American Idol

The rebooted American Idol is just fine so far, thank you.  I had thought that Simon Cowell’s absence would be felt more powerfully but, in fact, the new panel of judges acquitted themselves well on the season premiere of the 10^th round of the Idol merry-go-round and Cowell’s absence barely caused a ripple.

I had wondered how the new judges…Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez…would fare in the Idol fishbowl but they both brought welcome new energy to the proceedings.  Tyler was animated, funny, bawdy, tough but compassionate…he seemed to be having fun (as opposed to Cowell who seemed to be bored and going through his “Mr. Nasty” routine by rote over the past couple of seasons.)  Lopez seemed to wrestle with dashing the hopes of some the clueless non-talents the producers let get to the panel but she rallied and she turned out to be a charming and encouraging judge…often looking for something positive to send rejected contestants away with.

And, perhaps dazzled by the star power of J-Lo and Aerosmith’s legendary lead singer, the rejected ones (at least the ones they decided to showcase) went away with less tears and fewer profane tirades than in previous seasons.

Randy Jackson was still Randy Jackson but he, to his credit, tamped down some of the played out hipster routine, seeming to embrace the mantle of the veteran judge on the panel.  And even Ryan Seacrest was not as intrusive as he might have been previously (the “playful” banter between Cowell and Seacrest, which was increasingly annoying with each passing season, will not be missed at all.)

And, most importantly perhaps, there was a nice rapport between the judges (as opposed to the rapport-free interactions of last year’s panel of Jackson, Cowell, Kara DioGuardi, and Ellen Degeneres) and they managed to display personality while still ceding the spotlight to the people trying out for the show.  A delightful and welcome change that.

The success or failure of any given Idol season always comes down to which of the tens of thousands of hopefuls make the cut.  After a few seasons of (mostly) low wattage competitors, season 10 needs to rally and recapture the charm of the early seasons.  None of the 51 people who picked up golden tickets to Hollywood during the New Jersey auditions seemed penciled in for the finale yet (and, frankly, some of them probably wouldn’t have gotten past Cowell to the next round) but it’s still early, of course.

The addition of legendary producer (and Interscope Records honcho) Jimmy Iovine as the ongoing mentor looks to be a huge plus…as does the apparently scraping of Disco night and other changes the producers have used to tweak the Idol formula…and it could add up to a great Idol season.  Maybe...

Glee

This TV season hasn’t been much to speak about for me…American Idol was almost unwatchable (thanks to Crystal Bowersox for doing her best to try to save it)…Heroes died…CSI, 30 Rock, Project Runway, and The Office all limped through uneven, too often tepid seasons.

Thankfully there was Breaking Bad…Mad Men…Parks and Recreation...the first half of Community’s season (they kinda limped to the finish on auto pilot…but they got a lot of goodwill for the amazing Halloween episode and the Troy and Abed shorts at the end of each episode)…Justified…and Glee.

Glee made me happy.

It was sometimes soapy and sometimes silly and sometimes sticky and sentimental…but that was all just fine by me…there were amazing musical numbers…and Madonna songs…and Sue Sylvester…and, most importantly, it made me happy.

Glee couldn’t save the whole season for me…but man, I’m glad it was there…and I’m glad it will be back next season.

American Idol Finale

Not for nothing but the American Idol judges spend the season gassing on about how they want things to fresh and CONTEMPORARY and then, inevitably, they turn the season finale into a march of classic rock golden oldies.

Rod Stewart…Carlos Santana…KISS…Lionel Richie…Cyndi Lauper…Queen Latifah…Steve Martin…Queen…seriously? Look I love most of these folks…but then I’m not in the demographic group the American Idol producers are supposedly going for. I just don’t get it (yeah I know Jason Mraz and Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas and Keith Urban were there too but still…)

ANYWAY, the finale was, as usual, entertaining in spots and incredibly cheesy in a lot of others (they really need to dispense with those stupid “awards”…those folks weren’t funny the first time and bringing them back doesn’t make them any more interesting.)

This season was kind of a hot mess…too many judges (thank you, Kara, but you really didn’t bring anything interesting to the table….we’re already full of pointless, misinformed inanity from our Mr. Jackson…so here are some nice parting gifts), too much distracting nonsense from the judges (folks it’s really supposed to be about the contestants), too many ill-conceived attempts to spice up the show (gee I really hope they bring that “exciting” judges’ save thing back next year…), and, again, a truly lame song that the winner is forced to release as his first single (thanks again, Kara…)

But in the end you had a handful of good performers (take a bow, Adam, Allison, Kris…) and two finalists who deserved to make the cut.

And, perhaps best of all, a winner than flew in the face of all of the blatant pimping that the judges…who seemed to have picked an Adam-Danny finale so many weeks ago that the other contestants must have felt like cannon fodder.

