Idol Watch

Casey's overdue elimination on American Idol

 
It took America two tries to get rid of Casey Abrams on American Idol but, thankfully, this time it took. In an elimination host Ryan Seacrest kept teasing would "disappoint fans" the growling, fashion-challenged Casey falls in sixth place.

A little over a month ago America voted him off in 11th place but the judges used their save. Keeping Casey on the Idols Tour wasn't a bad idea but it wasn't good for the show. Since then we've had to endure some of the most offputting performances of Smells Like Teen Spirit or Nature Boy the world has known.

Casey earned a fan base for bringing (his idea of) jazz to the Idol stage but it should be noted that being different doesn't mean being good and growling and making ugly faces at the camera does not equate to any definition of jazz I've ever heard. Casey is not a part of the richness jazz has to offer American culture. Rather, he's likely a fine musician and can go play acoustic bass for whomever he chooses. Just stay clear of the vocal mike.

American Idol is once again mostly safe to watch and listen to as the overall improved Season 10 heads into its last month.

As for the bottom three: Scotty, Jacob and Casey, Ryan sent Jacob to safety and announced that the "order was random." This means Scotty may, or may not, have been bottom two. But his closeness to the exit door has to be blamed on the producers' foolhardy hiring of passe Babyface as a guest mentor last night. Babyface (time to update that name, pops) insisted on pushing his brand of pillow soft, bland and dated R&B on all the contestants and it proved nearly fatal with Scotty and his chosen song, You've Got a Friend. Carole King's gentle ode to friendship and support in troubled times is not the kind of song that needs, or should ever have, drippy strings, forced romantic settings or overemoted vocals. It's a simple, confessional tune. Scotty did the best he could with the inappropriate arrangement but it was awkward and hard to tolerate. Babyface almost put Haley in trouble by pushign the same dunderheaded arrangement on Tapestry's Beautiful but she was more resistant to his suggestion and sailed clear of the bottom.

 Speaking of Carole King, that show-opening medley of King's compositions would have you believe the great songwriter never wrote anything post 1971's Tapestry. Might have been nice to hear, oh, I don't know, Jazzman, Nightingale, Sweet Seasons, Been to Canaan, One to One, Hard Rock Cafe, Being at War With Each Other or many other less ancient King keepers.

Crystal Bowersox also returned to the Idol stage and her visit was much easier to take than recent returns from champs David Cook and Lee DeWyze. At least her catchy little country song didn't stink up the set the way theirs did.

For more Idol chatter and pop culture comments, follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

American Idol Top 6 cover Carole King

 
The American Idol Top 6 hope to make the earth move on their covers of Carole King classics from the 60s and 70s. The finalists will also offer duets.

Follow live commentary on http://twitter.com/HowardCohenand return here later for a review of the show.

 The durability of the Carole King canon withstood the Idol onslought tonight and made for one of the season's standout performance shows.

James Durbin delivered the season highlight with his beautifully nuanced reading of the tender Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? He opened King's moving examination of young love in 1960 and the repercussions of moving too fast with an uncharacteristic soft opening which showed off the pure tone of his voice. He then navigated up half keys effortlessly on the uptempo rock portion and stayed on point completely -- not an easy skill to pull off. Randy Jackson was so taken with the performance he not only uttered the "you can win this" prediction but he left his seat to hug the singer. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Yes, James. And at the finals when you deservedly win this whole thing.

Scotty McCreery is Idol's other big talent this season but Babyface's misguided arrangement of King's You've Got a Friend was all wrong for the song -- the lyric is a supportive ode to friendship in troubled times, not an excuse for a booty call -- and poor Scotty was left to fend for himself amid all sorts of aural goop. Scotty did the best he could but it was close to unlistenable. Though I didn't agree with Randy's love for that performance, I appreciated the return of judging on the Idol stage. Randy's positive analyses was thoughtful and genuine.

Babyface also had all the wrong ideas for Haley Reinhart when he suggested taking 1971's Beautiful at a languid tempo. Thankfully, she mostly listened to Jimmy Iovine and rendered the song somewhat closer to its more foreceful Tapestry roots and had one of her better performances of late. Can't imagine what producers were thinking when they booked Babyface, a banal early 90s hasbeen, as guest mentor with Iovine. Iovine does not need the help from the likes of sleep-inducing, out of touch Babyface.

Lauren Alaina, a marketable contemporary country star in the making, is still searching for her Idol Moment and Where You Lead didn't lead her anywhere close to where she needs to be at this stage. Her vocal was forced, missed a note, and lacked the energy and conviction necessary to make for anything memorable. The same could be said for her duet of Up on the Roof with Scotty. It was adequate and sweet but won't replace James Taylor's definitive 1979 version on too many iPods. Certainly not on mine. Our gifted country twosome fell well behind James at the top of my Idol chart for two weeks running.

