4/25 AI 11 Performance Show: Top 6 **West Coast Spoilers**

[liedenfrost]

April 25, 2012: The Top Six

1. Skylar Laine. The Show Must Go On was okay; she found the right notes in the end but left much of this song, especially the high notes, unfinished and unexplored. Had she held on to those high notes and allowed them to resonate and marinate, the performance would have brought down the house. I liked the second song a lot. Jason Aldean recorded but one cerebral song in his life; Tattoos on This Town, and Skylar picked it. Good on you, Skylar! Like Skylar, Jason is also courageous and fearless; a born gladiator. He’s a Colt Ford clone that utilizes what country purists term a “blasphemy”; a crude mix of hick-hop and rap (yes, that’s hick-hop, not hip-hop). The original version is loaded with booming guitar riffs, crunches, distortion, and amplitude; Sklylar’s was a very elegant, sentimental, emotionally-accessible, stripped down, minimalist, semi-acoustic version aimed straight for the heart string, and it worked to perfection. I loved it. Good job Skylar.
2. Joshua Ledet. Got Nothing from Crazy Little Thing Called Love, not here; not ever, on any singing competition. This song, like so many Queen Compositions, simply doesn’t translate well to prime time; not without Freddie, arguably one of rock’s most visual performers. India Arie’s Ready for Love was a music masterpiece, in my opinion. This kid is growing before our eyes; learning his craft, and doing it the right way, with technique and emotion. He can growl, scream, and improvise with the best of them; and do it in stride, in rhythm, in flow, and unlike so many others, with full tonal integrity; but he’s now just learning how to caress a lyric, nurture it, and let it live alone and on its own. My favorite contestants from the start were Skylar, Joshua, and Holly. Why? They are easily the nicest, selfless, most endearing, and graciously disarming competitors here.
3. Holly Cavanaugh. Save Me was a complete miss. This song; this lyric; were lying there naked, begging for muscle and glory notes, and she ran from and refused every single opportunity. The “as is” was okay; but too quickly let alone, so left wanting. I liked the The Climb very much; one of her best performances yet, and my favorite performance of the night. It appears she cannot win this thing now, but that doesn’t matters to me. This kid is one of the most likeable and endearing contestants ever seen on Idol; very easy to love. I am a huge Holly Cavanaugh fan but we are now playing the dirty end of the field, where strategy, misdirection, meddling, and dirty laundry rule the day. Skylar and Joshua have unused arrows in the quiver, but I’m not sure Holly has a secret weapon; nor the will to use it even if she did.
4. Jessica Sanchez. Didn’t like Bohemian Rhapsody much; it violated the spirit of the song. It’s a rock anthem, a well-themed rock opera. Jessica chose an artistic, velvety, hushed, approach, which ventured too far from shore, so did not work for me. Dance With My Father, on the other hand, was wrapped in elegance; beautifully measured; beautifully controlled; and beautifully presented. If I could tell her anything, it would be this. You’ve tamed the melisma. That’s a good thing because this song would never have survived such treatment; now you need to control your vibrato and tremolo as well; use them sparingly too; so that they, too, can be used to full effect; to enhance, enable, and enrich a melody. There was a breakthrough tonight though. I felt her; for the first time this season; I felt her. And because of that, I voted for her, for the first time this season.
5. Phillip Phillips. I don’t think he’s in any danger of going home, so I don’t share Jenny’s fear that he’ll be sent home this week. Now that Colton’s gone, I think Phillip will be the last male standing. And as long as he doesn’t say something stupid (like Colton did last week) to lose the female vote, should easily make the final four. See, the one constant in the eleven year history of this show is this: women like eye candy too; just as much as we do; and they will do whatever they have to keep it constant for as long as they can. I didn’t hate either of these performances; but didn’t like them either. I cannot bring myself to say anything negative about DMB; I feel like I know them; as a part of my extended family. Except for a couple problems with waste disposal, these guys are angels; genuinely good guys. Conservation, tsunami aid, farm aid, hurricane aid, they do it all, for the love of mankind. And Jenny, don’t sell these guys short. DMB moved into Pollstar’s list of the top selling bands (gate receipts) decades ago and hasn’t left the top five since. So, yes, Baby Boomers know this song; know this lyric; we know all of their lyrics; we repeat them in unison at every concert. Fat Bottom Girls was too animated, poorly sung, affected, and maniacal. Bucky Covington did it better.
6. Elise Testone. I Want it All was uninteresting, bad television. And her version of one of the best songs ever written, Jimi Hendrix’s Bold as Love, no. 8 on my list of the Best Lyrics of All Time, was, in my opinion, misunderstood and misrepresented here. These beautiful lyrics describe a life defined by music and a music defined by color; wherein each color symbolizes and defines a separate human emotion. Elise’s was a one dimensional interpretation, so not surprisingly, resulted in a one-dimensional performance. But give her props; she picks great songs with great lyrics (see last week) but, despite a solid foundation, has not mastered her craft well enough to do them justice. Why does this kid insist on growling through, meddling, and rearranging melodies that are clearly the “best that’s ever been”? I like Elise but she needs to back off and let these songs breath on their own. She can still rock out; just pick something that’s fun and works well in prime time; Highway To Hell, Walk This Way, Paradise City, etc. Nothing good can come of dismantling well known and well respected classics.

