judges’ picks for the Idols underscored what the show is doing right and (mostly) wrong: Paula’s choice of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” for David Archuleta and Randy’s choice of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” for Syesha were both fine, but not especially inspired, and they resulted in pretty-good-but-predictable performances. David Cook really lucked out by having Simon pick his song. Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” wasn’t the most obvious choice for the season’s rocker to sing, but he had to find a way to make it work for him — which he did, delivering more tenderness on the first part of the song than he did on “The Music of the Night” on Andrew Lloyd Webber week before turning it into a convincing power ballad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Time was, Jason Castro was a refreshing contestant on American Idol as he didn’t fit in with the rest of the competition. As time wore on, his freshness faded, due entirely to the grind of the show and how it broke him down. For the last two weeks of the show he clearly hasn’t wanted to be here, and between the Ford commercials, phone Q&As, and trips to The Beatles: Love, who can blame him? As I said yesterday — the day when I called him Jason Cook, as the show has clearly worn me down, too — he’s done enough to have a career outside of the show and my money is that he will make an album about as good and true to himself (the ultimate Paula criteria) as David C.

To me, the real atrocity of last night was that group sing on “Reelin’ in the Years.” I have no problem with Steely Dan on the show, of course — if anything, the great Walter Becker and Donald Fagen would be my dream judges/mentors, rivaling that legendary episode with Quentin Tarantino as guest judge — but this was an outright embarrassment, with each line getting more ridiculous, culminating in David Archuleta botching lyrics once again. The only thing they can do to make up for this is to have a Becker/Fagen night next year, preferably early in the season when the show has enough contestants to be interesting to watch.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Leahey
Welcome to American Idol’s skewed interpretation of rock & roll, wherein John Fogerty didn’t write “Proud Mary” and “Rocket 88” was apparently performed by Ike Turner & His Delta Nobodies. After last week’s schmaltzy Andrew Lloyd Webber fest, a wide-open theme like this seemed promising, particularly for the guitar-toting David Cook and Jason Castro. Cook should’ve sunk his teeth into these songs — and he sorta did with “Baba O’Reilly,” whose stratosphere-scraping high notes are certainly not the easiest thing to sing — but he only took a feeble nibble out of “Hungry Like The Wolf,” turning a cool, slick number into something dark and relatively lifeless. Come on, David — even Reel Big Fish does a better version than that. Castro, on the other hand, might as well have smashed his acoustic guitar and walked offstage midway through “I Shot the Sheriff” — at least that would’ve been a cool way to go out, rather than the slow, lyrically-botched death cry that comprised his two performances. The fact that “Mr. Tambourine Man” started off strongly only made things more painful, because Castro’s flubbed words cemented his exit faster than you could say “Brooke White.” It didn’t matter that he caressed the rest of his lyrics in an endearing way (“and hhhhheyyyy, Mr. Tambourine Man…”), or that — huzzah! — he finally nailed a falsetto note, something he failed to do during the richly-praised “Hallelujah” performance earlier this season. If Jason’s departure wasn’t preordained before the show, it became all but inevitable after Syesha delivered two middling (but error-free) performances, and our only consolation is the fact that this spaced-out Castronaut probably wants to go home, since American Idol’s glitzy glamour and garish group choreography are, like, totally a buzzkill, man.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
I’ve made it no secret that Brooke White was my favorite contestant this season of American Idol but my heart is not quite broken at her elimination this week. This is partially due to how the grueling grind of Idol wears down the viewers as well as the participants, slowly sanding away their initial charm — not just because we have to hear them all the time but because we have to see them jump through hoops like the group-sings, the commercials, the telephone Q&As, and theme night after theme night. Brooke wasn’t immune to this as all these performance gymnastics threw her off her game, choosing songs like this week’s “I’m a Believer” when she’d be better off with intimate songs performed with just her and a piano. Of course, American Idol isn’t about that kind of performance — it’s a “singing competition,” which means that the show pushes showboats, something Brooke is not. She is a singer/songwriter — albeit a mainstream one, one that emphasizes melody and feel over lyrics, which isn’t bad at all — and her album Songs from the Attic shows she has promise as a writer, too. The nice thing about her stint on Idol is that she’s now positioned to have a shot at the big leagues, and if history is any judge, she may have a better shot at success by not winning, just like Elliott Yamin a couple years back.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heather Phares