I have been enormously impressed with Adam all season…he may be the most daring artist Idol has ever had (well him and Chris Daughtry)…but Kris was, in a less flashy way, just as artistic and he quietly flew under the judges’ myopic radar and his victory wasn’t really the “incredible upset” that some might label it.

I am interested to hear the record Kris will make (the woeful “No Boundaries” excepted) and I’m also very interested to hear what Adam and Allison will do. Everybody will be fine (and Adam may be better off not having to toe the Idol producers' tone-deaf line...ooo, that was an ugly mixed metaphor, wasn't it? Ah well...:-)

Not the best AI season ever but, in the end, it wasn’t particularly egregious either.

Okay that’s done…bring on So You Think You Can Dance!

Coming Back to You

American Idol has reached the round of 36…a four-week elimination derby, the contestants separated in groups of 12 for three weeks with the fourth week being a wildcard round, with 3 finalists graduating into the final 12 each week. The first dozen didn’t exactly acquit themselves with honor (the next American Idol might be in that group…but at first blush it doesn’t seem likely) and we’re not going to dwell on it.

Instead we’re going to dwell on one of the better CDs to come from a former AI contestant, the long-awaited (by me anyway) collection by the enormously talented Melinda Doolittle (the third place finisher two editions ago.)

Coming Back to You isn’t perfect…the first few tracks have arrangements that seem to be trying to overwhelm Doolittle’s voice (though ends up she holds her own with aplomb)…but it’s pretty damn fine once it gets going…if for no other reason as to show that the “retro soul” thing isn’t solely the province of young British singers these days :-)

The opening “Fundamental Things” is a bit fussy but things pick up a bit with “It’s Your Love”, a rather generic love song given more life than it probably deserves by Melinda’s impassioned voice (the same is true for “Declaration of Love” and the mid-tempo title track which , again, is too fussy with needless horns…Doolittle is a real singer and the producer should have trusted that more rather than piling on unnecessary embellishment like she was some marginally talented pop tart who needed some cover for her lack of vocal chops.)

But things do get interesting. First on a sublime vocal on “The Best of Everything”, the first of 3 Sammy Kahn songs on the album, where Melinda’s soulful voice dominates the arrangement to grand effect. Another Kahn song, “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” is the albums big ballad swimming in strings and muted horns that ably support…rather than try to overwhelm…Doolittle’s luminous vocals.

“Wonderful” is another relatively generic song but, again, the vocal elevates it to a cool, engaging level as it does on the inspirational “I Will Be” and the soaring gospel of “We Will Find a Way”.

And then the righteous Ms. Doolittle tears into a thick slice of blues with her potent reading of Robert Johnson’s feisty and bawdy “Dust My Broom” and makes she makes you want to testify as does so. And later she lets us know that this wasn’t a fluke by dipping into Johnson’s venerated songbook for a funky take on “Walkin’ Blues”.

There is such passion in “If I’m Not in Love” that it sizzles through the speakers…and Melinda conveys that passion without the need to over-sing…as on the rest of the disc, she gives herself over to the song and lets her amazing voice do its thing with style and with a refreshing lack of melodrama (which makes the big note at the end of this track all the more thrilling.)

And at the end it’s just Melinda (sweet and nuanced) and a keyboard (still a bit too high in the mix but only a bit distracting) on the 3^rd Sammy Kahn tune, the lovely “Wonder Why”…a charming and effective wrap up.

Coming Back to You is one of the better efforts from an American Idol alum…and it’s an engaging collection in its own right…it’s all good :-)

American Idol 2009

(Cue Seacrest) : “This…is American Idol!”

And so it begins again. The first episode of Idol ’09 was a bit less exploitive than the freak show weeks usually are. Yes, there were still a parade of untalented…or, occasionally, marginally talented…folks who seem to only want a few moments on television (no matter how foolish they look.)…but the judges seemed less snarky than they have been in previous seasons.

The new judge…songwriter Kara DioGuardi…seemed to fit right in…especially during the staged dustup with the marginally talented, enormously self-satisfied woman who auditioned in a bikini (is she really what passes for “sexy” these days? Man, I’m way out of touch… :-)

Randy Jackson had less aging hipster banter (though I fully expect that it will return in full force as the season progresses), Simon Cowell only seemed to be dishing out half-hearted jibes (ibid.), and Paula Abdul was, for the most part, lucid and sane (kudos to her…though I’m not expecting that to last either.)

Idol has made some cosmetic changes…the fourth judge, lopping off one of the freak show weeks, expanding the Hollywood portion (which will actually be in Hollywood…rather than Pasadena…this year), bringing back the wild card round (without which Clay Aiken wouldn’t have been a contender back in the second season)…but it promises to still be the Idol that we’ve, for better or for worse, come to know.

