Phillip Phillips Covers “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak (VIDEO)

By On 08/16/2012 · 84 Comments · In American Idol, Phillip Phillips

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Earlier this week, Phillip Phillips, stopped by 107.5 The River in Nashville, to play a few songs. Here he is totally jamming out on a cover of “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak, a song he performed during Hollywood Week.

Phillip has a way of taking the melody out of melodic when he covers songs, but I do like the propulsive acoustic guitars in this performance. Is this an idea of what we can expect from Phillip when he’s finally cut loose on his own?

The American Idol winner has been stopping by radio stations while on tour with American Idol Live. On his days off, he’s been writing for his debut album, set for release in Nov/Dec. Poor guy doesn’t have a minute to savor the success of his coronation single, “Home” which went platinum this week.

Watch Phillip perform “Wicked Games” below.

 
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  • Anonymous

    Check out his AI studio recordings on Itunes.  They are really good, IMO.

  • s k

    How does he take such an iconic song and completely murder the melody??  That’s a talent I guess

  • Anonymous

    “That’s some killer guitar work.” 
    Fuzzy Wuzzy Wrote: ”I agree, but the great guitar playing is provided by Errol Cooney. P2 basically “strummed” in his guitar playing in this video. I have yet to witness P2′s guitar playing being so different from other WGWGs on Idol as he claimed, but I haven’t watched many videos of him so I may have missed those examples.” 

    I actually thought his Idol audition, where they allowed him an instrument, he displayed some pretty nice guitar work… however, you are correct that he only played rhythm guitar on this song and it was very plain … the finger work and chords by EC was killer stuff …As far as a cover it may have been somewhat impromptu and not worked out very well … I would hope that with some work he would have done a better job …

  • fuzzywuzzy

    I guess that I wasn’t really impressed with P2′s audition guitar playing in his audition.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKNoljoX4nM

    He may be much better, but so far, I’ve really only seen him basically “strum”.

  • Anonymous

    I was a fan of Adam Lambert in Season 8, too.  In fact, it was Adam who actually got me to follow AI as a show .  I’m also a huge fan of Phillip.  I think what Adam and Phillip have in common is their ability to express the emotions behind a song.  In addition, I found both of them to be charismatic performers on stage.   

  • Anonymous

    I can’t comment with any authority about what Phillip is doing musically, my musical education having been limited to six years of piano lessons.  However, what I enjoy about his covers is that I can focus separately on the lyrics and the music.  Because he strips away some (or a lot) of the melody when he sings, I find myself paying attention to the words of the song and actually understanding its meaning.  I have to say, as much as I loved listening to Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” I never knew what the song was about until Phillip sang it on AI because I was always mindlessly swaying to the strong background beat.  When Phillip isn’t singing, he lets his backup musicians work their magic on a song, so that you get to enjoy the beauty of the music, too.

    I guess I’m somewhat surprised that I enjoy Phillip’s music so much, given the criticism that he’s atonal.  My father tried to get me to listen to Charles Ives (a composer, who it is said, was better than he sounds), but Tschaikovsky (a composer, who it is said, sounds better than he was) was definitely more my style when it came to classical music. 

  • Anonymous

    Awesome guitar playing with the usual mediocre singing. Nothing new. Phillip’s strength really lies in his musicality. His best bet would have been to start his own band and recruit a 2nd lead singer, but I don’t see that happening anymore.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    I like his cover, I don’t always love the original. And I remember that Phillip was a guitar player in a band of sister and began to sing only a few years ago. I really like how he felt about the musicians on stage all the time – like I haven’t seen, for example, from Elise and this upset me. He knows himself and has said repeatedly that he is a bad singer, but he just have to deal with – he sang much better in the end.
    What P2 exactly – it is the understanding of the songs and the music and the words. I think he needs to work on this, but I understand that he is still too young, so that the prospect of some kind of is. The ideals he had, at least, the high and he is trying to build itself on them.
    In any case, the “modern” American music for me – it’s a lot of guitarists, which I listen to. And more great pianists. And one super-brilliant trumpeter.

    I’m sorry for my bad English! lol

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