[yourefired]

Wasn't Michael Johns voted off the night he sang "We are the Champions?" Thank goodness that one is out of the way.

Wasn't Ace Young as well or did he make it 1 more week?

[Shoepie]

What is up with Randy thinking he coined the term ginormous!?

This sure seems like Skylar's to lose. I can objectively see she her talent but I do not like country music, not even a little.

I am not playing the prediction game but I see Jessica in the bottom again. She isn't showing enough personality to gather fans.

[angelic_one2002]

What is up with Randy thinking he coined the term ginormous!?

This sure seems like Skylar's to lose. I can objectively see she her talent but I do not like country music, not even a little.

I am not playing the prediction game but I see Jessica in the bottom again. She isn't showing enough personality to gather fans.

Exactly how I feel at this point of the season.

[Misty8723]

Who wants to see three giant heads of someone bouncing on the tv? My dog took one look at the screen and ran in the laundry room, now won't stop whimpering... Thanks American Idol. Thanks.

Actually, I think they were just doing a take off on the Queen video of that song. I didn't pay attention to see that they were all Jessica though. I kind of liked the black and white beginning, once I noticed it was black & white, that is.

I also don't recall that song, but agree with the judges (which is rare) that Skylar was really great!

Somebody else on Idol sang that song (the Show Must Go On) but I can't remember who it was.

Joshua sucks. That is all.

I have to comment that I normally don't like the style of music Joshua sings, but I do like to watch and listen to Joshua. I really liked both his performances last night. Whether I would buy a CD or not is questionable, but I can't see any of them really that I would buy the CD.

The only teeny tiny complaint I have about Jessica singing "Dance with my father' is that she does not enunciate well. I could not understand more than half of what she was singing and I do know that song.

ETA: I see that Winky has the same problem. Good idea about the Closed Captioning.

I think Jessica cannot possibly comprehend the emotion behind that song. Even if her father is deployed, he is still with her, and that song to me is someone who can NEVER dance with her father again because he has passed. I think Jessica is very good at protraying emotion, that's what it looks like to be. I did not like her version of this song at all.

Joshua has had an Idol moment! That was so simple and dialed-back. I've been waiting all season to hear Joshua sing like that. I also did not know the song, but who cares? It was truly lovely.

I would like to know why the insistance from the judges (and others) that the contestants have to sing songs people know. Sometimes it's actually better to not have heard the song before because you have nothing to compare it to.

[Fanny Mare]

I do see what they see in Jessica, I saw her sing Dance with my Father, Luther would have liked that rendition. Is she really connecting with young voters? I find that so hard to believe. I can also see( second song) why the judges like Joshua.

I didn't catch them all ( flipping back and forth) , but it seemed like a very long 2 hours. I thought it hilarious they all think P2 does weird faces. I cannot watch him, ugh! I do like him without the guitar as I said before, maybe because he moves around , and we don't see his face.

