Thursday, March 28, 2013

American Idol 12: Top 8

I love Motown - and we've seen a lot of stellar performances throughout the past 11 seasons of American Idol - but somehow it really comes across as dated when covered. That being said, I felt like this season has finally come into it's own tonight as the contestants actually gave relatively good performances.

Oh, and the judges were actually constructive, truthful and sort of accurate. Especially Nicki Minaj who lost her mind after a trio performance. Haha. Yes, American Idol suddenly turned into Hunger Games when some of the contestants sort of threw each other under the bus. Loved it!

Without further ado, on to the rankings!

SOLO

08. Lazaro Arbos
For Once In My Life
Sure, this was so much better than last week's trainwreck, but that's not saying much. This was still annoyingly mediocre and awfully karaoke for my taste. Somehow, I figured that Lazaro has this incredible ability to sound off key while singing on key. It's like magic. There were moments were I cringed at some of his notes, but then I'll go back and realize that he was actually fairly close to the right spot. Maybe it's because of the placement of his voice that's causing some unpleasant qualities to his performance and he kept on pushing his middle register. I don't know. Lazaro needs to go. It's obvious. But he won't. 3/10

07. Devin Velez
Track Of My Tears
Again, Devin sounded marvelous in this song and I thought that the timbre of his voice suited Tracks of my Tears perfectly, and yet I felt NOTHING from him. There was an awareness about his performances that made it tough to watch and it felt like he was just singing at us and NOT to us - if that makes sense. 5/10

06. Burnell Taylor
My Cherie Amour
I did love some of his vocal choices especially during the chorus and he had a modest connection to the material, but the way Burnell pronounced "Amour" and "Adore" bugged me to no end. I kept hearing "Amourm" and "Adorm" and then all the other phrases ended in M's to match?  Was that deliberate? Oh, and Burnell, stop with the hand movements! 5.5/10

05. Angie Miller
Shop Around
This, to me, was Miley Cyrus Angie Miller's weakest performance to date. I thought that adding a rock edge to the song was quite brilliant, but then I realized that she doesn't have a certain character to her voice and power required for this arrangement. She flubbed the lyrics, her pitch was uneven, the sound mix was pretty bad and she got completely drowned out by the band. She had some good moments in there, but this pretty lame. 6/10

04. Kree Harrison
Don't Play That Song
I will give Kree credit for being on pitch and trying to work the stage with this Aretha Franklin ditty, but there was something off with this performance. True, she still sounded effortless with an incredible range and superior vocal control, but the subtlety on her delivery was a bit of a disconnect. I really wanted her to just have more fun with the music and let go, but her facial expressions made me feel like she wasn’t really interested. I guess, she needs to work on the performance aspect stat. 7/10

03. Amber Holcomb
Lately
The remaining finalists have found the much needed tempo this week, but Amber apparently didn't get the memo no? Haha. While I groaned at her song choice - she needs to go uptempo more than any other contestant! Or maybe Burnell, but whatever - I thought she sang this fantastically! It wasn't standing ovation worthy and I didn't think she brought something new to her intepretation, but this was another solid outing for her. Her upper register was sublime, the liberties she took with the melody were great and the execution was just perfect. The diction issue was still there, but that's something that could be fixed. 7.5/10

02. Candice Glover
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Candice is SO consistent, it's pretty scary - in the Melinda Doolittle kind of way. Haha. This was, yet again, another strong vocal performance from Candice. I loved the bluesy arrangement to the song - and this would probably be as good as the is ever going to be - I thought herd delivery was spot on, and that grit and soul to her voice that she showcased here was just incredible. I guess, she doesn't have the ability to sing badly no? 8/10

01. Janelle Arthur
Keep Me Hanging On
Wow. Seriously. Janelle just officially regained my interest and she's now riding a lot of momentum after the past two weeks. I found her dark, acoustic driven arrangement of the song to be the most interesting performance this season. Her vocals weren't perfect, but I honestly didn't mind. She connected with the song impeccably well and this was Janelle's best performance to date, hands down! Oh, and I know this isn't a personality contest, but she has one of the best personalities to ever be on the show - probably next to Kellie Pickler. Just saying. 9/10

GROUP

03. Devin Velez, Lazaro Arbos and Burnell Taylor
Can't Help Myself
Nicki Minaj summed this performance up perfectly, "Get off the stage!" HAHA. Oh Nicki, you're just crazy and I love it. 1/10

02. Kree Harrison and Janelle Arthur
Like A Prayer
This was a decent performance, but for someone who generally prefers Kree to Janelle, I sersiously don;t see how Kree outshined Janelle here. I thought they were both fine and that's that. 5/10

01. Amber Holcomb, Angie Miller and Candice Glover
I'm Going To Make You Love Me 
Holy short shorts Miley Angie! By far, the best group performance this episode. They all sounded great and their harmonies were actually pretty good. I thought it was easy to spot Angie's dramatic tendencies here as I saw how she worked hard to make sure the camara loves her and then see Amber and Candice just be smooth and suave throughout the performance. But, as always, I digress. Haha. 8/10


PREDICTION

Who should go? 
Lazaro Arbos

Who will go?
Devin Velez

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Call me evil or ruthless, heartless even but LAZARO ARBOS really bugs me! I mean, as if it wasn't enough for him that he's sucking up pity votes, he even have a really big head and an undesirable attitude. He's cutting off Randy while he was giving his comment saying it's "okay" when clearly his reaction says "get lost!" is so unprofessional and disrespectful, it adds to his Annoy Factor make me wanna punch his face in!

Anonymous said...

i go for the dark horse.. burnell amber and janelle are my top 3! :)

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