American Idol Season 10 - Top 13 Finalists - Your Personal Idol

     Although I was pleased with most of the voted-upon spots in the top 10, I was extremely disappointed with who the judges chose as the possible wildcards, and the way they awarded those spots. Lauren Turner definitely should have gotten a wildcard spot, and I think the reason the judges didn't even choose her to try for it is because they were biased against her looks. I don't think she's particularly attractive, but that's my personal opinion. And you can do a lot to make someone look more attractive---she seemed headed that way. Instead, they choose Ashthon and Stefano? Whatever. Naima shows promise, as long as she plays to her strengths. We'll see how she delivers.

     Tonight the theme is "your personal idols:" each contestant chooses a song by a personal idol.

     Lauren Alaina has chosen "Any Man of Mine," by Shania Twain. I can certainly see her connection there as a personal idol, so it's a fine choise in spite of my preference for a little more substance. Shania Twain is talented enough to use the amount of flash she does. Lauren started off a little monotone, but she has such a cool voice it's a pleasure to hear. She then took control and nearly slayed the song utterly. It was a tiny bit low-energy in the performance aspect, but I could see nerves contributing to that a little. She probably has the producers already hounding her to lose the 5 pounds of derriere she could be shaking instead. But stars do have to deal with pressure, so I guess this is part of her training. 

     I agree with the judges: I'd like to see her really push herself to extreme lengths. She was working with Don Was, for heaven's sake. I also didn't like that "thank you" ending before there was even applause. It's a very country thing to do, and saying it before the applause even starts is a very amateur thing to do. 

     As soon as I heard Casey Abrams in his promo, I started dreading what he was going to do. First off, I don't particularly like Joe Cocker. I guess he's fine. But he sings other people's songs in an established style, and that's how he's made his name. That and being freaky. It's just not admirable to me. Maybe I've also heard a few stories that make me think poorly of him. I also hate it when a contestant only talks about the artist who has done the cover version of the song. You're already singing a cover. . . don't you think you should be singing your own cover? In the style of you? But okay, you want to base it on someone else's twist. Just acknowledge the real thing too. That would have been better than mentioning The Wonder Years. I'm sure your musician parents are embarrassed, Casey. 

     When Casey came out, he started "With A Little Help from My Friends" like he was trying to be an R&B singer. He picked up and moved away from that, and then he was pretty good. You could hear some nice rock & roll in his voice, and it would be cool to see him capitalize on that in the future, rather than staying the nerdy music-lovin' art house beatnik. His high bits were refreshing, and showed breadth you don't hear in Joe Cocker. 

     Casey's definitely amazingly talented, but his Rob Reiner looks and the schtick of being against the "normal" AI grain is going to get old. Instead of only showing how you're different, why don't you at least once show how you could be the same, but better? Maybe that's the plan. But he'd better break it out quick, because voters will side with the quirky getting in, but then you have to wow to compete with the pop wows. 

     Ashthon Jones the non-deserver has gotten a lot of production on her voice, easily heard in  various parts of her promo reel. Maybe the producers felt they couldn't so badly misuse Diana Ross's "When You Tell Me That You Love Me." But there is no disguising how much Ashthon sucks as she starts her performance; wavery, off-key, and eating her microphone. 

     Ugh. And the audience claps. Are they being polite? There were moments of okay, but this was a mess. And I don't even think Ashthon is as attractive as I'd thought she was before. Once again, Jennifer Lopez focuses on appearance and promotion versus the quality of singing. 

     Paul McDonald, who looks so '80s, cracks me up. He stood out as an entertaining goofball in the opening tonight. I think it would be more fun if he were singing Bryan Adams, but okay, Ryan Adams's "Come Pick Me Up" is his choice. I like a lot of aspects of Paul's voice, given what I saw in the auditions, and last week. This song showed none of those aspects, and mostly just sounded off key. Plus, he danced like a drunk lady doing the hokey-pokey. That was awful. 

     Steven and Jennifer are basically useless, but JLo at least had some constructive criticism, guised in praise of edginess. "I hope America gets it. I don't." She explained that away a little by saying she didn't know Ryan Adams, but Jennifer, really, you wouldn't have to know an artist to "get" a performance, would you?

