Thursday, May 2, 2013

American Idol 12: Top 4 Redux

For the most part, I enjoyed Harry Connick Jr as a mentor - he's such a cornball - but there's something about his mentoring that felt strange. Did he messed up with the everyone's head - especially Kree - during the Standards round? Also, was it just me or did they all look so tired and exhausted? Survival of the fittest, I guess? But yes, I have to feel for them.

As for the judges, I don't pay much attention to what they say any more. None of them are consistent - Candice was old fashioned last week and then suddenly current this week? - and their opinions are pretty worthless especially Randy Jackson. He's still his stupid gigantic blob of chocolate and air. He needs to stop making me want to put my foot in his mouth. Ugh.

On with the rankings!

ROUND 1: NOW
(Songs of 2013)

04. Amber Holcomb
Just Give Me A Reason
While her version of this Pink song was fairly competent, there was something oddly off with the performance. I thought the arrangement was terrible - she should've just performed it with a piano instead of a whole band - her diction was bad, her pitch was slightly uneven. Plus, she seemed lost and distracted throughout the whole number. I don't know. She had much stronger performances than this one. 6/10

03. Angie Miller
Diamonds
I give her props for being creative with the arrangement, but those bongos after the first verse kind of threw me off and did her no favors. It got to a point wherein towards the middle of her performance, everything seemed to drag a bit. Her vocals were mostly on point though despite the shrill tone when she tried to hit a high note at the end of her performance. I was hoping Amber and Angie switched their song choice and that would've been a better scenario no? 7/10 

02. Candice Glover
When I Was Your Man
This was straight up soulful! I understand that she didn't get to change up the lyrics of the song mostly because of legal issues of covering the song on the show, but that didn't matter! This, to me, was another strong vocal performance from Candice with the right amount of nuance and power and the way she navigated the lyrics and connect with it was superb. Solid. 8.5/10

01. Kree Harrison
See You Again
Whoa. This turned out much better than I thought. I admit, coming into this round, I was expecting her to crash and burn just because this is a Carrie Underwood song, but she slightly changed the tempo and mood of the song, which worked amazingly. Also, for the first time in weeks, I felt like she connected impressively well with the song. I had goosebumps and I could sense the pain in her voice. It's such a shame that the judges didn't get to see that because I seriously felt like she was on the verge of tears with this thing. Sublime. 9/10

ROUND 2: THEN
(Standards)

04. Kree Harrison
Stormy Weather
It's a shame that Kree's weaker performance was what closed the show. It's not bad by any means, in fact, she sounded lovely on this song, but the song itself just doesn't lend it melody to be sung in a short two minute time span. Add to that the fact that she seemed disconnected with the song. Did Harry Connick Jr messed up her head big time? 6.5/10

03. Angie Miller
Someone To Watch Over Me
Nicki Minaj just called her a straight up Disney princess!! Haha. To be fair, this was a perfectly acceptable version of the song. It was nice that we got to hear the lighter side of Angie's voice instead of the usual intensity in her upper register and it was pleasing for the most part. There were moments where it almost seemed too plodding and flat when it should be emotional, but I digress. 7/10

02. Amber Holcomb
My Funny Valentine
Though her song choice was both lazy and a complete cop-out, I thought she sang the crap out of this song. However, it was really hard for me to get excited over this performance because a.) I've already heard her sing this on a live show with a full band - reprises are only fitting on a Finale when it's required or asked of - b.) she had no idea what this song even meant!  Umm, "He's a guy.. he's funny." OMG. Amber just went down a notch for me. 7.5/10

01. Candice Glover
You've Changed
This, to me, was a thing of beauty! Seriously. Her version of You've Changed was outstanding. She showed some brilliant vocal control, some beautiful little touches, great phrasing and an impeccable transitions. Plus, she learned to not put vibrato and runs into every note. She made some notes be so pure and clear and used some vocal textures for emphasis. Technically astounding from a pure vocal point! 9/10

PREDICTION

Who should go? 
Amber Holcomb

Who will go?
Amber Holcomb


Tough to predict since they will add up the votes from last week and we all know Candice and Amber got the lowest votes. We'll see.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you. I didn't listen to judges anymore...

benj said...

im a little bit worried and sad.. i love amber to death you know that dam.. but didnt like her version of my funny valentine.. i prefer the other one in vegas round.. im preparing myself to anything that will happen with the results night.. i think ill burst into tears if she goes home.. if she does she should sing my funny valentines again but she should choose the vegas version. if she doesnt go home ill be so happy.. candice was just candice.. so great.. i dont know what happened to kree but i still love her.. with angie, i didnt feel any of her songs.. actually i felt i wanna sleep hearing her standard song choice. and i hate that harry cornick watever is his name.. he's just stupid..

DAM said...

How was that racist? Do you even understand the context of that statement?

While I agree that the color of his skin is irrelevant to his judging, Randy Jackson himself is irrelevant! Just saying.

Shawn Jang said...

DAM I thought the EXACT same thing when you said that Amber and Angie should've switched songs for the Now theme!! Angie's voice suits Pink's song so much more than Amber's!! That song requires clear vocals and diction, both of which Amber doesn't have. Plus, I actually think Amber would've sounded great on Diamonds.

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