Me, I’m probably going to skip most of the rest of the freak show/audition rounds (tonight and for the next two Wednesdays PBS is showing an intriguing 6-hour documentary on comedy...Make 'em Laugh: The Funny Business of America... that sounds MUCH more interesting than watching deluded wannabe stars butchering Stevie Wonder and Mariah Carey songs) and check back in when they get to Hollywood.

American Idol

I’ve become a less patient, less forgiving TV viewer as I grow older. There are simply too many other ways to entertain oneself to allow yourself to remain loyal to a program which has, for one reason or another, lost or squandered your trust.

This list of currently running shows that I used to like but which I am no longer watching seems to grow longer every month. I have broken ties with these shows and have no desire to reconnect (even when I am told, by critics or whomever, that they’ve gotten better and/or “returned to form”)…however “unfair” it might seem, once you’ve lost me you’ve probably lost me for good.

Lost is one show which has indeed…um…lost me, for example (it got to have too much nonsense, too many pointless new characters, and too many annoying, seemingly purposefully-frustrating teases.) Other former TV viewing flames that I’ve broken up with include Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives (both got way too silly and way too soapy for me) as well as Survivor and The Amazing Race (both of which suffered from a tired, overly-familiar formulas…once you’ve been to the well a few times there’s really nothing new to discover… and bad casting…which is, of course, the kiss of death for a “reality” show.)

As I slough through the current season I beginning to seriously feel that American Idol is about to join the list.

I used to really enjoy Idol…it was a show where talent was the key (more or less) and where there was a real opportunity to be part of the discovery of a potentially great new talent. As a fan of both pop music and television, it was something of a thrill to watch precociously talented singers…Kelly, Tamyra, Ruben, Clay, Kimberley, Fantasia, Diana, Bo, and Carrie among others…soar and stumble on their way to the finals.

But this season has been so relentlessly un-engaging that I’m not feeling any magic from the show. The judges aren’t even pretending to seriously involved in what’s going on and instead have become chariatures (Randy babbles hipster nonsense, Paula babbles about how wonderful and good looking the contestants are, and Simon sits there waiting to throw out a “witty” zingers.) Ryan Seacrest has allowed himself to be turned into a grinning, insincere sadist gleefully jerking around the contestants in the name of “suspense” and ratings. And the producers’ ideas of keeping things fresh include a barrage of overlong results shows, a soulless new set, and an exceedingly tiresome call-in segment.

And the contestants (see top 8 above, Michael and Kristy have been voted off), though most of them have had moments during the course of the season, are simply not that interesting. They’re all talented…to one degree or another…but none of them is making me long to buy a CD or a concert ticket from them.

And not being engaged in the season, I have no idea who’s going to win…and I don’t really care. David Archuleta was the early favorite but it seems like David Cook is now he one to beat (though, like Chris Daughtry and Elliott Yamin before him, he might be better served by NOT winning rather than having to try sell some producer-endorsed treacle like “This is my Now”.)

Maybe what Idol needs is to take some time off…let absence make the heart grow fonder…but, of course, they’re not going to do that as long as it continues to be a cash cow (which, despite sliding viewership, it still is.)

Or maybe Idol’s time is just done…if not for the public at least for this one impatient and unforgiving one-time fan. As they say here on the interweb, your mileage may vary :-)

American Idol Top 12

This year’s American Idol top 12 have met the Lennon-McCartney songbook and they have, for the most part, lived to tell the tale (actually most of these songs are so well-written that any halfway decent singer would have to really go out of their way to screw them up…though, that said, Kristy Lee Cook, David Hernandez, and David Archuletta all managed to do exactly that.)

Let me once again state for the record that is not, as the host and the judges (and the producers) keep trying to convince us, the best group of AI finalists “ever”. They’re a talented enough bunch but, as a group, they’re certainly not head and shoulders over the standard set by the previous groups of finalists: season 1 (Kelly Clarkson, Tamyra Gray, Justin Guarini, Nikki McKibbin, Ryan Starr, Christina Christian), season 2 (Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Kimberley Locke, Josh Gracin, Kimberly Caldwell, Trenyce), season 3 (Fantasia, Diana DeGarmo, Jennifer Hudson, LaToya London, Jasmine Trias, George Huff, John Stevens), season 4 (Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice, Vonzell Solomon, Nadia Turner, Anthony Federov, Constantine Maroulis), season 5 (Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks, Katherine McPhee, Elliott Yamin, Paris Bennett, Mandisa, Kellie Pickler, Ace Young), and season 6 (Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis, Melinda Doolittle, LaKisha, Chris Richardson, Phil Stacey, Chris Sligh).

That said, the first performance night on the big stage (the new set is too busy and kind of ugly actually) showed some of the current cast stepping into contention while others kind of belly flopped.

