American Idol

Tonight's American Idol performance show provided a profound dilemma.  It's one that was discussed briefly earlier in the season, but tonight brought it to the forefront: How do you judge a performance that is technically excellent, yet not your cup of tea, versus a performance that was technically poor, yet in a style you enjoy?  This question has permeated this season of American Idol, especially with contestants like Brooke White and Jason Castro who are, in vocal terms, much more style than substance.  Complicating matters has been David Archuleta, who's been robotic in his excellence – vocally head and shoulders above most of his competition, but full of annoying habits that have kept me and countless others from jumping on the Archie bandwagon.  Granted, since this is music, everything I say is based on a subjective opinion.  There's a difference between saying a singer is bad, and saying you don't like a singer.  I will admit that Archuleta is a very good singer.  That doesn't mean I like him.  But, am I obligated to rank him high on a night where he excelled at what he does (which I don't enjoy) or rank him on a purely personal level?

I think people are crazy for liking Josh Groban.  Some people will think I'm crazy for liking Ghostface Killah.  That's music.  It's divisive.  But, that doesn't mean we can't all get along.  I constantly get skewered in the comments below for people who think I have a personal hatred of David Archuleta, and that's why I don't like (or, “pretend” I don't like) his singing.  That couldn't be further from the case.  I don't like Archuleta's singing.  Simple as that, no ulterior motives. 

Another example: I'm a big fan of Bright Eyes.  Conor Oberst (the voice of Bright Eyes) is a terrible singer with a crappy voice.  But, I love his songs.  I hate, with a passion, Celine Dion, who is a great singer with a magnificent voice.  I own zero Dion records, and seven Bright Eyes records.  American Idol isn't a singing competition, and it shouldn't be – potential pop artists shouldn't be judged by their technical vocal ability, they should be judged by what they do with that vocal ability.  For most of the season, I enjoyed what Jason Castro did with his limited ability more than what Archuleta did with his exceptional ability.  I can recognize the talent it takes to pull off performances like Archuleta's “Love Me Tender," but the truth is I'd rather listen to Jason Castro sing Bob Dylan over Archi-fied Elvis.  Lots of you out there feel the exact opposite.  So, with the rankings below, it's really a no-win situation.  Either I rank Archuleta number one and appease his fans, but go against what I actually enjoyed, or I rank Archuleta last and set myself up for a voracious round of comment beat-downs. 


1. David Archuleta - “Stand By Me” and “Love Me Tender”

Consider this an olive branch, Archuleta fans.  The feeling I got watching tonight's episode, despite still being a hater, was that Archie pulled away from the competition.  He's got a vocal range that doesn't quit and if you ignore the silly vocal decisions and base judgment just on how he does with the vocal decisions he's made, there's no choice but to be impressed.  I think he murdered the originals of both these songs, especially if you listen to them and actively compare the new to the old.  They were modernized in the worst way, with runs added where they're not needed and arrangements that rip away the souls of the originals.  But, for what this competition is, for who the voters are, Archuleta was the best performer of the night, as much as it pains me to say it. 

2. David Cook - “Hungry Like a Wolf” and “Baba O'Reilly”

David Cook didn't have a great night.  I watched his first performance (I missed it live because of an internet tube malfunction) and agreed with the judges.  OK, nothing special, but solid enough.  The choice of “Baba O'Reilly” was a weird one.  The vocals are far and away the most unimportant part of the original.  His vocals showed off the range and power that Cook has been known for, but the song just didn't allow Cook to put on a great performance.  But, David did something important tonight: he kept in his niche as a rock singer.  He's in the top two for sure, and tonight he did nothing to put off his fans.

3. Syesha Mercado - “Proud Mary” and “A Change is Gonna Come”

Syesha did enough to stick around for another week (and because I think that, it probably means she's gone).  “Proud Mary” was nowhere near as good as Paula and Randy thought it was.  Simon was right – it was a poor impersonation of Tina Turner.  Syesha's stage presence the last couple weeks has been great, and that continued tonight.  She's probably the best “performer” on the show, which is why I see Broadway in her near future.  The second song was OK, but I didn't like the arrangement and think that no matter what she did, a girl doing Sam Cooke simply isn't going to be overly impressive.  She did sing it well, though.  It seems that a lot of commenters had issues with Syesha “playing the race card” in her post-song interview.  I had no problem with it, because she wasn't saying anything that wasn't true – the song was about the civil rights movement and Syesha has noticeably changed over the course of the season.  As for claims that Syesha was equating her Idol ascension with the plight of African-Americans in the sixties: that's ridiculous.

4. Jason Castro - “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man”

Poor Jason.  This could have been a big night for him, and it ended with utter, crushing disappointment.  The idea of Castro doing Bob Marley is a good one, but not now, not when you only have 90 seconds to perform.  Marley is an artist whose songs breathe.  They are relaxed, they linger.  Hence, Castro's arrangement of “Sheriff” was doomed.  It was just so disjointed and awkward.  He performed it, physically, with more oomph than we've seen all season, but the singing was sub-par.  I thought Simon was overly harsh, and has been all season, to Jason.  It's incredibly unfortunate that Jason forgot the words to “Mr. Tambourine Man,” because I loved every other second of that performance.  The song matched the singer to a tee, and it could have been a nice moment of redemption after his first performance.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)