Wednesday, May 09, 2007

AI Review, 2007/05/08

Pretty bland evening, overall. But on the upside, Paula was unusually lucid last night, and I loved her suit. Sharp.

Melinda

I thought it was neat that she transformed the first song to really suit her style. Unfortunately, it ended up being pretty lacklustre. I agreed with Simon - for the top 4, I'm looking for people to really bust out, and that wasn't it. Her second song choice was also pretty dull, although she did redeem herself in the second half of the song.

Blake

This week, it was painfully clear that Blake is by far the weakest vocalist left in the competition. What he did have on his side was his fresh style - unfortunately, I don't think he took full advantage of that. I do think the judges were all on crack with his first song, especially Randy with that absurd 'beatboxing is getting old' comment. I think the beatboxing was totally appropriate, I really liked its combination with the disco (as ridiculous as that sounds), and hello, newsflash, Blake IS a beatboxer, that's his freakin' THING. The second song was a great choice, it had a very modern feel. Unfortunately he played it kind of boring, there was a ton more he could have gotten out of it, but he didn't do it.

LaKisha

I liked 'Staying Alive' a whole lot better than the judges. Again, Randy must've been on crack with his criticisms of how she did that off-beat stuff - I thought it helped make the whole thing. Second song was vocally fantastic as usual, but pretty ho-hum.

Jordin

Stand-out winner of the first round. She almost did it again on the second round, but her voice sounded too strained and lacked the effortless soaring of the first performance. Still, I thought she was the most consistently good of the night.

Best in show: Jordin
Possibly vulnerable: Melinda, LaKisha
Definitely vulnerable: Blake

Alas, for a top-4 show that really rocked. Anyone remember how Elliot Yamin TOTALLY pulled it out for this week out last year, and rocketed with surprising ease into the top 3? I miss those days. Sigh.