Personally, I’ve got a fondness for the laid back Jason Castro (his take on “If I Fell” was charming)…I have no idea if he can go the distance but I like him.

Young front runner David Archuletta was a disaster on “We Can Work it Out” but he is still a strong contender with his lovely voice and his “aw shucks” demeanor. Kristy Lee Cook’s ghastly hyperactive country hoedown version of “Eight Days a Week” (I loved how Paula Abdul told her that the contestants shouldn’t take the judges’ suggestions so literally) and David Hernandez’s lounge-tastic stumble through “I Saw Her Standing There” dropped their long-term prospects while Syesha Mercado hit the triple whammy by having to go first, being off-key, and dropping a totally unmemorable version of Earth, Wind, & Fire’s arrangement of “Got to Get You into my Life”.

I think that Carly Smithson over-sings everything (she bludgeoned “Come Together” into submission last night) but she has a strong voice and good stage presence and she should go far in the competition.

I like the bluesy/growly rock chick thing that Amanda Overmyer does but I’m not sure if it will serve her well in some of the theme shows that AI throws at the singers (a disco night would be hell for her as will, I suspect, the week when Mariah Carey is the mentor.)

The judges seem to like David Cook but I don’t get it myself (like Smithson, he over-sings everything and doesn’t really connect with the lyrics he’s singing…”Eleanor Rigby” was a case in point) and Brooke White has a nice voice and an earnest charm….both of them seem likely to stick around for a while.

Who’s going to be the first of the finalists to be serenaded off by “Celebrate Me Home” (as sung by season 2 champ Ruben Studdard)? I don’t know…my guess would be Syesha but we shall see (and we shall update this entry after the results show.)

* * * * *

So it was David Hernandez...this year's "controversial" contestant...who got the boot. I was a bit surprised but I guess I shouldn't have been.

And next week, according to Seacrest, more Lennon-McCartney songs. I can't remember them using the same theme two weeks running but I guess that John and Paul's songs are more than worthy of that distinction.

American Idol 7: Semi-Final Round

Oh my. The shtick really has calcified hasn’t it? The principals on American Idol really are phoning it in and they’re not even bothering to pretend that they’re not.

Let’s see now: Ryan Seacrest as the preening ass who thinks he’s much wittier than he is? Check.

Randy Jackson as the goofy over-aged “hipster” who hasn’t a clue how far removed he is from being as cool as he imagines he is? Check.

Paula Abdul playing the role of the den mother desperately trying to organize her sunny comments into something coherent but failing at that more often than not? Check.

And Simon Cowell…so bored with the proceedings that he spends his time playing bratty brother to Abdul and then trotting out the same old tired put-downs? Check.

Add to that the fact that they made the singers do songs from the sixties (except for the one kid who did “Jailhouse Rock” which no one seemed to notice was a hit in 1957) and then had the judges (mostly Cowell) whine about the fact that the songs were not “relevant to today”.

They keep telling us that the top 24 talent this year is the best ever but none of the performances proved that out (they were mostly bland, inoffensive, and, yes Simon, forgettable...hopefully the women will show something more) and the rote interactions between the judges and the host have gone past annoying right into utterly predictable and completely boring.

Perhaps this season’s Idol will pick up steam as it moves along…maybe they’ll, as Randy would doubtlessly say, “work it out”… but at this point I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, dawg.

* * * * *

2/21 addendum:

The ladies were a little better as a group than the guys were the night before...but nobody thus far has jumped out as someone who would put out a CD that I would be rushing out to buy. We'll chalk it up to first week jitters and hope that the contestants will start living up to Seacrest's incessant claim that they are the best Idol semi-finalists ever. We shall see.

American Idol 7

It’s back.... It’s been a mixed bag for American Idol alumni over the past year…some have had extraordinary success on the charts (Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood), one became an Oscar winner (Jennifer Hudson), another made a big splash on Broadway (Fantasia) while, on the other hand, others have had relatively tepid sales of their newest CDs (Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Katherine McPhee, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis with Studdard, McPhee, and Hicks all losing their major label contracts)…but with the ongoing writers’ strike crippling television production, the return of the show itself is a godsend for both fans and the Fox TV network.

Idol began its 7^th cycle with “been there, done that” efficiency…Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Ryan Seacrest (see above) could phone in their opening round comments and expressions now (and in the 2-hour season premiere that’s basically what they did)…and the early episode parade of would be William Hungs is also extremely familiar (though, that said, the two Star Wars geeks…um, I mean “fans”… and the guy who sang the song about stalking were especially sad and disturbing…is being on TV really so important to some people that they are willing to willfully make themselves the butt of jokes in front of millions of viewers? Apparently so…)

Some of the people who got the “Welcome to Hollywood!” shout showed promise but, as usual, most of the folks who make the final cut before fans start voting will probably not get much (if any) screen time until the Hollywood round begins in earnest.