Casey Abrams, meanwhile, plays like a Saturday Night Live skit gone awry with his "jazz" performances. Just because he's different doesn't mean he's good. That said, his growly take on Hi-De-Ho wasn't as rancid as his usual. Wish the same could be said for his duet, with Haley, on I Feel the Earth Move. I wish the earth would have moved to swallow up this caterwauling pair on that aspirin-required race through the piano pounding Tapestry hit. "Made me scalp itch, it was that good," Steven Tyler said of Casey's solo, as he itched the tattered nest atop his head. Try shampoo, Mr. Tyler.

This brings us to Jacob Lusk. Jacob will go home tomorrow night but mostly because his time is up. He'll be eliminated despite giving his best, liveliest and most engaging performances to date. His vocal on Oh No, Not My Baby hit a few off notes but he was invested in the melody, he moved around a bit -- certainly more than his usual potted plant style -- and despite fighting overloud backing singers, an overproduced arrangement and a louder jacket, he was fun. I can't recall typing the word "fun" and "Jacob" in the same sentence yet but I'll do so again to describe his surprising duet of I'm Into Something Good with James to close the show. They are an unlikely pair, two big voices and personalities vying for attention on the same stage, not to mention different tastes in music. Still, they were into something good on this over the top performance. It was, dare I say it again, fun.

Finally, the Idol oddities tonight: Ryan Seacrest kept trying to make a love connection between the duet partners -- stopping short at Jacob and James but probably only because the show was running long and they had to wrap by 9:30. It was awkward and odd. Concentrate on your own love life, Mr. Host.

Miley Cyrus turned up to offer advice to Lauren, but this only inspires me to borrow one of Scotty's raised eyebrows in disbelief. Lauren can outsing Miley any day of the week. The only lasting impression Miley made was the condition of her own speaking voice. She sounds huskier and raspier than Stevie Nicks who has more than 43 years on her. Lay off the bong, m'dear.

 

 

 

Stefano, it's a no-go. American Idol boots No. 7

America, you had the opportunity to boot Jacob. He was standing right there! But nooo, it's Stefano.

Of course, Stefano Langone's departure from American Idol has been long in coming. The genial contestant is always in the Bottom 3 with Haley Reinhart and Jacob Lusk. But, last night, I thought he did enough to earn one more week. He's not a gifted vocalist but he has a good attitude and charm, two attributes sorely lacking in Jacob who isn't above preaching at an audience.

Scotty was also lucky and can thank his young fans for overlooking his mediocre performance of an even lamer John Anderson country corn song, Swingin'.

Some other idle observations: If these amateur contestants must sing live on the Idol stage shouldn't overpaid pop stars who are there to shill their new music have to do the same? I'm talking to you Katy Perry. I wish E.T. would have phoned Katy Perry home after her performance.

The reappearance of Season 7 winner David Cook, who came back to sing his utterly forgettable, generic new rock song, reminds us of the overall rut and mediocrity that took ahold of American Idol in seasons 7-9. Cook wouldn't have even made inroads into the Top 10 this season against this year's crop.

For more commentary and tidbits follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

American Idol gets current with songs from this century

 
The remaining seven finalists sang sing songs from the 21st Century Wednesday on American Idol.

REVIEW BELOW:

One can almost sense Lauren Alaina, Haley Reinhart and Scotty McCreery's relief: finally the chance to sing a song that they might actually know. Scotty can certainly do a Josh Turner country hit like Would You Go With Me or Your Man although that might be too predictable.

James Durbin could take on one of Green Day's conceptual songs. Haley will probably attempt a jazzy Amy Winehouse number. And one bets Stefano Langone fires his inner Grenade by Bruno Mars. Whatever Jacob or Casey does, it's sure to be irritating if recent weeks are any indication. Jacob will stand there like a statue and lecture viewers afterward and Casey will grunt and make faces.

Just guesses. What are your picks?

Could American Idol be in for another surprise results show? Twitter buzz has the seemingly infallible Scotty McCreery in the bottom, maybe the very bottom, for his mediocre performance of a lame LeAnn Rimes song, Swingin'. My guess is that Scotty's young female fan base is large enough to let him swing into the finals. While the Rimes song is cheeseball, banal contemporary country (ie: the kind of pseudo country someone who hates country would write just to irritate fans of real country music), the kind of music this young traditionalist is better than, Scotty transcended the limitations of Rimes' dopey ditty. Barely. But, unlike, say Jacob, Casey or Stefano, Scotty was in tune all the way through even if he looked bored singing those lightweight lyrics. The dreadful song also had the unfortunate effect of making us pay too much attention to Scotty's weird way of holding a mike like a flute.

