Aside from Adam, I honestly don't know why anyone else needs to bother showing up again next week. BUT ... the show must go on. Adam is driving the rest of these contestants to compete at a level that is beyond their capabilities. That's why we saw the kind of overblown arrangements from the three other contestants fighting for that precious finale spot: Danny, Kris and Matt.
These guys are becoming increasingly desperate, and pushing themselves beyond where their talents can comfortably take them. Meanwhile, Adam merely has to pick a great song (which he has a knack for); find a good arrangement of it (or make one up), and phone it in. He barely has to try, and he still manages to deliver a performance that makes the rest of them look like it's amateur night at the Airport Holiday Inn.
Only Allison appears not to be succumbing to the pressure that Adam is creating: probably because she is youthfully oblivious to this silly show's importance to her career, or perhaps because not even she expected to last this long.
Danny Gokey- “Stand By Me” Ben E. King
So, obviously: Danny was feeling the heat and knew he needed to do something musically innovative to get back in the game. This was an interesting arrangement. Not entirely successful, but I'll give him points for originality, and at least he didn't oversing it. There was some subtlety here, and the glimmer of a competitor who's still in it to win it.
MTME Rating: 3.25 / 5
Kris Allen - “All She Wants To do is Dance” by Don Henley
This was a bit of a mess, but not as much of a mess as the judges claimed. First, it is a strange song choice--if he wanted to go uptempo there were many other options, at least one other on that Henley album alone (Boys of Summer would've been great). There is a cynicism to this lyric that he missed--either because he skimmed over some of the lyrics, or because he made it a little too boppy and dance-y (too literal, in other words). All she wants to do is dance, despite the fact that the world around her is ruled by drug lords and gun runners. This is a CYNICAL song. The horns added a jazz element that seemed out of place--there was a little too much going on here musically, and the staging didn't help either. I'm not keen on putting these guys in the middle of the mosh pit--i can't imagine they are comfortable there, and it shows in a slightly awkward performance. We couldn't hear his guitar -- again.
MTME Rating: 3.25 / 5
Lil Rounds - “What’s Love Got to Do with It” by Tina Turner
Lil--much better outfit. Your performance was as cliched as your song choice. And, you can't keep telling the judges that "you'll do better next week." You've had your three strikes, time to go home (but she won't, just watch).
MTME Rating: 2 / 5
Anoop Desai - “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper
I liked this. I'm not over the moon in love with it and I don't think it allowed Anoop to make up any lost ground, but it was a sweet vocal, and a nice (albeit very straightforward) treatment of this song. An unusual, but I think successful, song choice and he made it work for him. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, because at this point it barely matters.
MTME Rating: 3.5 / 5
Scott MacIntyre - “The Search is Over” by Survivor
This was a disaster. Why oh why did he try to play power chords on an electric guitar ... on this song?!? It was jarring, and he's not even 1/10th as good a guitar player as he is a piano man. Leaving aside the extremely poor choice in instrumentation, the vocal itself was painful to listen to, the staging was awkward. This whole performance was just plain amateurish.
MTME Rating: 1.75 / 5
Allison Iraheta - “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt
I was completely unable to pick any songs out for these contestants this week, but I did suspect that Allison was going to do this one. Bonnie Raitt is such an obvious choice. Too obvious, and that is the problem. Yes, she sang it well ... really well, in fact. As she always does. I liked that she went for a softer ballad, but it was kind of boring. She did nothing to the arrangement to make it particularly unique or uniquely hers. She is competing with Matt, Kris and Danny for a spot in the finale against Adam ... she needs to step up the musicianship a notch. Earlier in the competition, this would have received an even higher mark. From here on out, she needs to be better.
MTME Rating: 4 / 5
Matt Giraud - “Part Time Lover” by Stevie Wonder
"Incredible on every level"? "Unbelievable"? (said Kara) A standing ovation from Paula? "A million times better than last week" (Simon) ... well, that last one's true, but the rest -- ??? I don't think so. This was one overdecorated cake, with no nutritional value whatsoever. A mess of runs, growls, headvoice and falsetto phrases. It was all over the place. It was a good song choice, but he was trying too hard to make it into something much bigger, without actually making it interesting.
MTME Rating: 3.25 / 5
Adam Lambert - “Mad World” by Tears for Fears
Well, how could we be anything but impressed by this after all that came before? The staging was very compelling -- it looked like he was floating in a pool of blue light. Almost as creative as the treatment used in the video for Gary Jules' version of this song (go look it up, it's wonderful); that is, the arrangement that Adam copied virtually note-for-note. If it was the arrangement (or the lack of time), rather than Adam's typically virtuoso vocal performance that led Simon to give him a standing "O", well -- that's unfortunate. I would have liked to have heard some judging commentary around it, to be sure of what, exactly, was leading Simon to that first-in-eight-years moment. Still, it was the best of the night, and the quality of Adam's vocal cannot be denied (despite -- or because? -- he missed the last note, recovered and made it sound like it was intentional). Very clever, very compelling performer.
MTME Rating: 4.5 / 5
Adam 4.5
Allison 4
Anoop 3.5
Kris 3.25
Danny 3.25
Matt 3.25
Lil 2
Scott 1.75
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Maybe I'm just grumpy, so I'll go away and sleep on this......... do let me know what you think. Am I being unduly harsh? Should I just give up and drink the Glambert Koolaid? And the most interesting question: who has the balls to come back next week with something new, fresh, and unique to upstage Adam (and will Adam continue to push himself to the next level?)
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