Idol remains a television juggernaut despite a mildly disappointing 6^th season (producers swear that this cycle there will be less emphasis on mentors and guest performers and more emphasis on the contestants which is a good thing) and with the strike it seems poised to be an bigger player on the small screen this year (even if no one picks up the mantle of Sanjaya :-)

Once they get through the freak show rounds, things will doubtlessly pick up and Idol will carry us through the spring in an entertaining fashion.

The Next Great American Band

The good folks at American Idol have decided to try to find The Next Great American Band in a AI-style competition complete with a perky host (Dominic Bowden, host of New Zealand Idol…who is much less insufferable than Ryan Seacrest actually), celebrity judges dishing out praise and support (Sheila E. and Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls), and the apparently requisite snarky, “brutally honest” judge with an non-American accent (in this case Australian record industry vet, Ian Dickson who answers to…and tries desperately to live up to…the nickname of “Dicko”.)

The auditions, held in the desert (110 in the shade) next to Lake Las Vegas for some reason, also followed the pattern of having talented bands interspersed with oddballs brought in to give the judges (and the viewers) something to roll their eyes at.

Overall, the 2-hour premiere was...okay. Not great but okay. In the end, it’s about the music. The judges winnowed through all of the bands and have picked 12 who will start competing for America’s vote starting next week.

Is the “next great American band” going to come out of this? I dunno…I doubt it…but, that said, stranger things have happened in the music industry (especially in the state of flux the industry is in right now.) But, that said, some of the bands are pretty good…I rather liked the tight country pop band Sixwire, the great country/gospel trio the Clark Brothers, the rocking funk band Franklin Bridge, and the rockers Dot Dot Dot myself…and all of them have potential so the competition should be entertaining (and may the most popular…and hopefully the best…band wins once America gets to start letting their fingers do the voting.)

Hey Paula

What a waste of time. It’s not that I expected this show to be good…far from it…but I was hoping that it would be at least interesting (if only in the train wreck sense like Being Bobby Brown or Breaking Bonaduce…being actually fun and engaging like Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List was way too much to ask from a show about Paula Abdul) but it is not. It is the worst thing one of these innumerable celebrity reality shows can be: dull and totally uninteresting.

I’m not sure why Abdul decided to let cameras follow her in “real life” but the result is so stilted, so staged, and so mind-numbing that it can’t do anything to help her loopy image.

If the point was to let us see how she’s a loopy, pretentious (I’m sure she hugs her maid all the time when the cameras aren’t on), shallow c-list diva (complete with a seemingly incompetent entourage of assistants), then mission accomplished.

Hey Paula is scheduled for 6 episodes and, hopefully, that will be that (we get more than enough Paula lunacy during American Idol…that’s all of the Abdul crazy we need during any given year.)

My December

After all of the static flowing between Kelly Clarkson…championing her right to artistic expression…and Clive Davis, the president of her record company…wanting to make sure one of his biggest stars continues to churn out platinum sales and radio-friendly hits….all that really matters is the music.

And that music…My December…makes a case for both of their arguments. Clarkson co-wrote all of the songs (one report has Davis offering Clarkson a boatload of money if she would pull 5 tracks off the album and replace them with songs that Davis would find for her, an offer she is said to have declined out of hand) and she was in a kind of dark, angry place when they were written…the first three songs (including the first single, “Never Again”) are angry rockers that rail against wrongs done her. Kelly’s voice is strong and easily holds its own with the snarling guitars.

The bittersweet ballad “Sober”, underpinned by acoustic guitar, continues the confessional tone (…three months and I’m still sober…) of the CD building to an emotional mid-tempo crescendo. “Don’t Waste Your Time” has the pop-rock hook I imagine Davis was looking for more of but, again, the lyrical content is not exactly hopeful.

As the title implies, the throbbing rocker “Judas” is about betrayal. It has a propulsive beat that draws you in even as the bite of the lyrics makes you glad the song wasn’t written about you. There are similar hooks to the sassy “Yeah” (with a synthesizer figure that evokes the sound of horns to fine effects) and “How I Feel”.

“Be Still”, a gentle ballad, takes a more hopeful stance and it sounds like it could be a hit to me (but what do I know?) On “Maybe”, another guitar-driven ballad that kicks into a mid-tempo groove halfway through, Kelly turns her gaze inward for some self-exploration and a hope for love in the future; “Can I Have a Kiss”, a crunchy power ballad, uses the whisper-to-a-controlled-scream thing nicely.

“Irvine”, a lovely bittersweet lullaby features the most subtle vocal on the disc. (The cheeky “hidden track”…man, I hate that hidden track stuff…”Chivas” throws in a bit of fun at the end.)