     At this point I break to say I don't understand what the bearded contestants are doing or thinking. Are they hiding disfiguring injuries under there? Look around, guys. There's a reason why beards aren't as popular as they once were. Or do some research---it's light stubble that wins the day, psychosocially speaking. Although in my opinion, stubble may look okay, but it feels like splinters, so I pity the ladies with men sporting the Hollywood perpetual 5 o'clock shadow. But the fact is (so say modern studies) that the heavily bearded look reads older, less attractive, and more aggressive. Is that what they're going for? Paul shouldn't want to look older, because he already looks older than 28, the AI cutoff age. Casey may want to look older, but he's got the wild artist thing going on as well, so I think he has to choose one, because although I don't know the studies on it, to the people I've known, beard plus the artsy-wildies often yields the conclusion of "crazy." As in, that cool artsy guy you know has gone into some crazy funk and whilst funking, he's grown a Manson beard. Then again, it could also be laziness: one of the first bearded acquaintances I had used to eat pizza from a box propped on his chest several times a week, and that was definitely a discussed possibility when the girls would wonder why he had a beard. (It was also discussed as a reason why he'd want to shave---pizza beard couldn't wear well, could it?) But in Casey's instance it translates more like the crazy than the lazy. Casey, I understand you want to be that 1968 hip cat, but look at Procul Harem: no beards.

     I'm not saying that bearded men are by rule unattractive---Jason Patric had one in Rush, right? I think that was the role in which I found him most appealing. Although he was a heroin junkie. And Ryan Reynolds in The Amityville Horror remake. Although he was possessed/crazy in that one. . . hmm. I am in no way saying that a beard inarguably connotes madness or laziness. But what I said above is accurate: post-1970s, it's not favored, and I do think those connotations are part of the issue with the recent/present social reaction to/acceptance of beards. I think it likely has to do with changes in the 20th century: the modern ease of shaving (so there is no question that it is simple, safe, and not costly to shave); modern attitudes toward cleanliness and bacteria; and probably most important, the fact that from the 1980s on, there was quite a bit of attention focused on bettering the treatment of the mentally ill and the homeless. Before, those groups were often either relegated to areas where people simply ignored them, or carted off to institutions (prison or health) where people ignored them. In the 1980s and beyond, the public was inundated with the previously "forgotten" downtrodden and exploited: the mad and homeless. Usually bearded. Of course, this paragraph is all my unresearched conjecture. It could just as easily have something to do with fashion or fabrics. But I have to finish this post, so I can't look all this up now. It's someone else's thesis to cover.

     Back to AI. I think Interscope is interfering way too much with the artists' productions. Jimmy Iovine is to be respected, and I did always love that Raspberries sweatshirt my mom lived in while doing housework when I was a little girl. But there's help, there's direction, and then there's steering and control. If you steer and control the contestants, we're not getting a true picture of who they really are. 

     Ugh! Again, Pia Toscano does the "cover artists gets credit" promo for "All By Myself." There is no mention of Eric Carmen, probably because Pia has never heard of him and no one has bothered to educate her. Ahem, Pia, please note this raggedy Raspberries sweatshirt. . . 

     Okay, so Pia should have mentioned Eric Carmen, since it's his song, but she's busy swooning over Celine Dion, her personal idol, who has nothing to do with the song other than having sung a rather straightforward version of it. 

     In the verses, Pia's got too much vibrato and peppers in unnecessary runs, which is just what bothered me with her in the Hollywood rounds. And it ends up shorting her on the really important power moments, leaving the song with less undulating momentum. But it was still a good job. She sounded good.

     "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a favorite song of mine, so the idea of anyone doing it is a little scary to me, even though I like James Durbin. I don't know what Jimmy Iovine was talking about, either. 

     Unfortunately, even though James is competent here, I only find myself thinking this song makes his voice sound weaker and more feminine, and that he's no Paul McCartney. James sounds much better in the deeper range, which isn't most of the song, just the beginning and ending. Also, in spite of his comments in the promo introduction, there wasn't much new or different in the productions, at least not in the live performance. 

     Haley Reinhart is singing a song I used to love to sing, "Blue," by LeAnn Rimes. Such a gorgeous song. But Haley looked uncomfortable with her producers, and she went right off key in the "Blue" warble/yodel and repeated it---I guess she doesn't think it's off key. Apart from that and the silly growling, she was pretty great. But the growling has to stop. She sounds like she's in a southern Little Miss pageant. And this girl doesn't have the right pipes to yodel sweetly; hers is more of a haunting electro changeover sound. Her dress was really nice, and she looked much classier than usual, which is saying a lot for her.

