| mike577 |
 Posted: May 20, 2009 - 6:45am |
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Joined: 20 May 2009
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brother, you nailed it...I wrote on my blog that I thought Kris eked out a victory and deserves to win. I think he won the first round, Adam won the second round, and Kris barely won the third round.
And I have two thoughts on Kara's craptastic song. One, it's easily the worst finale song this show has ever produced, even worse than (I'm cringing now) "This is My Now." Two, Adam was so off-pitch and screechy with the song, and Paula and Simon still trip over themselves to praise him? Fuck them, and fuck the producers. My middle finger will be raised high tonight to this show when Seacrest announces Kris as the winner.
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| Ashe Priest |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:02am |
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Joined: 20 May 2009
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Someone here had it absolutely right, Kara had written this song for Gokey, plain and simple. She's been gagging to bounce on his pole all season long and several times she was an inch away from either crawling up onto the stage and blowing him right then and there or flat out saying, "You're coming home with me tonight." I also think that Simon Fuller picked the songs for them with Gokey in mind as well. Take note, every single time a song has been chosen for them (i.e when the judges picked them before), there is some kind of explanation offered as to why they chose that song. This time, zero explanation as to why R&B songs were chosen for two very UN-R&B sings. The only R&B singer in the last several weeks has been Gokey. Gee, think maybe Fuller wanted him to win as well?
AI has just gotten steadily worse and worse each year (Although I do have to admit that I thought David Cook was great last year and his album isn't that bad). I watched TMZ last night and they had Ruben coming out of the airport. He's performing at the finale so get your earplugs ready. The funny part? AI didn't pay shit for his flight out to perform and probably isn't paying for his hotel either. The coup de gras: Ruben just came out with a new album, brand new, and it's starting price at Walmart is $9.99 and $9.98 at Target. Oh yeah, American Idol sure can make you a superstar.
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| Panderer |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:11am |
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Joined: 06 Mar 2009
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Adam's songs: "Mad World" -- My problem was that it was not as good as the first time. The element of surprise was gone. And who put that damn hammer-striking-anvil noise in the arrangement.
"Change Is Gonna Come" -- Soul is not in Adam's repertoire. That is a song that should make you cry. Gideon from a couple season's ago did it much better. "No Boundaries" -- Crappy coronation song that seemed to be written for Adam.
Kris' songs: "Ain't No Sunshine" -- Actually a great version from Mr. Wonder Bread. "What's Going On" -- Obviously the theme tonight was "songs played in the key of dull" and Kris had a chance to put a dagger in Eddie Munster's heart but did just OK with it. "No Boundaries" -- I actually could hear the words when Kris sang the song as opposed to Adam's scream-o style, but that was the PROBLEM...I heard the words.
Kris won on DialIdol by more than 1.2 percent with a margin of error of about 1.5 percent...meaning if you split the difference (.75 percent), the producers can name whomever the hell they want as winner and you needn't know more! BUT...Simon and 19 Entertainment are so orgasmic over Adam and they want to get Adam "product" out there for sale yesterday, they will put the tiara on Adam tonight.
For Adam's fans...It doesn't say much when the next Elvis, Jesus, Beatles has to possibly be rigged into winning one lousy competition against a dull-as-a-butterknife yokel.
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| Noladoll |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:13am |
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Joined: 27 Mar 2009
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funniest line: It took THREE people to write that shit ???
Listen to Mad World without watching - it is shear brilliance. It doesn't make Kris bad - he's not - he's pretty good - just not great.
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| Illuminating |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:14am |
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Joined: 14 May 2009
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The thing that pissed me off most about last night was the last song.
First of all, it was crap. It sounded like that Miley Cyrus song... do either of them look like they should be singing Miley Cyrus crap?
Second of all, it was performed in a key that was perfect for Adam's range (you know, the high, shrilly range), yet it was obviously way too high for Kris. The judges mentioned it themselves. As "musicians" though, shouldn't at least Randy, Kara and Paula know that you can easily put a song into anybody's comfortable range by simply transposing the whole thing?! Kara, at the very least, as a "song writer" (and I use that term very loosely) should be well experienced in transposing to meet the ideal vocal range of the musician.
Kris deserves the crown, if only for the fact that he had to constantly deal with this kind of crap from the producers and judges.
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| whattheheck |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:15am |
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Joined: 24 May 2006
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I gotta completely disagree with the previous poster regarding Ruben Studdard. Ruben had one of the best voices ever on Idol. I happened to be on youtube the other day looking up some singer from when I was a teen. I happened to notice a Ruben Studdard video on there and re-watched alot of his Idol performances. He had a tremendous amount of great performances on Idol and his voice, imo, is gorgeous. Very much Luther Vandross-like. His personality was also very likable on the show, imo.
