One Week Left

Well, this evening was rather surprising.

Dilana is way off my list. She's too affected by outside elements. She's still tripping on stuff that happened weeks ago, feeling like she's getting shafted or something. You say you screwed up the lyrics on "Psycho Killer" last week? Well, people have been screwing up famous lyrics right and left on this show, and half the 15-year-olds in that audience aren't going to know anyway, and half the audience at home thought it was some kind of zany choice! Saying you screwed up the lyrics was probably more of a screwup than actually screwing them. Up. Got it? So shut up already.

And I have to say I think it's a pretty stupid idea to write a song about how the internet fans are so terribly judgmental and cutting when you're still on a show where they're voting on the contestants. "It was about people on the internet who vote for us, you know, the fans. It was basically a 'fuck you' kind of song." Ah, brilliant. And no, that wasn't the song she sang as her original, although it had a similar theme. Which is a little unsettling, because it sounds like she's got a whole bunch of paranoid, "I'm being judged!" songs. Kind of weird.

I also really want to know how you can be over 30, supposedly into music, and not know "Behind Blue Eyes"? She sang it decently. But shockingly, she lost some of her usual growl (which by this time I thought was permanent), and she actually sounded a little plain, poppy, and cheesy. All the good stuff in the performance came from the strength of the song, nothing to do with her. With anyone who can sing it, that song will come off sounding beautiful.

There is something about Dilana that I really like, and I would like to hear a woman with her voice on the radio, singing genuine rock. But I don't know if it's the pressure that's making her seem like kind of a flipout or what, but she's just not appearing stable. She also doesn't seem to have a really creative mind, as Gilby pointed out. The lyrics to her original song were pretty plain and boring. What was up with the torn calf muscle thing? How could she get up and move around like that? Whatever.

I thought Magni's version of "Back in the USSR" was awful. Lifeless and rather pointless. I don't know what was wrong with him. It sounded like he was imitating Elvis, and totally lazy about it! He walked around like a famous singer who was asked to come do a quick song somewhere and didn't really have to care about how he did it.

Magni's original song had a good tune, if a bit repetitive and loopy. The lyrics were a little too introspective (not explaining enough) and too basic. There was nothing really special in there, lyrically. And several things didn't quite make sense. Maybe it sounds better in Icelandic. Great belt buckle, though.

For a change, Storm was really rockin'. "Suffragette City" was a little stiff and throaty, but she interacted expertly with Dave Navarro, and had a good energy. Her original song was good, too. Not great, especially considering the very brief, pretty obvious lyrics, but it sounded decent. Nice vocal changes in the beginning. She also really drove it hard and sang with a lot of heart.

I'm not sure how I feel about Lukas Rossi's "Living on A Prayer." It certainly started out beautifully. I'm glad he didn't sing it the way it was originally recorded, but after he hit the chorus he kept doing that weird gross thing with his throat. It sounded so amazing until he did that, and then it sounded like a vibrating lizard yodeler. He continued to do that in his original, too, which made it hard to understand the lyrics. I don't know what he's doing half the time. He's not really singing---it sounds like he's trying to sound like a Canadian monster or something, slavering and spitting. The lyrics I did hear were mostly "you make my head spin" over and over again, which I guess was the chorus, but it seemed like the whole song was chorus. I think it pretty much sucked. Sometimes I think of a line that sounds cool to me, and I'll walk around singing it, but that doesn't make it a song.

I understand that Lukas was trying to say something personal, and he appeared to feel something there, but it wasn't getting across in his lyrics at all, so the song sounded weird. Way too much pointing, also. Pointing is not a dance move. Pointing means you're trying to gesture meaningfully, and it's hard to do when you're not describing something in a way that provides any clue to what you're talking about.

Toby's performance of the Killers' "Mr. Brightside" was fairly rote. He made it very, very poppy, and didn't add much of his own spin or depth. It seemed like he was a little anxious to get to his original song. But once he did---wow. A relief! He blew everyone else away with his clever hook and well-chosen lyrics. The song was miles above everyone else's in word choice and arrangement, complexity (especially integrating the phrasing of the lyrics with the melody), and actual communication of ideas. It was fun, had spirit, and made sense. It really fascinated me. It was a weird melange of early '80s sounds, then late '80s rock, with some grunge thrown in and a little splash of punk (some punk that's been evolving, though, not early or hardcore). I really think it sounded quite different than anything you'd currently hear on the radio---funny how that yardstick is sort of losing its relevance, I guess I mean "see on MTV" or "download"---and that makes me really want to hear it more. Even if it is a confluence of lots of other sounds and not something wholly new.

The only thing that worries me about Toby is the rote delivery of the Killers song is something I've seen in him before. I feel like he could have the tendency to toss things out a bit if he's not wholly invested and feeling everything all the way---which, in a competition like this, he should be feeling with each performance, no matter what the song. A desire to make it through no matter what, coupled with a knowledge of music, should be pumping through him each time he sings. And it's clear that he gave more to his original than to the cover tonight. What would happen with a song another band member wrote, then? I don't know. Magni is able to consistently deliver powerful, almost-always intense vocals, and even if he's not always burning with passion, his voice doesn't change tone when he's singing something he's not into. It just sounds like something spiritually or emotionally deeper is lacking. Whereas Toby's voice literally gets thinner.

But Toby's won my vote tonight. I may stick in a couple of votes for Magni as well, because maybe if he wasn't translating, or had a better way of translating, his song would come off better. And I just like him. And he's running a close second when I take in the whole run of the show. And I did the same thing last week, only in reverse, so I figure it's fair.

From the standings at the end tonight, it looked like people agreed with me about Toby, putting him at #1. And why was Storm down at #4 when she had the second-best performance tonight? Because it's a process, and from seeing her throughout this whole show, one night's good show is not enough to balance out the fact that she really doesn't deliver the right product, and doesn't deliver consistently at all. I guess the memories of past performance was also the reason Lukas was at #2. Even though he's sometimes like a gothy mewl-growling agonized turtle, when he hits it and sings normally, he can be really good. I understand that can be impressive, but really, it's about 2% of the time. The rest of the time he's gargle-growling though a closed mouth.

And to break it down further, Lukas has terrible style. It's so old, pat, cliche. I think he may just be too young to be comfortable with himself, so he's got all the silly trappings of goth-punk youth going on. That was cool when it was new, or even when it was in its first 15 years, but now it's pretty damned tired.