crystal is undoubtedly an excellent singer. love her. i assume what people mean by she is ‘predictable’ is that she has such a strong character as a singer.

What I mean when I say that is that every song sounds the same. She does the same thing to every song. I pretty much feel this way about all the guitar players in the group. It’s like when they get a guitar in hand they only have one style of singing and performing that they can do while holding it. They’re all feeling like one trick ponies to me. This is why I’d like to see them ditch the instruments.

now.. siobhan and crystal.. i really like these two..a lot.
i’m not really a fan of siobhan’s voice, but i like her uniqueness. and the song ending was exceptional!
crystal is undoubtedly an excellent singer. love her. i assume what people mean by she is ‘predictable’ is that she has such a strong character as a singer.

Crystal is a very relaxed, natural singer. I liked her.

Sioban was gorgeous and did great. I am not a fan of the screaming but if you like screaming, it wasn’t bad.

I watched Aaron because some people have compared him to David Archuleta. Thankfully, people are not doing that as much anymore. He is SO different from David. The only similarities are his age and being a nice guy. I think he did a fine job on his song this week. He doesn’t have a big voice like David, but this song suited him and there might be a niche for him in country music. I am not a country music fan, so other people might have better idea of that.

I think they’re both great. How bout that? To me, though, Crystal is a little more predictable and I’m not sure if she has much more room to improve. Sioban, on the other hand, is unpredictable and has vocal tricks galore. I also love her intensity of performance and her quirky sensibilities. I have a feeling that we haven’t seen the limit of her vocal abilities, and I do feel that Crystal has already shown us her best in that regard.

“I remember Slezak talked how they should have a No Ballads Allowed week. I think they should also have multiple No Guitars Allowed weeks and should have people come in and work with all of the idols on their stage and camera work.”

To me its not getting rid of the guitars that’s needed , it is the camera & stage work as you say but that will happen as they get used to the larger stage!!
I really don’t get the “chuck’ the guitars screams! Before instruments were allowed I remember Idol being inundated with pop belters , which I found boring!!
David C & Kris winning has encouraged a different strand of singer so that we do get more variety on idol. I enjoy the variety & I’d hate it to become more of a “screamfest ” again!!
In this Top 12 there are more “quirky” singers but there are your belters as in Paige , Siobahn & Mike! Then there are the smooth/husky singing ones like Casey, Lee & Crystal. So I think there is enough variety , now the idols performances just need to step up a notch to make it more entertaining!

Siobhan- loved the beginning, loved the ending, but she lost me in the middle- she mumbled most of the lyrics and the melody sounded weird. Still, it was entertaining. But if she depends too much on this type of arrangement it’ll get gimmicky.

Lee- thought with this song he finally displayed what his voice is all about. Liked the tone of his vocals- agreed with Randy’s comparison to Rob Thomas and Dave Matthews.

Crystal- solid performance as always. That’s it- no more, no less.

Casey and Michael- they sang well enough, but the performances were lightweight and forgettable.

Paige and Aaron were mediocre, but they’ll squeak by this week.

Tim- heh, this guy isn’t going home for a while. I give him credit- I found him far more entertaining than some of the other contestants.

Bottom 3:
Andrew- why didn’t he sing Tim’s song instead of “Gimme Shelter”? Wasn’t terrible, but this song doesn’t match his style. The clock’s ticking.

Katie- so dreary and slow. She’s in over her head. She should go home, but her fans will save her again this week.

Lacey- the song was fine, but the arrangement didn’t mesh with her voice, plus the strings were distracting. I think she’ll be cut.

Going home: Lacey

The more “Crystal rocks” I see the less I like her JMO

DLee:
03/17/2010 at 11:29 am

JMS – Watch Lee’s…it’s better than Casey’s.

Well, I watched it. His vocals were nice. Yes, better than Casey’s. But both Lee and Casey(and waaaay too many others) are just standing there strumming their guitars and singing, Casey is more enjoyable to watch because he connects with the audience more. Casey is bad at audience connection, but Lee doesn’t even try and it makes him even more boring to watch.

I remember Slezak talked how they should have a No Ballads Allowed week. I think they should also have multiple No Guitars Allowed weeks and should have people come in and work with all of the idols on their stage and camera work.

Lee finally did a song I didn’t hate. I almost want them to assign an artist to him every week, because he has a nice voice and I like him a lot more when he doesn’t sing awful songs. You can see that he’s telling himself in his head to relax while he’s singing which is making him more nervous. Someone slip him a beta blocker please.

Casey and Didi did well, these last 2 weeks I’ve liked Didi more and more. Casey needs a band, I think. Mike has a decent voice as always, but still pub performances to me.

Paige + sick = actually pretty decent

The rest I honestly thought were awful. Tim was outright ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with Aaron’s voice, but I can’t deal with him acting through lyrics he knows nothing about, and I can’t deal with the country boy band feel.

My biggest problem with her now, though, is that she does need to take more risks, maybe step away from her comfort zone a little.

Agreed. When you combine her easily overlookable musical prowess with her “knowing who she is” and maybe kinda sorta being uncertain whether she should risk that by leaving her “box,” her momentum is slowing. She’s a person who *could* be helped by theme weeks because some will likely *force* her to try something with a twist we haven’t yet seen. …

I think Siobhan may benefit from theme weeks, too, but in another way — in her case, I think the theme weeks may present opportunities to develop more of who she’s going to be as an artist and performer. I think Crystal already knows that but needs a push to do it a little more creatively, while Siobhan has a lot of the tools and will benefit from some hurdles to jump so she can learn more about exactly what she *can* do and wants to do.

Siobhan – Pretty impressive. I don’t think her notes are as off as MJ indicates, but I’m going back to watch again.

I just rewatched. I stand corrected. It was all over the place and she fell out of that last note a few times. I think we (the people I watched it with) were so excited to see something exciting that we missed the fact that the vocal was substandard. Same with Crystal. Both performances were more technically flawed than I originally thought!!! Crystal’s style and artistry trumps all. Janis Joplin wasn’t perfect either, but she moved people. Crystal moves me and the more comfortable she gets, the bigger connection I feel to her. I think I may start voting next week.

I think Crystal is having a similar difficulty that some past contestants, like Ruben and Melinda, for example, have had (not that it hurt them all that much, in the end; well, Ruben anyway). In my view, she has incredible control of her voice and repeatedly does very subtle, interesting things with it, in melody, rhythm, phrasing. But she makes what she’s doing sound *so* easy and effortless (as the less-annoying-than-I-can-remember Kara said last night) that her ability often doesn’t impress all that much. Excellent, expressive sounds just kind of flow out of her without any fuss and that can end up with performances that are very easy to take for granted. While when somebody appears to be working harder, it seems more impressive.

lucy – ITA that Crystal has a deceptively brilliant vocal ability – so effortlessly good it can easily be overlooked for just how good and nuanced (above all else) it is.

My biggest problem with her now, though, is that she does need to take more risks, maybe step away from her comfort zone a little. Stay true to herself, but just be a little more adventurous. I feel her performances are always solid, but I am getting just a tad bored, knowing exactly what to expect from week to week.

Katie: whatever. The people voting for her don’t care if this is any good. It’s all: vote for Katie for Class President with little smilies!

This. is FUNNY!!