The online versions of the disc end with the acerbic “Dirty Little Secret” and two remixes (one for radio, one for clubs) of “Never Again”.

There is a yearning, assertive, and very adult sensibility to the songs on My December…which I think is Clarkson’s best record to date…that eschews teen pop for the sound of a rockin' singer-songwriter following her muse down whatever dark paths it will take her. I can see where Davis would be worried that there were no “hits” (at first blush, seems unlikely that this record will match the sales of her last one but I presume that Clarkson isn’t worried overmuch about that trusting that enough of her fans will be willing to follow her into new musical territory) but I give Clarkson props for sticking to her guns and putting out the record she wanted to…a record that shows that her growth as an artist is continuing in powerful and occasionally thrilling ways.

American Idol Finale

Well the finale was…interesting.

It’s funny, Simon spent a large percentage of the season complaining that some of the contestants…Melinda and, especially, Jordin…were singing songs that were old and/or old-fashioned and then the finale was packed to the gills with veteran performers.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Gladys Knight, Tony Bennett, Bette Milder, and Smokey Robinson…they’re legendary performers all but they’re hardly on the radar of the demographic that American Idol intends to try to sell records to. (That said, Smokey showed the top 6 guys how it was done and Gladys did the same for the top 6 girls.)

Doug E. Fresh? Dude, I’m glad that Blake got to go hog wild beatboxing (he looked to be totally into it) and with Doug E. Fresh no less (nothing says modern music like a beatboxing battle with Doug E. Fresh!)

And what possessed Joe Perry to play with Sanjaya on another craptastic performance of “You Really Got Me”?

The gospel number with Melinda and BeBe and CeCe Winans was rousing and the African Children’s Choir was adorable again.

Gwen Stefani made yet another half-hearted AI appearance but Green Day’s performance of “Working Class Hero” (with a snippet of John Lennon’s vocal at the end) was very cool

It was cool that all of the former Idol winners showed up to perform (except for Fantasia, who had the excuse of performing on Broadway…to glowing reviews apparently… in The Color Purple)…and to acquit themselves well (Kelly’s new single was interesting and Ruben and Jordin made a fine duet…Ruben was one of the few guys on the show this season that Jordin didn’t tower over :-)

I could have done without Clive Davis gassing on…and the Golden Idol thing was lame (save the freak show contestants for prelims and leave it at that.)

They finally got those clearances for the Beatles songs as they opened with Blake and Jordin doing an awkward “I Saw Her Standing There” (get it? …”well she was just 17”…) and then the show finished with the big Kelly-to-Taylor-to- Carrie-to-Ruben-to-the-Season-6-Top-12 Sgt. Pepper medley (I thought they might be leading to that long-rumored Paul McCartney appearance but that didn’t happen.)

And after more than 2 hours (including about 137 commercials) : The envelope please…yadda, yadda, yadda…74 zillion votes…yadda, yadda, yadda…and the winner is Jordin Sparks! Hugs all around…come on, Jordin, sing the tepid winner’s tune so we can go home (they held a songwriting contest and this song was the best they could find? It’s better than “Do I Make You Proud”, “I Believe”, or “Inside Your Heaven” in what way?)

All in all, this was not American Idol’s finest season and the finale, like the rest of the season, followed the pattern of pushing aside the current contestants in favor of letting big name guest-stars monopolize the spotlight. Hopefully next season they’ll retool…better casting, more emphasis on the contestants, less camera-hogging nonsense from the host and the judges…and come back better than ever. We shall see come January.

American Idol

It’s not at all a surprise to me that Melinda Doolittle is not in the American Idol finals. She was, and is, my favorite contestant this season (and she’s arguably the best pure singer to be on the show thus far…no disrespect intended to stellar former contests such as Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia, Tamyra Gray, Clay Aiken, and others) but I never imagined that she could win out.

Her appeal, for one thing, skews older than the target market for Idol and the producers would not have known how to market her had she won. Hopefully her third place finish will allow her to make the record she wants to make while the AI producers spend their time and attention crafting music for and with Jordin and/or Blake (kind of the way it worked out with Chris Daughtry who’s had a pretty good run with his CD.)

Jordin and Blake…both of whom I also liked a great deal this season…were the logical ones to be in the finals (especially after the Sanjaya hubbub died down.

This has been an interesting year for Idol…long on talent, short on personality (save, of course, for the aforementioned Sanjaya), and, yes, a little bit…dull. The judges and the host have settled into a sometimes annoying rut with their actions, reactions, and antics (Seacrest has been especially insufferable this season while the others seem to be doing the show on automatic pilot) and the bloated results shows have proven eminently skippable. Some of the celebrity mentors stepped up to the plate in a serious way (big props to Jennifer Lopez, Tony Bennett, Martina McBride, Lulu, Jon Bon Jovi) while others just phoned it in (yes, I’m looking at you, Gwen Stefani) but it still added up to not much at all.