No wonder Paula Abdul thought Jason Castro had already sung two times after the first round of performances on last night’s American Idol: the show was so dull and disappointing that it felt at least twice as long as it was. This had to be the weakest episode yet — you know you’re in trouble when Paula’s extreme befuddlement and shots of The Girls Next Door’s Bridget and Kendra in the audience are more exciting than the performances. Though he was hindered by some very scripted “witty” banter with Ryan Seacrest and a questionable new ‘do, David Cook proved again that it’s his competition to lose, turning in solid versions of lesser-known Neil Diamond songs that sounded like they could be on the radio — or, at least, commercials on the radio. David Archuleta was as squeaky-clean as ever with two of Neil’s schlockier numbers, “Sweet Caroline” and “Coming to America” (chosen in memory of Kristy Lee Cook, no doubt), and Brooke was her usual uneven self, turning in a dreadful “I’m a Believer” in head-to-toe sparkly denim but redeeming herself on one of the ultimate singer/songwriter songs, “I Am I Said.” And even though Paula’s comments for Jason Castro were premature, they weren’t inaccurate (since they were probably based on the dress rehearsal): Jason fared better on the hippie-dippy pop of “Forever in Blue Jeans” than he did on “September Morn,” which was only slightly less schmaltzy — but less affecting — than his whispery version of “Memory” from last week. Finally, Syesha continued to be the most polished and most forgettable contestant with “Hello,” and then remembered that she was supposed to be having fun like last week with “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime.” Both performances were fine, but her understated professionalism just might be her undoing this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
What can we conclude from Carly and Syesha’s placement in the Bottom Two this week, along with Carly’s surprise elimination? Quite possibly that American Idol — either the viewing audience, the producers, or both — has grown tired of the big-voiced diva that has been the show’s stock in trade since the beginning, the kind of singer who patterns herself after Whitney, Celine, and Mariah. Ironically enough, Simon’s X Factor discovery Leona Lewis — as clear an early Mariah clone as there ever was — was given her inevitable showcase spot on this week’s results show but Lewis’ reserved ease only points out just how twitchily desperate Carly has been throughout the show. That was her Achilles Heel, as she could always sing — maybe her mainstream taste was at odds with her tattooed image, but she could always sing — but she seemed so determined to seize her second chance at the big time that she never let us forget it, even interpreting “Blackbird” as an ode to artists’ rights. When Carly didn’t try so hard she was far more likable, and even after her rejection materialized at the end of the show, a cloud seemed to lift and she seemed at ease, making it hard not to wonder whether the season would have turned out differently if she had been that relaxed throughout the season. But that’s all “might have been” conjecture — maybe now she’ll get another crack at another record and finally live up to all this potential that she’s been showing for so many years now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heather Phares
During Tuesday night’s show, Randy Jackson said that singing Andrew Lloyd Webber songs was the toughest challenge the Idols have yet faced, and he was right — the schmaltz and rangy melodies were unflattering to most of the singers and often painful for the audience to endure. The best thing about the night was Webber himself; like Mariah Carey last week, Webber ended up being surprisingly charming and helpful, though his advice didn’t seem to sink in with too many of the singers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Leahey:
Another week, another piece of eye candy eliminated. But while Michael Johns’ departure was a bit premature, Kristy’s has been brewing for awhile — quite possibly since Hollywood Week, when we learned that she only sounds truly good while singing “Amazing Grace.” Still, Kristy leaves AmIdol on a high note, having steadily improved her game by targeting America’s Bible Belt with country twang and apple-pie song choices. She also sounded surprisingly good during the “One Sweet Day” group sing, even if Carly totally stole the show with that high note leading into the key change.

Read the rest of this entry »