Let's Talk About Idol
While I am still somewhat dismayed and befuddled that no Idol contestant seems to share my long-held belief that a killer rendition of Sheriff’s “When I’m With You” would WIN THE COMPETITION, for the most part, I really enjoyed the men’s portion of 80’s Week last night. Let’s review —
1. Luke Menard, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” Wow. It doesn’t get a lot worse than this. From watching this performance, I can sort of understand why Jake gets too embarrassed to watch this show a lot of the time. Luke is doomed to be voted off this week. If he doesn’t, I will just blame a bunch of people in Texas and Ohio. Might as well be annoyed with them for two things.
2. David Archuleta, “Another Day in Paradise.” I hate Phil Collins and his music with the red-hot intensity of a thousand suns, so I was disappointed with little David’s pick, but then somehow he made the song fairly palatable. I’m going to give him points for playing the piano, making me okay with a Phil Collins song, and for being generally adorable. He’s my favorite.
3. Danny Noriega, “Tainted Love.” Okay. I totally disagreed with Simon on this one. Love the song, love Danny’s sassiness, loved the whole thing. I like him even though he looks like Jessica Alba, my celebrity pet peeve.
4. David Hernandez, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” Good - good song choice, good performance — but I was mostly thinking about whether Ryan was going to ask him about the whole used-to-be-a-stripper thing. (He didn’t.)
5. Michael Johns, “Don’t You Forget About Me.” I love the song, but I didn’t think hot Michael did the song any favors. Randy also proved that the only thing he knows about Australian music is that Michael Hutchence was from there, although this particular song didn’t really warrant a hometown/INXS reference considering that Simple Minds was from Scotland and did not ever include Michael Hutchence. Work it out, Randy. Come on.
6. David Cook, “Hello.” Right before David Cook started playing, I told Jake, “There is something about this guy that just isn’t that likeable.” But then?! Hello? I totally loved it. He rocked out to Lionel Richie. Maybe I was just holding his hair against him, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m converted because I thought the Lionel Richie twist was totally awesome.
7. Jason Castro, “Hallelujah.” Y’all. I don’t think I have been this worried about a song choice since, well, ever. Jake left the room. I held my breath. But then… it wasn’t bad. I give Dreadlocks a ton of credit for picking the song and not butchering it. It’s pretty rare that I ever hear any of my favorite songs on Idol.
8. Chikezie, “All The Man That I Need.” Eh. Not awful, but just kind of boring. I would send home Luke Menard and Chikezie if it were up to me, probably.
Incidentally, Paula was on fire last night! At one point, Jake said, “Why don’t they just let her speak her native language?” A good question. A good question indeed.
Emilie
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I was embarrassed to admit it for a while but I kind of love Jason Castro. He does not have the greatest voice in the world but he does well with what he has and knows how to pick songs that he can do something with. I was also scared when he started on Hallelujah but he did really well (minus that one note at the end).
As for Paula, she was either off her meds or back on the drugs because she was a mess last night. The fact that she seems generally coherent during the audition rounds can only be the product of good editing because she can never hold it together to make relevant live commentary.