Tuesday, June 26, 2007

CI Review, 2007/06/26

Okay, firstly, apologies for missing doing a critique of last night's show. I was at my parents' place for the evening and I told myself all day NOT to forget to set up the VCR to time-tape it before I left...and of course, I forgot.

I agreed a whole lot with the judges tonight. There were so many times they said precisely what I was thinking, especially - and this was a shocker - Zack.

Tara

Her nerves seemed to get the best of her tonight. Her voice was weak, pitchy, and lacked breath control. The performance was cutesy and forgettable.

Martha

First, I have to say how I love her looks. She is such a beautiful woman! And she does have a gorgeous voice. But I don't think Idol is the right venue for her. Zack's right, her style/vibe just won't sell records. Musical theatre, sure, especially with all the over-enunciating she does. But this industry? Nope.

Montana

Hello, real deal! I really liked that. She genuinely rocks. Her accent made the phrasing a bit weird for me, but at the end of the day I don't much care. I voted for her 10 times.

Mila

From the interviews I've seen so far, I've got to admit I don't think I like her personality. And I can't BELIEVE she didn't know what Ben's mom's name was. (Sigh.) But holy CRAP, can she perform and SING! I loved it. I voted for her 10 times.

Maud

I didn't get to see the whole thing or the judge's reactions because the baby daughter decided to release two days' worth of stored-up poop into her diaper about 3/4 of the way through it, and I had to hustle her the hell up to the nursery for a change before she leaked all over the living room. However, this seemed verrrry imitative of the original to me...but more off-key. Much more hairbrush-in-front-of-the-mirror than a genuine performance.

Annikke

Again, because of Poop From Hell I missed the beginning, but...OUCH. When she wasn't being drowned out by the band, she was very off-tune. One of the judges called it 'limp' and I agree whole-heartedly.

Naomi-Joy

Was there a tune in there? Zack nailed it when he said it was "in the key of 'HUH?'". She seemed to just bring out every stereotype of what 'a rocker' is without it being genuine at all, and threw in a lot of 'sex kitten' to boot. Yikes.

Christine

TOTAL hairbrush performance. Vocally fine, and in some places actually, vocally very nice...but horribly overplayed.

Scarlett

I actually liked this more than the judges did. I thought her performance was fairly genuine and her voice sounded great. Admittedly, she was doing a lot of comforting-the-baby-at-4am rocking back and forth, and the key change was very strange, but I thought it was decent, especially when you consider that about half the field tonight kind of blew goat. I voted for her twice.

Kalila

Great voice and stage performance. I like how self-possessed she is on stage, it's very pro/star-qualityish. She brought realism and a decent amount of angst to the performance. I liked it. I voted for her 5 times.

Carly Rae

I will admit that a lot of my good opinion of Carly Rae comes from having watched and loved her during the audition process, ESPECIALLY her final solo in top 100 week (holy wow). This performance was not as great. I did like it very much when she was sitting on the stool, it was natural and very good. However, I'm with Zack, once she got up and started prancing around, the real deal vibe came to an end and it turned into Idol cheeze. But I still voted for her 5 times.

Top of the heap

  • Montana
  • Mila

Definitely belong in the top 10

  • Kalila
  • Carly Rae

Decent: Scarlett

Good but doesn't belong here: Martha

Screwed the pooch

  • Tara
  • Maud
  • Annikke
  • Naomi-Joy
  • Christine

Most hilarious moment of the evening goes, hands-down, to Tyler. I can't remember which of the bad performances it was where the camera cut to him right after it wrapped up, but he was sitting there with the BEST horrified-stunned expression on his face. Total gold. :)