Speaking of Stefano Langone, his Ne-Yo cover was his season's best thus far. His vocal was hit-n-miss, sometimes losing the key, but the song's flirtatious style suited him well and Stefano worked it to the hilt. He wasted not an inch of stage as he worked the audience on every side. Maybe not a download-worthy vocal, but entertaining and committed-looking on TV.

Pity Jacob Lusk still hasn't learned to work the stage. He's every bit as rooted in glue as Pia was and his choice of Luther Vandross' Dance With My Father was every bit as predictable as Scotty doing a country tune -- but even moreso. At least Scotty chose a bad country song -- who would have predicted his taste would fail him? -- and bypassed Josh Turner when he had the opportunity to pick from current material from an established millennial artist he clearly emulates. Jacob's vocal wasn't technically bad. At least, it wasn't as pitchy as in weeks' past. But he's lacking in charisma, he still has the grating tendency to preach and talk down to viewers and, my guess, my hope, is that Jacob is even more in danger of going home than Scotty.

Speaking of grating, Casey Abrams put some necessary grit into the wimpy Maroon 5 but his constant clenching of jaw and the maniacal faces he keeps making at the camera should be his undoing. He's not nearly a good enough singer to transcend the gimmicks and quirks and his all-around lack of marketability. The best part of Casey's performance? When he kissed JLo at the end because it meant the singing was over.

 Haley Reinhart got good marks from fans and the judges for her Adele cover of the current Rollin' in the Deep from last week's No. 1 album, 21. But Haley's neither bright enough, nor musically knowledgable enough, to convincingly deliver a soulful Adele song. Haley doesn't seem to understand the lyrics of a song. Mentor/label boss Jimmy Iovine had to seriously push her to read the lyrics and find some understanding of the song's subject before she even began rehearsing. She might have hit most of the right notes --certainly better than last week's screeching Blondie car wreck -- but compared to Adele, Haley's performance was soulless, plastic and meaningless. She's safe though. Idol viewers don't want to leave Lauren Alaina as the only female contestant just yet.

Lauren hasn't quite had an "Idol Moment" yet but she's consistently been the most market-ready contemporary country singer. So if her rendition of Sara Evans' Born to Fly wasn't one for the books, that's the formulaic song's fault, not a problem with her delivery. Lauren sang a perfectly radio-ready contemporary country No. 1 hit and that's what Nashville will be looking for. Someone who can convincingly sing the music the factory pumps out to radio and who can entertain an audience. Lauren is all of that and she earns second best of the night. But how cool, not to mention memorable, would it have been had Lauren chosen a Dixie Chicks song, like Not Ready to Make Nice, and captured that Natalie Maines-sized sassy attitude? She'd have had her moment.

Far out front of the bunch, though, was James Durbin for his brilliant performance of Muse's Uprising. While I like "the cliche guy who does metal on Idol," as Iovine warned against, I also am impressed that James can also do a modern rock song as well as he does older metal tunes. James used all his weapons in this performance. He put all sorts of range into the vocal, outdoing the original. He conveived a theatrical backing drum corps and he worked the audience with the confidence of an established rock star. His Rob Halford-style high range won't be every Idol viewer's cup o' tea but, tonight, he's vaulted to the top of the pile for this critic.

 

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American Idol judges stop judging 8 finalists

 
Were it not for the generally superior -- but far from perfect -- finalists compared to previous seasons and the astute and strongly worded mentoring sessions from uber producer/label head Jimmy Iovine, American Idol Season 10 would be as worthless as American Idol Seasons 6-9.

The problem: Three overpaid, useless judges. Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez should all face trial for taking Fox's money under false pretenses. They are paid millions -- Tyler alone gets $18 million for the short season -- to judge the talent and yet, all three, but especially Tyler, have offered no guidance, no constructive criticism, no judging for weeks now. Everyone is "perfect" in J.Lo speak, everyone is "beautiful" in Tyler-ramble.

As such, these three have done a disservice to the contestants and to viewers. For all the outrage over Pia Toscano's early dismissal last week (and she deserved the boot) why not focus on how the judges failed her? Instead of offering constructive criticism, Pia was fed lies every week about how perfect she was. So, given her lack of experience, she just blandly coasted along, singing ballads without any emotion, with poor phrasing and a complete lack of performance because she was told she was doing the right thing all along.

