Music To My Ears: The Rock Cream Rises To The Top

Rock 'n roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear. ~Frank Sinatra

It's only rock 'n roll, but I like it. ~Jagger and Richards

From Rat Pack week to rock 'n roll: could there be a greater contrast? Probably not, but one thing is for sure: whether it's classic standards or classic rock, it's all about ATTITUDE.

Rock is not just a genre or a music style, it's a personality. It's a lifestyle. You can't act it, finesse it, technique your way through it, or fake it. You either have it, or you don't. Tonight, the two with the rock 'n roll spirit soared and the two without struggled, just about like we all expected.

First, I hold my cell phone and glowstick high for:

- Ricky Minor and the band: THEY ROCKED!!!

- the Idol crew and especially, stage manager Debbie Williams, who was badly hurt in this afternoon's accident. Speedy recovery!

- Danny, Allison, Kris and Adam who performed without the benefit of a dress rehearsal

- Slash, for giving the Top 4 a rock 'n roll experience of a lifetime

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Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin
Adam was up first, for the first time. This was the first performance that I truly felt Adam was connected to himself, and not "acting". In fact, he seemed to almost UNDERperform this. He barely moved on stage! Even so, there was a head toss and a sneer that he kept doing that betrayed something ... a self-consciousness, perhaps. A bit of posing. I never really bought Adam being a straight up, heavy metal, hard-ass rocker, no sirree bub. He has the voice for it, but that broadway background puts a veneer over his performances that saps them of the true rocker spirit that is needed. Glam rock maybe, something with the right level of drama. But not dirt. Not out-and-out raw sexuality. And that's what this song is ... ("gonna give you every inch of my love"). His strength is in the kind of weird, emotional, dramatic place where he can do the vocal calisthenics in a controlled way -- the Mad Worlds and the Tracks of My Tears places. I did LOVE the a capella piece of it--compared to last week's sustained power/glory note, THIS was a much better demonstration of vocal control and power. He brought the right tension and angst to it. At that moment, he had the audience in the palm of his hand. One thing that truly distressed me: the line "woman ... you need love ........." Wow, that so didn't work. But that line is so much a part of the song, he couldn't change it. Can you say rock ... and a hard place? MTME Rating: 4.5 / 5

And PS: I thought it was EXTREMELY unfair for Simon to reference back to this performance throughout the evening.

Allison Iraheta - "Cry Baby" by Janis Joplin

She was considering Somebody to Love -- the Jefferson Starship song, not the Queen one, as she clarified. Allison doing Grace Slick, like I've been asking for all season long??? That woulda been freakin' AWESOME! What was she talking about that it had been done before -- no it hasn't!! Oh, CC is sad. Very sad. I love Janis, but Allison would've totally rocked with Grace Slick.

Not only that, but I'm with all of the judges who said that this might not have been the song to pick. It has very little energy. It's a little too slow and meandering in the verses, and then the chorus is just that great, distinctive "cry baby" bellow. But there's no real melody or lyric to grab hold of, so it was hard for Allison to sink her teeth into it and get that rocker attitude going. She works the stage well, but she didn't have enough lyric or melody to emote with. She got to put some flair into the phrasing, but it wasn't enough. Her backtalk to the judges showed more rock 'n roll spirit than the song did! Thank goodness for that last duet for Adam, because based on this performance alone, I would have ended up being very disappointed in Allison on a week where she should have blown me away. :( MTME Rating: 3.85 / 5

Kris and Danny Duet - "Renegade" by Styx
It was painful to watch these two attempt to be rockers. Classic example that you can sing the tune, dress the part, carry the mic the right way ... but it's still ALL WRONG. Now, having said that ... those harmonies were gorgeous. I mean, GORGEOUS. On their separate vocals, it was a disaster. Danny sounded breathless and Kris was reaching and missing notes and phrasing. But, what was wayyyyy worse, was watching the body language between the two of them. Not only were neither comfortable with themselves, but they were clearly uncomfortable with each other. They couldn't even LOOK at each other, and made only cursory contact at the end. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during their rehearsals. Let's pretend this never happened.

Kris Allen - "Come Together" by the Beatles

And then, poor Kris ... to have to go on and do his solo next, especially right after Simon gave the duet to Danny. (hello, bus. Meet Kris. Kris, meet the bus.) And then Ryan (Ryan, what were you thinking!) decided to remind Kris of that fact right before he did Come Together. Hmmmm ... The Beatles, not my first choice for a Slash-style rock song, but Kris picked something he could actually work with (this was a better pick than Revolution--he couldn't have done that primal yell, and at least knew better than Gokey to even try). This was a subtly brilliant, or brilliantly subtle, song choice by Kris.

I did flash back to Carly Smithson singing this, but Kris did a different treatment entirely. And you know what (yes, I AM biased!), but geez ... I really liked this! First, I can't understand a darn word of this song no matter who sings it, it's completely absurd lyrically, but I enjoyed Kris's phrasing and I liked the way he punctuated (not enunciated, but punctuated) the a capella lyric bits, which are so very edgy: "Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease" among others. Kris always picks songs with great words, which maybe is not the rock 'n roll way, but it's something I appreciate. I also loved the low a capella section near the end: "He bag production he got walrus gumboot / He got Ono sideboard / he one spinal cracker" (seriously, WTF?!? it makes NO sense and I. Love. It.) Also, I liked him playing his guitar. I thought he did a typical Kris thing, which was to skew his song choice to make the genre fit him, instead of betraying his style to fit in to the genre. He is in trouble, but if he goes, he won't be going out on a bad performance. MTME Rating: 4 / 5

Danny Gokey - "Dream On" by Aerosmith

First, let's talk about the breathing. He was off in the duet with Kris, and he was off here. And it was distracting!! It. Almost. Sounded like. This. Also, not sure what area of the U.S. you are from when you pronounce the word "true" as "treeeyiuuu". Can anyone help out a Canuck here? So: song choice. I could barely tolerate it when Michael did it last year, but seriously Gokey, what were you thinking? I cannot believe that Kris is going to get eliminated, when at least Kris picked a song that was suited for a non-rocker, and Danny is going to sail through on this, you watch.

Bottom line: this was a mess from top to bottom. He shouldn't have picked this song, didn't sing it well, and didn't bring anything original to it. Finally, there was that ... that ... thing at the end that he did. With his voice. Or perhaps voices. I'm pretty sure there were a couple of other personalities sharing that note at the end. Perhaps an exorcism is in order. MTME Rating: 2.5 / 5

Allison and Adam Duet - "Slow Ride" by Foghat

Duelling rockers to end the show. They genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves, and the positive energy they generated was engaging and uplifting. Everything a rock finale needs to be (finale, there I said it. Could I just hope for it? Please?)

I liked this duet better than each of their individual performances. Everything about this was the opposite of the Kris/Danny duet: Adam and Allison, who have been splitting votes all season long, and who had the greatest opportunity (and reason) to seize the brass ring individually, both showed the generosity of spirit to allow each other to shine in the duet. They kicked butt on their solos, but shared the spotlight with each other, putting the overall performance and the audience's enjoyment, not their own egos or aspirations, first. That's not solely because each is more comfortable in the genre. I give Adam full credit here (because Allison is still a little too young and goofy to be doing this consciously): there is nothing I admire and respect more than someone who is good, who knows he is good, who has the humility and generosity of spirit to allow someone else to shine instead of selfishly needing to steal the spotlight all for himself. That ends up making BOTH people look better. It is a mark of maturity, of artistic integrity and of class.

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MTME Rankings:

Adam: 4.5

Kris: 4

Allison: 3.85

Danny: 2.5