I expect no dazzling revelations from the finale (if pressed I’d predict that Jordin is going to win but truth to be told it could go either way) but it should be a fairly entertaining show.

I’m sure the producers will be more careful with their casting of the next edition of Idol…we’ll all find out come January ’08.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Based on a True Story

I am a big Kimberley Locke fan…her 2^nd season American Idol run (where she came in third behind Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken) was grand and her first CD had some fine moments…and so I had high hopes for her second collection.

It’s not bad…Locke has a strong, enormously appealing voice…but it’s front-loaded with too much faceless, paint-by-numbers pop that doesn’t linger long after the music stops playing.

The first three cuts…”Change”, “Any Which Way”, and “Trust Myself”…are all soaring pop-rock ballads complete with generic guitar riffs (the music occasionally threatens to swamp Locke but she is, for the most part, able to hold off that particular threat without allowing her voice to resort to screaming to be heard) and earnest vocals. It’s almost like Kimberley is trying to go for the Kelly Clarkson vibe but it doesn’t really fit her that well.

“Supawoman” throws the contemporary R&B curve and, again, it’s okay but not really anything we haven’t heard a hundred times before. The dance number “Doin’ it Tonite” is pleasant enough while it’s playing but in the end it’s unremarkable and unmemorable. “Friend Like You”, on the other hand, has a fairly tight hook that keeps the guitars down in the mix and it really works.

Things pick up nicely on the second half. The big Faith Hill-style ballad, “Fall”, is very nicely sung and the mid-tempo groove on “Talk About Us” is sweetly funky.

“You Don’t Have to Be Strong” has the most passionate, soulful vocal on the disc and the bouncy, hopeful “Everyday Angels” has an appealing gospel flavor. The CD wraps up with a nod to her AI days with a fine cover of “Band of Gold”.

Based on a True Story is a good, but not great, record. Here’s hoping that Kimberley shows more personality (and keeps the session guys better reined in) next time and really gives us something to shout about.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Simpsons Judging American Idol

My girl Lisa does a killer Paula Abdul :-)

Sanjaya Malakar and American Idol

Reality TV shows…from The Real World to Survivor to American Idol…rise or fall on the strength of their casting. Put the right mix of personalities together and you can create television magic; make the wrong choices and you can…and will…create television that is hard to slough through.

From the standpoint of putting on a television show, the Idol judges and producers dropped the ball for the most part this season. Don’t get me wrong, some of this year’s contestants are very, very talented…I would buy a CD by Melinda Doolittle tomorrow (while acknowledging that her jazzy singing is probably better suited to the tastes of old duffers like myself rather than the young whippersnappers that Idol producers, and music mogul Clive Davis, want to appeal to) and I like Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks a lot as well (most of the others still in the running all have had their moments as well)…but as television personalities they don’t bring any of the spark that some past Idol contestants brought to the proceedings.

In terms of making a buzz-worthy show, the producers and the judges made only two spot on picks: Antonella Barba and, yes, Sanjaya Malakar. Antonella was the breakout publicity magnet of the early part of the season thanks to the racy photos of her (real and faked) all over the net but she turned into a deer in the headlights onstage as the controversy increased and the judges got snarkier and the viewers mercifully put her out of her misery.

Young Mr. Malakar, on the other hand, has wholeheartedly embraced his turn in the spotlight with an unflagging smile and a dazzling array of hairstyles…he hasn’t allowed his own tepid vocals or the withering scorn of the judges daunt him even a little and he has, in the process, become a pop culture touchstone. No other Idol contestant has stirred up such a passionate firestorm this season…and no other Idol contestant’s name has been on the lips of folks like Howard Stern, Hilary Clinton, and David Letterman (who had the guy who created the infamous Vote for the Worst site on his show last night.) No other contestant has been regularly featured on pop culture shows like The Soup and Best Week Ever. (Even NBC’s Nightly News gave over several of their precious minutes to a feature on Sanjaya a couple of weeks ago.)

Like him or loathe him, you cannot deny the fact that Sanjaya is the face of this season of American Idol (that this apparently irks the judges…especially Simon…is silly since they and the producers are the ones who put him on the show in the first place) and if and when he is voted off there will be precious little that anyone will be talking about when it comes to this season of the show. From a pop culture standpoint, it is indeed, for a brief season anyway, the world of Sanjaya and we’re all just living in it.