I guess people have very different tastes, which I can understand, but to act as if he was an awful singer is very undeserving.
Just because someone doesn't make it big shouldn't take away the fact that they were a good singer on Idol.
I think Ruben is the one idol that gets the most undeserved put-downs about his singing.
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| crazytom |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:21am |
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Joined: 22 Mar 2007
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I lost all respect for Adam when he thanked Kara for writing such a beautiful song.
I lost all respect for Kara (ok, I never had any) when Simon mocked her about "mountains and hurrakins" and she retorted "Yeah, Yeah, I know".
Glad you pointed out they write the coronation song with the annointed one in mind. Happens year after year after year. All the more annoying that they couldn't let Kris sing the tune in a more comfortable key? Any competent group of musicians could easily have accomodated.
Both of these goobers will be dissapearing from national conciousness very soon. Lambert has a 1 way ticket to Broadway, Kris will move from Conway to Little Rock.
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WWSS: What Would Sanjaya Sing?
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| Ashe Priest |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:22am |
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Joined: 20 May 2009
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I think you might have misunderstood me. I wasn't putting Ruben down at all. In fact, I've never listened to any of his songs nor do I have any plans to. I have no clue how good or bad a singer is and frankly I don't care. My comments were aimed squarely at the sham that is AI (the judges, producers the record label, etc.) and how they wouldn't even pay to fly him in for their show. As far as his pathetic CD price tag, I'm assuming he's still under AI's record contract so I'm once again blasting them, not him. If he's under some other label, well, they fucked up big time.
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| whattheheck |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:32am |
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Joined: 24 May 2006
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No one will ever convince me that both of those singers heard that song and really thought it was good.
Adam DOES NOT think it's 'a beautiful song'. He is trying to be gracious. He's been in show business long enough to know he has to kiss ass. Kris, on the other hand, had absolutely no comment on the song. Wouldn't you just love to hear what they really thought of it?
It was, by far, one of the worst songs I ever heard.
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| BeckEye |
| Posted: May 20, 2009 - 7:49am |
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Joined: 20 Feb 2008
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I don't know baby, I don't know dawg. I tend to agree with you, but not this time. Adam's 2nd performance of that Sam Cooke song (that was completely out of his comfort zone) was a hot lava bomb, yo.
And you're totally giving Kara's song too much credit. It's The Worst Song I've Heard Since The History of Ever.
__________________________
Idol recaps and inane pop culture ramblings - http://thepopeye.blogspot.com
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So here we are, the Penultimate episode of Idol Season 8, and the last competition episode. Tonight gave us still more proof that Kris Allen (who?) is a gamer. He went head to head with Adam Glambert and in my humble opinion, he came out on top. Lambert brought his usual professionalism to the show so there really weren't any surprises. Of course this being American Idol, we were punished with 5 mid-tempo ballads including the Worst Song I've Heard Since Last Year's Idol Winning Song.
The big story, and the true VFTW victory is how clueless the Idol Producers continue to be with their musical tastes. Year after year they torpedo their own Idol's musical credibility before their career gets going with a thoroughly awful Idol coronation song. It's like they're compulsively searching for the absolutely shittiest songs known to mankind. This one was written by Idol's own Kara Doucha-Guardi.
Simon likes to rank the performances head to head. And so do I. So let's get on with it.
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Ryan (Dramatic Pause) Seacrest dubs this battle Conway vs. California, and Guy Next Door vs. Guy-Liner. We get it, Adam is gay and Kris comes from a small town. And you can tell the Idol Producers really, REALLY want Adam to win because they're setting up the battle between Conway, Arkansas, population 10,000, versus the UNITED FORCES OF THE ENTIRE MIGHTY STATE OF CALIFORNIA. And Adam.
10 minutes in and nothing of import has happened.
Adam Lambert -- Personal song choice -- "Mad World."
Good choice Adam. This song plays to his best attributes, namely his theatricality, his beautiful tenor voice, and his emotional connection with songs. Glambert gets the Professional Wrestling entrance, riding the stage elevator to the top of the stairs amidst billowing green smoke while dressed like an extra from The Matrix with trench coat and combat boots. Did I mention Adam is cool?
I liked his earlier performance of this song, and I think he sings an album-ready version of it tonight.
GRADE: A --
Kara immediately gets on my bad side with her ebullient, over the top
praise. She's insufferable. Paula looks puffy and beat up, wearing a
bra-less green dress. Cover up woman, your ribs are showing. She also
looks like she fell asleep on a tanning bed set to Deep Fat Fry. Her
tan has an unwholesome purple hue. Simon is merely trying to out-boob
Paula with his shirt unbuttoned to the navel. Paula still has more
chest hair.