     Jacob Lusk goes with R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly," because everyone idolizes a pedophile. Really, Jacob---it's personal idol week! Couldn't you have saved his song for another week? 

     Jacob's another party guilty of too much vibrato and warble. He also sounded kind of shouty and off key in some of this one. And I didn't get the long stretch of Tarzany "aahhhhhh"-ing. But I liked the beginning, where he sounded slightly more sedate and masculine than usual. I wonder if people are making Antony comparisons for him. I don't read any other commentary on the show (at least until it gets much farther along), but I've been thinking that since his Hollywood week performance. It must be widespread. My sister disagrees. 

     I think Steven and JLo are nuts in praising this so much. Randy is marginally better. Jacob's performance didn't sound like a song to me so much as a few lines followed by shrieking. 

     I don't know if it's a great idea for Thia Megia to sing Michael Jackson's version of "Smile." Worse still to let on to the viewing public that she doesn't know Charlie Chapman---oh, Charlie Chaplin, you say? She should have at least talked about Nat King Cole. The ignorance is horrifying, and immediately reveals her as false: she claims to love the song, but you don't love something if you don't know enough to learn anything about it. Even if I hear a song once and half-like what I heard, it drives me crazy if I can't find out who sang it and more. So she doesn't love "Smile." Last week she got told her tone was like Michael Jackson's, so she picked a song he sang and unfortunately it was a cover. 

     She did sing it well, and she's got a beautiful voice. It was a little strange, more so in the second half. Of course, the judges don't care. I'm sick of them rating on potential rather than performance. How is that fair? Of course, they're trying to direct the viewer votes. But they should let the artist know some of the truth as well, otherwise it's going to hurt them in the long run. 

     Stefano Langone has a cool voice, but he doesn't use it to its fullest effect in this song. I'm sure it's his fault, but the song sounds pretty shite also. He was off and on, but he's shown he has ability

     OH MY GOD! That was the song he was singing?! Stevie Wonder's "Lately." No way. I retract my above comment. Somehow I missed the mention of the song, and I was thinking it was one I didn't know---that's how bad he was. He murdered that song, and not in a good way. Shivers. Must get away from this asap. 

     I don't understand why so many of the singers are starting or going off key. Karen Rodriguez is not wretched with Selena's "I Could Fall in Love," but she's not exceptional. She's best in between the first and second choruses, and at the end. Overall, she comes across as seventh-rate Disney---the understudy of the theme park show performer.

    Scotty McCreery, doing "The River" by Garth Brooks, was so lucky to get Don Was, and awesome to know and appreciate it. Scotty's got a pretty perfect country music voice. I think all he's got to do is tone down the cheese and relate more emotionally deep sincerity. I don't think this is his competition to win, but he's excellent in what he does, and should be catapulted to success. 

     Naima Adedapo is singing the total crap song "Umbrella" by disposable, forgettable artist Rihanna. Why is she your idol, Naima? Because it doesn't seem like you've modeled yourself on her in any way, or been inspired by her in the slightest. Not surprising, but the girl does offer some fashion, which is definitely a note Naima could take. Again, they say the song will be "hers" (Naima's), but don't do anything of note with it. In fact, it just sounded choppier.

     Naima got breathless, and cut off the stops and starts of her lines a bit, but otherwise she did an okay job on a throwaway song. It's too bad, because she has a great voice and could try to do amazing things with it, but she was only passing tonight. 

      Jennifer, as usual, doesn't care about the music, just the look. Randy had it very well said. 

     Even though there are three others below her on my ranking tonight, I think Ashthon should go, because she hasn't ever shown that she could do as well as others in this group have. If not her, Paul or Jacob, only because Jacob isn't showing the proper versatility. He does have skill and talent. It's too bad about Karen---as I thought, she couldn't hear herself. But she's still definitely not the worst. There aren't too many truly worse than she is, but she should still be okay this round.

Tonight's ranking: 

1) Lauren

2) Casey

3) James

4) Scotty

5) Thia

6) Pia

7) Haley

8) Karen

9) Naima

10) Ashthon

11) Jacob

12) Paul

13) Stefano

Who should go: Ashthon.

Who I want to stay: My top 6, plus Naima.

Who I'd bet on staying: My top 4, plus Karen.