Judges trimmed much fat from their earlier mistake in allowing too many marginal talents into Hollywood on a golden ticket.
Tonight's taped broadcast certainly was easier to take than all of the manufactured drama on Wednesday's two-hour assault. One plus, Thursday's show was a mere hour and most of it was devoted to solo performances
Happily, 15-year-old Jacee Badeaux sang well again and pleased the judges. He's the youngest, but he has the most melodious voice of the bunch. He is a pleasure to listen to because he doesn't over embellish. He has the makings of an Idol.
So, too, does Lauren Alaina, and she's getting a major push from producers who have all but crowned her queen. After she once again sang Aerosmith's all-time worst song, I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, Ryan Seacrest gushed: "Once again, she proves she has what it takes to command the Idol stage."
True, but the constant pimping could lead to a backlash.
Speaking of backlashes, one can't form soon enough to jinx another overly praised contestant, Clint Gamboa. The bespectacled hopeful has a killer competitive streak but lacks an equal amount of charisma or restraint. His ghastly oversinging of Ray Charles' Georgia On My Mind put in mind the reminder to mark down earplugs on my next shopping list. But this show loves to create a villain and they have one in this near certain early finalist.
Most audacious audition belonged to Casey Abrams who played a stand-up bass and sang a jazz rendition of Georgia On My Mind. Not quite what Top 40 radio is thinking of, but maybe Grammy will come calling. After all, an obscure jazz bassist just copped the Best New Artist award.
Finalists will also lead to a showdown between two country men. John Wayne Schulz is the more natural, charismatic and versatile of the pair. Scotty McCreery knows but one song, Josh Turner's range-free Your Man, which never irritated me when Josh sang it, but now is more grating than any episode of Glee with Jane Lynch in the storyline. course, when it came time to audition tonight, producers wouldn't let him sing the song and he bombed on Lee Ann Womack's I Hope You Dance because he'd never heard it. Inexplicably, he advances. Even Scotty seemed surprised and, to his credit, announced he didn't deserve to advance but that perhaps his deep voice might earn a pass from the judges. It did.
As usual, the couple hundred were herded into four rooms and only Rooms 1 and 4 advanced into next week's showdown. In two weeks, on March 1, America finally gets to vote on the 20 or 24 finalists (Ryan said 24 tonight, I could have sworn I'd read they were only letting 20 through from Hollywood).
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how could you not comment on Jacob Lusk? I thought he had control and style even though he did a lot with GB the Child.
Posted by: Cheese Fries | February 18, 2011 at 06:55 PM
Because it didn't do anything for me and I can't comment on everyone.
Posted by: HoCo | February 22, 2011 at 06:34 PM