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Kris Allen -- Personal Song Choice -- "Ain't No Sunshine"
Another excellent performance from Kris. His voice was solid, his song was nicely textured and emotional, without going over the top. I finally could hear his piano playing over the strident backing band!
Paula mumbles something about "Allen-izing his songs." You mean singing watered down Dave Matthews/Jason Mraz, funky white boy versions of songs out of the side of his mouth? I kid of course.
GRADE: A
ROUND 1 WINNER -- I'm calling it a tie. Both singers played to their strengths and neither screwed up.
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Adam -- Producers Choice -- "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke.
Producer Simon Fuller may be as rich as King Midas, but unlike that mythical king, everything Fuller touches does NOT turn to gold, it turns to shit, musically.
Who the hell looks at Adam and thinks, yeah '50s R&B/Soul? And then thinks, "I will be so rich I will wipe my ass with money."
Personally I'd go with some David Bowie, Queen, or even Aerosmith. Something rocking, Glam and screaming. I just don't get this pick. I'm guessing the music rights were cheap.
This song plays to all the worst tendencies of Adam, namely tuneless screeching, tortured facial expressions, and his compulsion to push theatricality over musicality. This was a truly awful performance mainly because Adam should NEVER sing the blues. Also the crappy backing guitar was entirely too loud for the lame blues chords he was playing.
GRADE: FAIL -- If this is how the Producers see Adam moving ahead in his career then Adam will be playing county fairs two weeks after his album comes out.
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Kris -- Producer's Choice -- "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye
This is another thoroughly awful pairing of song to performer by Simon "I Poop Gold Bullion" Fuller. The song is a jazzy social statement on poverty and the Vietnam War that became an anthem of the era. Marvin Gaye had an unworldly three octave voice, and layered his vocals to haunting effect on "What's Going On."
Kris Allen has what we'll politely call a two-octave range. He sings a poppy, funky white boy acoustic version of the song that starts off too low to enable him to even hit the notes in the chorus. Kris' talents are credibly singing contemporary pop songs and connecting with them in new and interesting ways. So of course he gets to sing a song that's 38 years old, that he could never hope to connect with in any meaningful way.
Kris didn't sound bad, but the song is much bigger than a 90 second version that Kris learned earlier this week.
GRADE: C -- Simon says Adam "won this round by a million per cent" and the Producers have branded Adam as "The most contemporary artist ever to hit the Idol stage." Kris has repeatedly been the most contemporary as he sounds good on popular songs from THIS YEAR. Adam's best song was the "Donnie Darko" version of "Mad World" from 8 years ago, and his wheelhouse is '70s Hard Rock and Glam. So yeah, that's certainly "contemporary." (NOTE THE SARCASM.) And don't get me wrong, I love '70s Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. But is there any question who the Producers want to win?
ROUND 2 WINNER -- I think Kris wins this round.
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Shitty Idol Coronation Song -- "No Boundaries"
The song is an over-wrought, and shallow collection of cliches about the weather, that even Simon can't help but mock. It is shit, and it is impossible to sound good singing it.
Adam is once again given the Star treatment as he gets backing vocals to make his version sound bigger, fuller and more dramatic.
Kris doesn't get any backing vocals and his stripped down version of the song exposes his thin voice that's ill-suited for the Celine Dion/Mariah Carey vocal exercise of schmaltz that is "No Boundaries."
Adam gets a verbal tongue bath from the judges and is anointed "God's Gift To Pop Music."
Kris doesn't get ONE SINGLE COMMENT ON HIS PERFORMANCE. Kara damns him with faint praise by suggesting Kris' fans vote based on "his body of work this season." Randy tells him, "You should be proud for getting this far."
I CALL SHENANIGANS. The Producers are clearly in Adam's corner and aren't even apologizing about their homer-ism. And mind you, this is a week after Simon outright begged fans to vote for Adam so that he could win.
I like Adam and I think he's talented, but he's been on cruise control for a couple weeks now while Kris has been clawing to the top every week.
WINNER ROUND 3 -- A too-close-to-call TIE of Crappy Proportions.
SEASON 8 WINNER: I think Kris won this night, and he deserves to be the Idol. Also I want Adam to have a successful musical career FAR AWAY From the Evil Idol Producers, so he needs to lose.
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Tomorrow's two hour Finale promises to be the shit-storm that it is every season. I'm watching. But I have to say, I got more musical chills from one well-performed, well-harmonized version of "Don't Stop Believing" on "Glee" tonight than I got in an entire season of live performances on Idol. And more laughs too.
Suck on that Evil Idol Producers.
--Chan
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