Every night, the Fox Reality Channel is re-running the entire season of American Idol Season 7, up until the start of Season 8 on Tuesday. Tonight’s episodes featured Top 9, Dolly Parton week.
I have one thing to say before I add a few thoughts in a bit… Simon desperately needed to lose that stick he had shoved up his ass.
And another thing. WTF is up with FOX and the relentless “male enhancement” commercials?
Retread recap:
- Although her vocals were solid, albeit a bit rushed and nervous, Brooke White kept her sunny disposition firmly in place as she song “Jolene”–never tapping into the desperation of a woman afraid she’s going to lose the only man she’ll ever love. She even smiled in a couple of spots. Not one of my favorite Brooke performances. Paula’s line, “You are Brooke White, ” cracked me right up. Simon calling the violin player weird was really rude. His mean streak would continue for the rest of the night, unfortunately.
- David Cook–I love, love, love, love LOVE this performance. One of his best, I think and a little underrated. This week, TPTB were frantically trying to quell “covergate”. By this time, it was getting pretty ridiculous. In a sit down with Ryan, Cook ticks off all the artists he “borrowed” from, including Doxology, who had been very publicly agitating for an acknowledgment. TPTB should have know better after Season 5’s covergate not to leave the attributions on the cutting room floor. David said he arranged “Little Sparrow” himself, and proceeded to prove he can, indeed, arrange his own music. David’s vocal range, his lovely falsetto, his vulnerability were all on display. Just a gorgeous version of this song. I really like the recorded version, too.
- Ramile Malubay proved once again that she was in over her head on the big stage. She goes for the uptempo “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” and looks totally awkward bouncing around the stage. Plus, her vocals continued to be weak, breathy and out-of-tune. This HAD to be the end of the line for Ramiele, and thank Jeebus, it was.
- Another underrated performance was Jason Castro’s “Travelin’ Thru'”. Again, Simon completely misses the mark in his critique, comparing it to Jason’s rather lackluster performance the week before. On the contrary, I thought Jason sang with heart, conviction, and absolutely beautiful phrasing. One of his best of the entire competition, in my opinion.
- Simon went totally off the rails with his critique of Carly Smithson’s “Here You Come Again.” This was a much better performance than the week before, a lovely (if a bit too AC for my tastes) performance of this song. It was re-worked to play to her vocal strengths. The only criticism I have is that the song arrangement was a bit old-fashioned. Carly still wasn’t picking songs that showed what kind of a recording artist she’d be. Simon blowing her performance off was one thing, but his criticizing her clothes and the way she looked was way out of line. What an ass.
- Ok, this is where I’m a little embarrassed. In my original re-cap I go on a long rant about how I could not imagine David Archuleta succeeding on pop radio, and that he had a voice only a granny could love. My bad. In my defense, the ballads he was singing weren’t exactly showcasing his ability to perform current music. But, yeah, I was wrong. His performance of “Smokey Mountain Memories” was lovely and very heartfelt.
- Kristy Lee Cook was pretty good this week too, much better than Simon gave her credit for. I would have rather Brooke sung “Coat of Many Colors” (with Kristy Lee tackling “Jolene”) and although Kristy could have poured a little more emotion into it, I though it was still a solid performance.
- Syesha Mercado choose to take on Whitney–sort of–by taking on “I Will Always Love You”. She hedges her bets, attempting to weld Dolly and Whitney’s versions together, with uneven results. It was decent in spots, but when she busted out the glory note at the end, the unfavorable comparisons to Whitney were inevitable. She shouldn’t have touched this song with a ten-foot pole.
- Michael Johns finally found his niche in this competition. His blusey, sexed up version of “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right” was all kinds of hot, and showed off his vocals in all the right ways. Too bad he went back to singing bland arena rock the following week…
Amid tears, Ramiele finally went home. Finally.
