- Michael Sarver, singing Garth Brooks' "Ain't Goin' Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)": I'm biased against this music, but this was a damn mess. If I wanted to hear someone sing unintelligibly and out of breath, I'd go to a Britney concert and sabotage the tape machine. I'll call him the Big Ten because he seems on paper that he'd do great this week, but he choked.
- Allison Iraheta, singing Patty Loveless' "Blame It On Your Heart": She's so polished for her age that I'm starting to think she's a ringer. The girl can sing. She's Syracuse -- I don't particularly like her and she doesn't seem like she should be as good as she is, but she finds a way to rock the place.
- Kris Allen, singing Garth Brooks' "To Make You Feel My Love": I bet you didn't know this was originally a Dylan song. He didn't make it sound like it, huh? He has the amazing superpower to take any style of music and make it sound like sugary pop. That's not necessarily bad for this show, just makes me want to stay away from any album he ever puts out. We'll go with Butler -- they're a cute little mid-major team that doesn't really threaten for the title and, with their defense, drags every game they play into the same slow-down style.
- Lil Rounds, singing Martina McBride's "Independence Day": You can tell she was really out of her comfort zone, but her voice was good enough to pull her through. Definitely the first cracks in her armor, though. She's from Memphis so I'll give her Memphis -- she's blowing opponents away and people love her, but you can see that given the right style of play (ahem, Missouri), she could have a surprising meltdown down the road.
- Adam Lambert, singing Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire": When I saw that he would sing this song, I curled into the fetal position. I don't know if anyone has ever preened more on national television than this dummy. I hate him, hate him, hate him. Duke. He sucks but everyone thinks he's so good and he may go farther than I think he should.
- Scott MacIntyre, singing Martina McBride's "Wild Angels": He makes every song sound like Bruce Hornsby is singing it slightly off-key. Does anyone else think that, with the curly hair, he sort of has a William Katt feel to him? He's not the Greatest American Idol. I think he's Arizona -- I'm not sure he particularly belonged in the field, but he has some flashes of talent here or there and everyone keeps picking him for some unknown reason.
- Alexis Grace, singing Dolly Parton's "Jolene": She's become one of my favorites and, while not perfect, she's just humming right along with relative ease. I think she's destined to glide right into the late stages. She's Carolina. Sorry, 'Noop, you're just not good enough to get it.
- Danny Gokey, singing Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel": Praise music is his wheelhouse. He's got it all: likability, soul, one of the more unique voices in the competition. But you wonder if it's too much and people will sour on him like they did with Melinda Doolittle. He may be too good to be true in the end. That screams Connecticut.
- Anoop Desai, singing Brenda Lee's "Always on My Mind": While he hangs out in back with Taub and Thirteen, I'll say that he did a good job of going in a different enough route from the famous Willie Nelson version. Wake Forest looks like a super-talented team but sometimes doesn't play that way. He's exactly the opposite. He really is a lot better than you think he should be. I'm a big fan. We'll go with Villanova, who has no inside presence to speak of but guards that are good enough to shock you.
- Megan Joy (she dropped her ex-husband's name), singing Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight": I 80% love the tone in her voice. It's so different, but she can't always keep it up on every note. She may get credit for her looks, but she has some fundamental problems that will only get more obvious the farther she goes. Ladies and gentlemen, your Oklahoma Sooners!
- Matt Giraud, singing Carrie Underwood's "So Small": Not bad. He's definitely overcome his problems in the semifinals. He has real talent and he's sneaking under the radar. Do I think he'll win? No. But people have been sleeping on him. That would be Louisville.
Notice how I didn't label anyone Pittsburgh? Just pointing it out. Anyways, I think Michael Sarver was the worst (although, hearing the highlights at the end, I forgot how much I hated Adam Lambert's), so I'll pick him to go, but it could just as easily be Megan.
1 comment:
As probably one of the few, if not the only, country music fan reader of this blog, I feel like I have to comment this week! (sorry for the length)
Michael – bad. If you have neither Garth’s energy nor his charisma, pick something else. And stop talking back to the judges! (Josh, I have to yell at you for your Big Ten comment! Not saying I can argue with you, but I still have to yell at you for it!!)
Allison – ok, I guess, but not a favorite of mine
Kris – I thought he was really good. In general I think Kris has a good voice, but in a kind of easily forgettable way. I think he got too much credit for “making it his own” though. Even Garth’s version wasn’t particularly “country” so there wasn’t THAT big a difference.
Lil – totally lackluster. Singing Martina during country week is like singing Whitney, Mariah or Celine during any regular round – you’re almost certainly going to come off looking bad even if you’re a really good singer. Plus, she sang it way too “happy.”
Adam – oh my. He was definitely trying for David Cook-sings-Hello, but this was just mind-bogglingly awful. Prompted my favorite comment of the night though – Randy gushing about how “current” Adam is…“like Nine Inch Nails…” Really? NIN is current?? (The Internet today tells me that maybe it wasn’t quite as ridiculous as I thought last night?) Guess that tells me how not current *I* am. I really want this guy gone.
Scott – not the best, but not the worst of the night either
Alexis – sorry, honey, but that was oversinging at its finest (although I generally like her)
Danny – I hated the song choice just like when he sang “Hero.” It just doesn't feel genuine to me (I know it probably is, but stop slapping me in the face with it all the time already!). Looking beyond the song to the performance, the first half was terrible while the second half was only semi-bad. Whichever judge said it was correct that you need the first part not singing all out so you can build to the chorus, but c’mon, you still have to sing the first part well for it to work.
Anoop – FANTASTIC! Ok, I admit he’s my favorite anyway, but still, great, great, great tonight.
Megan – eh. I thought she did a fairly good job (then again I also kinda liked her “Rockin’ Robin”), but I just don’t care for the sound of her voice most of the time. I can’t tell if it’s an accent or just her tone of voice.
Matt – really good, but not as good as the judges’ gushing made it out to be. Not my favorite performance of his nor of the night, but it was good.
I agree that Michael SHOULD be the one to go, but I think it might be Scott or Kris. I’d love to see it be Adam and then watch the judges try to explain why they were using their one and only save after a performance like that. It’s one thing if they save someone who had a good night but for some reason just didn’t get the votes, but to use the save after an awful performance? That doesn’t seem fair to me.
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