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Wednesday night addendum: For some American Idol fans, their long nightmare is over. Sanjaya is gone...just in time for "Idol Pats Itself on the Back"...I mean, "Idol Gives Back"...and somewhere Howard Stern and the Vote for the Worst folks are weeping bitter tears in their beer :-) And so it goes.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Elliott Yamin

The discs released by the 5^th season American Idol contestants have been a mixed bag thus far: Taylor Hicks’ eponymous CD was okay but not especially remarkable and (despite a favorable initial reaction on my part) Katherine McPhee’s collection didn’t hold up on repeated listenings; Chris Daughtry’s record, on the other hand, does easily bear up to repeated plays.

And then there’s the scrappy R&B crooner Elliott Yamin. Elliott Yamin sounds like a lost soul album (complete with tasty mid-tempo grooves, smartly arranged backing vocals, and a prominent role for the keyboards) from the 70’s…from the hitmaking heydays of Yamin’s idols Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway…and that’s, for the most part, a very fine thing.

Yamin is in fine, confident voice throughout this disc and the best tracks…the percolating opener “Movin’ On”, the hopeful “Find a Way” (which slyly quotes Stevie Wonder’s “Heaven Help Us All”), the shimmering self-affirmation/pledge of devotion “I’m the Man”, the dance floor ready “Alright” (complete with the kind of rhythmic handclaps that would make Quincy Jones proud)…soar and delight.

Even on the songs that are lyrically awkward…and there are a few here (some over-written, trying to cram too many lyrics in; some under-written, with goopy sentiments that could have used rewrites)…Yamin works like a champ to try to sell them; he doesn’t always succeed but the sincere effort is definitely appreciated.

The closer, the oft-covered “A Song for You”, features just Yamin’s yearning vocal and a piano and it’s an affecting and undeniably soulful finish to the record.

Elliott Yamin is not a perfect CD…but there’s enough to the good here to make it a fine R&B album that hints at even greater things to come from the irrepressible Mr. Yamin.

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More MKW blogstuff: Bread & Roses

American Idol

And then there were 11.

With Sanjaya being protected from on high for the time being (some are blaming young female American Idol fans besotted with young Mr. Malakar’s “cuteness” factor…some are blaming the impish snarky [and increasingly infamous] “Vote for the Worst” site which has adopted him as their candidate to push as far through the competition as possible), the fact that Brandon Rogers (above) was the first ejected from the top 12 wasn’t really a surprise (it certainly didn’t help that some of Brandon’s performances have had a tepid wedding singer quality to them and that he stumbled over the lyrics of “You Can’t Hurry Love”…)

Because of that the results show was anti-climatic…and not very entertaining (the opening group number was a big hunk of badly choreographed cheese…the contestants' Ford commercial was odd…and Diana Ross’ performance of “More Today Than Yesterday” was, in AI speak, “pitchy” and, “if I’m being honest”, more than a bit “cabaret”.)

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In other “news”, Paula Abdul swears that Simon Cowell is a “really good friend” and that during the show Cowell is like a bratty brother always doing things to try to throw her off. Between that and the “nod, nod, wink, wink, come out of the closet” on-air banter between Cowell and Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday’s show (dutifully rebroadcast at the top of Thursday’s show) I guess it must be one big lovefest there on the AI set.

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Chris Sligh, AI’s favorite (well except apparently when he’s trying to run a Diana Ross song through an ill-fitting Coldplay filter) rockin’ moptop, has a CD out already. Take a Chance on Something Beautiful is by Half Past Forever, a rockin’ band featuring Sligh as lead singer and songwriter. Samples are available on the HPF website (see here) and it’s available on Amazon.

American Idol Top 12

And then there were 12. Antonella Barba is out, Sanjaya Malakar is in…Sundance is out (started out strong in the prelims but went off the rails during Hollywood week and never really completely righted himself), Jordin is in (too bubbly and cute…in a precociously Amazonian way [it’s admittedly petty but I love the way she makes Seacrest look so small]…to not make the cut.) America has spoken and the 12 American Idol finalists are chosen.

Melinda Doolittle, Stephanie Edwards, Gina Glocksen, Lakisha Jones, Blake Lewis, Sanjaya Malakar, Chris Richardson, Brandon Rogers, Haley Scarnato, Chris Sligh, Jordin Sparks, Phil Stacey…in a few weeks time one of these folks will be “your American Idol!”

Yes, as a group the women in the top 24 pretty much smoked the men during the semi-final rounds but that doesn’t necessarily assure a female winner. There’s a certain rhythm to American Idol seasons: at some point there will be a “shocking!” elimination (maybe Lakisha) and, of course, there will be somebody who skates through for a while even though the online buzz will be full of complaints about how much they don’t deserve to be there (um…maybe Sanjaya this year?)

Who’s gonna win? I don’t know…I’m rubbish at predicting this thing at this point in the competition. I like Melinda, LaKisha, Stephanie, Chris S., and Blake but I don’t have really horse in the race (I stopped voting two seasons ago.)

Game on, kids…and hey good luck with Miss Ross next week :-)