To say I’m disappointed with last night’s performances of the Top 12 for American Idol 2011 is an understatement. The song choices didn’t work for the majority of the contestants and the mixes they put together for them didn’t sound good. They had the vocals higher than the music and it came across way more karaoke than necessary. And turn the gosh dang reverb down!!!LOL They use it way too much and way too thick. This is not the singers fault. I’m bashing the producers here.
Way too many ballads! Please don’t sing Tina Turner, Whitney Houston or even Kurt Cobain unless you plan on nailing it and sounding even better than the original. I will say that Pia Toscano did well even though I didn’t care for her song choice at all and James Durbin could have picked a much better song than “I’ll be there for you” but he is still one of my favs this season.
I’ve tried to like Paul McDonald but each week he drives me further away. I’ll concede he was better than last week but singing Elton John didn’t do him any favors. I thought Jacob Lusk started out a little pitchy but then he got to the chorus and he was doing great until he went up an octave. He doesn’t need to do that with every song. I know that’s going to be his “thing” but he could have done so much better had he just stuck to holding it down a notch.
Casey Abrams was awful. When I heard he was singing Nirvana with the electric bass I got kind of excited. I thought he could pull it off but I was so wrong. Kurt Cobain is one of the best all time alternative rock singers and I’m sure that performance last night had him turning in his grave. Don’t take on a legend if you can’t pull it off! Kurt had raw natural talent and he was a tormented soul so it works for him. Casey tried way too hard and came off as screechy. And why were there horns in the song?
Stefano Langone gets my praise for best of the night. He has a great attitude and he sang his butt off. He was our shining star of the night even though I didn’t like his song choice, he still nailed it. He needs to connect with us and not keep his eyes closed during the song. A future Glee cast member perhaps? LOL
I have no idea who is going home tonight but my guess would be Karen Rodriguez or Hailey Reinhart. Neither one has impressed me since the show began. What were your thoughts on last nights episode?