Jacob Lusk and Casey Abrams are two others who initially had potential but who are now unlistenable -- and unstoppable. Both are always egregiously out of tune, especially Casey, but the fawning judges, when confronted with something they've never heard before, ascribe what they've heard to some miraculous discovery and heap praise on the contestants. This was never more obvious than last night's Nature Boy performance from Casey. Since he did a jazz rendition, with standup bass, the ridiculous judges credited Casey with all sorts of amazing things. You'd have thought he created a whole new music form called jazz. Not one of the judges called Casey out for singing the entire song offkey, feebly and with affected, creepy facial tics. Jazz doesn't have to be out of tune.

Jacob, similarly, was laden with pitch problems on Man in the Mirror last week and was allowed to sing a 41 year old Simon & Garfunkel classic on "movie" night simply because some obscure movie 40 years later might have had the song running in the background. That's the producers' fault.

But his Bridge Over Troubled Water was a woeful mess. But you didn't hear the judges say that. You did hear Iovine slam Jacob for his arrogance last week when, after his awful Mirror performance, the obnoxious, self-entitled lad had the gall to tell America that if they dared vote him off the show it certainly was through no fault of his performance but, rather, it was all of America's fault for not taking a collective look in the mirror.

"Don't preach," Iovine blasted. Glad one of the Idol adults had the stones to put this young man in his place. Iovine cares. No one else does.

Meantime, J.Lo is so determined not to have another girl cut from the cast she refused to call out Haley Reinhart for her screechy, hysterical and out of tune mawling of Blondie's Call Me. That was one of the most tone-deaf, worst performances in Idol history and should guarantee her a ticket home tonight. But the so-called judges refused to earn their paychecks and the Crypt Keeper next to JLo called it "beautiful."

Sadly, this wasn't quite the case as Idol began this season. Tyler has always been a dissapointment. He's another feckless judge like Ellen DeGeneres, but aged 100 years and benumbed by decades of drug abuse. JLo, however, started the season giving terrific constructive criticisms and she elevated Randy who suddenly found a few words to add to his vocabulary beyond "dawg" that he'd been using for the nine previous years.

I didn't miss Simon at all. Frankly, I still don't miss Simon. His forced barbs had become trite and unfunny and he did nothing but punch a clock that last couple years. He was bored with the show and so were we. The only difference is we didn't get $40 million or so to roll our eyes and offer a quip. Remember, it was last year's judges, including Simon, that picked that lackluster cast that led to the sorry likes of talentless and charmless Lee DeWyze winning the title over sloppy and forgettable Crystal Bowersox.

I don't always agree with the EW critics who write the Idol wrapups (this guy likes Jacob) but he nails Idol's problem in this week's PopWatch column when he insightfully wrote:

Right now, the judges on Idol aren’t enhancing anything. They’re just blurring the line — between the good and the not-so-good, between the performers we like and the ones we love. Their miscalculated early save of Casey Abrams was just one more instance of their refusal to make distinctions, shrewdly and soberly, coming back to bite them. They were so busy cheerleading that they threw away their one real act of power. (Hell, a week earlier, J. Lo had wanted to use the save on Karen Rodriguez!) The grandest irony of all is that without content, without criticism, in what the judges elect to say, the singers aren’t raised up high. They’re subtly diminished, all mashed together into a sweetly cloying marzipan of weekly good vibes. If there’s a lesson in the booting of Pia Toscano, it’s that criticism, when it’s offered by people who know what they’re doing, isn’t evil. It’s a force that enriches, an aesthetic helping hand, a declaration of reality that helps the best artists prevail. Let’s hope that tonight the judges remember what they’re there for, that they’re willing to be critics again. Let’s hope that they start judging.

Alas, the judges didn't listen, Owen. They only became more irrelevant and offensive Tuesday. Perhaps all three should be scrapped and Iovine and (who'd have thunk it?) will.i.am, who offer the only constructive and interesting opinion-making and mentoring, should be the sole panel.

For the record, I count three standout finalists this season: Scotty McCreery, James Durbin and Lauren Alaina.

Scotty and Lauren are immediately ready to be signed and set loose in Nashville where both should sell quite well. Scotty, especially, is poised and capable of anything. He's never hit a bad note. He's already won the prize, a career, no matter where he ranks come May.

 James is, refreshingly, the first metal contestant in Idol history and is proving remarkably consistent and self-assured and entertaining.

For more Idol critiques follow @HowardCohen on Twitter. I don't mince words. I've only 140 on Twitter.

 

American Idol Top 9

On vacation. No Idol Watch blog this week.

I will be tweeting live commentary on Twitter on Wednesday night's performance show, however. http://twitter.com/HowardCohen