[ibot2much]

I thought for the second week that Jessica is totally blah. No personality. Her first song was a disaster and I expected the judges to say so. I think the most we got was JL saying that rock was not her forte. She should have kept with the first song but the mash was just horrible. Her second song was ok but again her enunciation was terrible....and the judges say nothing about that. The best JL ever heard...no... the guy last season did a wonderful , understandable rendition of it. This one was not great

I'm hoping Hollie stays since her second song was out-of- the- park and she seems to be gaining confidence and personality. I have to give the kid credit. Unlike Elise, she keeps smiling though all the (often) unfair garbage the judges have dished out to her.

Elise's clothing choices have been and continue to be strange.

[Arielflies]

Sorry everyone about the Michael Johns reference. I just remember his performance of that song and leaving not long after.

Of the belters, Skylar is on top for me. I do like country and do not like belters and that makes her a hard choice for me. I'm basing my liking for her on her energy and performance.

If Phillip weren't so appealing in looks to the female voters, I think he just might go home after last night's performances. He is like The Boss in his approach - but, I have yet to hear a tender moment from him. What was interesting was that the comments during his package about him always complaining came to fruition during the after show interview on Fox News when he said he was playing through the pain.

Elise continues to capture my attention, but if she veers strictly into Rock and leaves the Blues behind, she, too, will become one note.

Jessica is too young for me and it is not just her youth, she seems fragile compared to last season's teenagers. It looks like her brush with death two weeks ago has done a number on her confidence.

Joshua is growing on me. I would really like to see him and Skylar in the finale if only for the complete contrast in styles. Now, that would be interesting.

Hollie did better with projecting emotion this week, though having sung the second selection before during auditions gave her more time to work on that aspect. Elise also chose a song she had sung before - witness the arrival of the guitar player from home. She had called him to ask in what key they sang the song.

Sickly Ryan infected pretty much everyone in the place last night. He was touching the contestants and the judges - that's a great way to spread your germs, Ryan. I thought Julianne scrambling in the wings was cute. She was graceful even doing a two step to duck the camera.

I enjoyed the montage to introduce Queeen and thought the contestants didn't ask really stupid questions. Another departure was the no one on one mentoring either by Jimmy or with a celebrity at his side. He was in the audience with Stevie Van Zant from The Boss' band and I wonder if he was to be the mentor this week, but with six singing two songs, there just wasn't time to show that section before each song so they went with shorter filler during the second hour.

The change ups made for an interesting and "fast moving" night. The cut ins directly to song from the filler seemed rather rushed and chopped - weird - but the show moved right along. Now, if the contestants somehow escaped Ryan's virus (you could hear it in his voice the second hour) and the pressure doesn't make them explode, we should have another two hours of Top 5 songs to enjoy next week.

[Debb70]

Whew! Man, it's good to see so many posts from last night. I share many of your sentiments.

I was so happy to see Hollie do so well. I can see Hollie going country and see her in the same category of Carrie or she could go the route of Kelly Clarkson. I think she has that versatility. Talk about a spitfire. I doubt that Skylar could have bounced back like Hollie, if she had received the whacking that Hollie has week after week. I'm glad the judges threw her a bone tonight.

I like Skylar, but I don't see her as all that. She may have a future in country music, but not to my taste and I am a huge country music fan. I just get this feeling she is so obsessed with Miranda Lambert. IMO all the firearm worship is a direct copy of Miranda. It annoys me. I wish she could refrain from talking about firearms for one week. She said she recently wrote a song about diamond studded pistol. PLease. Still her performances were pretty good, if you like that kind of thing.

Jessica was okay. She seemed rather down. Her voice is nice, but I don't care to see her perform.

PHillip's second song sounded pretty good, although, I 'm not a fan. Hated the first one. Is it just me or was he way off on that first song?

Joshua is a great singer for those who like that sound, but I consider it screeching and do not enjoy him at all. The second song was much better. He sang lower and had reduced screeching.

I really liked Elise's first song. I thought she did really well on it. THe second one, not so much. Her personality annoys me. And hey, Gilligan's Island called and they want Mrs. Howell's lounging gown back. I know, that's mean.

OVerall, I thought they all did pretty well. I think they all are a great bunch of kids, with no big heads yet.

Oh, maybe I missed it, but where was Jimmy?

[Fanny Mare]

Oh, maybe I missed it, but where was Jimmy?

In the audience I think someone said. That's how importnat his thoughts are. Maybe the three stooges put him the naughty chair.LOL