Greetings, friends! I'm Darci Monet, singer/songwriter/freelance writer and this is my weekly critique of the Idol contestants' performances. I don't bring up what I do for a living to make anyone feel inferior; rather just so you know where I get my opinion at all. I welcome everyone's opinion who cares to share. So here's my gut-reaction, one-listen-only review for this week.
Now...to the real point. Here we are...Tuesday again. With Andrea Bocelli and David Foster coaching the contestants. Okay Andrea Bocelli...that's cool enough...but DAVID FOSTER??? One of my uber-heroes!!! And he's frickin MEAN and I love it! And Andrea..."you can only become great if it is you're destiny..." I don't think he's lying. I've said it several times this week...if the contestants don't ALL blow their songs out of the water this week then there is absolutely no hope for them. Love songs is our theme. *hurl* I'd better get a glass of wine so I'm not TOO snippy...
Seriously...the animation at the start of the show is wicked cool. Yes...I said WICKED cool. And it has been WICKED cool for five seasons.
Oh WHYYYYYYYY WHYYYYYY WHYYYYYY is Katharine singing that beat-all-to-hell song "I Have Nothing"??? Ugh! And I was so hoping we'd be spared from it for just one stinking' season. Well, she looks stunning tonight. But...if Simon doesn't call that performance completely INDULGENT I'm going to scream. I really, really want to love her but I just can't. For starters, she sang under pitch the whole time by just a hair, plus I just felt like she was way more concerned with how she looks in the monitors than she was about losing herself in the song. I feel this way every week about her, but this week it was positively glaring to me to the point of distraction. THANK YOU SIMON for finally getting on my brainwave...cabaret, cabaret, cabaret. Nothing new here, moving right along.
Oh Elliott, please make it better with Donny Hathaway. From the video tape, it looks as if he might. Nice suit, El! And I think he did a really GREAT job...his best performance so far, in my opinion, and even one of the best of this season. That was a beautiful vocal and he seemed comfortable with the cameras this evening. I am not familiar enough with the song to say anything about the arrangement as Randy did, but it didn't bother me - at least it didn't feel all chopped up to me or anything. And okay...I'm gonna catch HELL for thinking Paula's the bomb for crying but I thought that was great! If by some crazy reason Elliott gets the boot tomorrow (and he so shouldn't after that performance), he can go home knowing he moved someone with his voice that much (AND a "superb" from Simon!!!) and as a singer I can tell you THAT RULES.
Alright...here comes Kellie with a dumb hairstyle. And Lord help us, she's singing "Unchained Melody". And even BETTER she's going to pull out the Leann Rhimes wuss-out version. I have zero interest in hearing her sing this. And it turns out I had no reason to have any...she starts halfway through the verse? That's ridonkulous. Oh for god's sake - this may be the first time I actually have to leave an American Idol top twelve performance because it's that bad...and yes, Kellie, time DOES go by so slowly when you're squawking like that, sweetheart. Damn. DAYUM. GET HER OFF THIS SHOW, AMERICA. She's a frickin' disaster and now I'm just starting to get plain old mad.
Paris is going to sing a song I LOVE ("The Way We Were") and I can't wait to hear her do it. And she sounds like Gladys Knight on this song...I like that she's not copying anything that Barbra sang. I had to wrap my head around how different it was, but once I did I really enjoyed it and got a few goosebumps. My only suggestion would have been to raise the key. Her high power notes would have really soared a whole step higher. And sheesh - the judges are a bit difficult to please tonight, especially for a perfectly more-than-acceptable performance as that. As far as I'm concerned she and Elliiott are the only two who managed to make me feel anything tonight. The karaoke singer and the teenager...what's wrong with this picture so far?
Taylor's up next with James Ingram's "Just Once". He starts off shaky. It stays shaky. Now...I love this guy so much but I'm not feeling it from him at all...till he hits the key change...the HE starts feeling it and I'm in. But he threw away the beautiful melodies in the verses and his eyes darted around during the performance like he was terrified. No Randy, it was NOT the wrong song for Taylor, I just think he didn't bring it and that's that. We're at the point in the competition where everyone's exhausted, their voices are worn out, they are homesick as all hell and in Taylor's case, he probably misses his band and what he REALLY does well a whole lot. Not an EXCUSE...but a REASON for a less-than-stellar performance. He just wasn't on.
Now we've got Chris singing Bryan Adams' "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman", with quite a tricky little melody. And HOLY COW I could completely tell he was singing in an entirely different way this week with the pointers from Andrea and David. That was a GREAT performance. He looked great, sang great, everything was simply great. he has a tendency to be a wee bit pitchy here and there, but sometimes you get over the small missteps when the overall presentation was that impressive.
Well...that's that. Tomorrow night we find out who this year's top five is. If there's justice in the world, it will be Chris, Elliott, Katharine, Paris and Taylor. I could really live with that top five. However, I have a horrible feeling that Kellie is going to squeeze in instead of Elliott or Paris. And what a travesty that would be.
So...what's the word from the peanut gallery?
~Darci Monet
Professional vocalist/songwriter/freelance writer Visit my profile! "Any girl can be glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr
Darci I think you were right about Taylor's voice being strained. I have NEVER heard him sound like this before. I have MP3 of him singing soft songs. At this point, if your voice is strained, you will be afraid. Did you notice how he held his hand and kept mouthing Soul Patrol? It was like he was begging for help.
fuscia said this in post #3 : Darci I think you were right about Taylor's voice being strained. I have NEVER heard him sound like this before. I have MP3 of him singing soft songs. At this point, if your voice is strained, you will be afraid. Did you notice how he held his hand and kept mouthing Soul Patrol? It was like he was begging for help.
I did help though, 310+ calls for Taylor.
Found out today he originally intended to sing "Try A Little Tenderness" but THE PRODUCERS didn't feel like it was a song Andrea Bocelli would have sung so they made him pick something else. I was pretty furious when I heard that. Who's competing Andrea or the contestants?
~Darci Monet
Professional vocalist/songwriter/freelance writer Visit my profile! "Any girl can be glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr
HECK said this in post #6 : Ah, was going to say, that's a mighty big phone bill if not.
I only called in to vote for a show once, it was Last Comic Standing, voted for Todd Glass. He lost. I have no faith in the process any more.
-HECK!
I LOVED that show! I HATE NBC for screwing it up. Fortunately it's coming back, but unfortunately it's no longer Jay Mohr's baby. And that stinks.
~Darci Monet
Professional vocalist/songwriter/freelance writer Visit my profile! "Any girl can be glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr
Found out today he originally intended to sing "Try A Little Tenderness" but THE PRODUCERS didn't feel like it was a song Andrea Bocelli would have sung so they made him pick something else. I was pretty furious when I heard that. Who's competing Andrea or the contestants?
I was furious too. I thought they at the very least should have told the public that he had a shorter amount of time to rehearse.
Darci, I would LOVE to hear your pics for Taylor for his birth year 1976 and for the Billboards song.
Oh man, I have no idea. I'm really bad at that song picking thing off the top of my head. If I was given the list they had to choose from, I could do it. Maybe later tonight I'll do a little research if I get all my other crap done first.
~Darci Monet
Professional vocalist/songwriter/freelance writer Visit my profile! "Any girl can be glamorous, all you have to do is stand still and look stupid." ~Hedy Lamarr
I'd better get a glass of wine so I'm not TOO snippy... 
I have zero interest in hearing her sing this. And it turns out I had no reason to have any...she starts halfway through the verse? That's ridonkulous. Oh for god's sake - this may be the first time I actually have to leave an American Idol top twelve performance because it's that bad...and yes, Kellie, time DOES go by so slowly when you're squawking like that, sweetheart. Damn. DAYUM. GET HER OFF THIS SHOW, AMERICA. She's a frickin' disaster and now I'm just starting to get plain old mad. 
04-26-2006 05:30 AM
