Showing posts with label danny gokey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label danny gokey. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Idol For Three

For the final three the Idols sang one song picked by the judges and one they picked themselves. I'm gonna go round by round on this one.

Round One (Judges Pick)

Danny Gokey- (Dance Little Sister/Terrence Trent D'Arby) This was a boring song for me. I had never heard it before. It was quick paced, but with nothing going on musically. The Gokes did a fine job but that performance might keep him out of the finale.

Kris Allen- (Apoligize/One Republic) This was a very good performance overall as his lower register sounded really good. His falsetto is really weak and he shouldn't have even attempted it. There were a few times where the original had falsetto and he didn't use. He should've done that the whole time.

Adam Lambert- (One/U2) Ms. Lambert's opening is fantastic as always. He started off real slow with just the piano accompanying him. He killed it. The middle was fine for me as he showed off his talents with some vocal aerobics. He then harnassed it in at the end and finished the song off beautifully.

Round Two (Contestant Pick)

Danny Gokey- (You Are So Beautiful/Joe Cocker) Wow, the falsetto in the middle was a pleasant surprise. After the Dream On disaster a week ago, I didn't think he'd try to go high again. This arrangement he came up with was so good. Definitely one of his best of the season.

Kris Allen- (Heartless/Kanye West) Interesting. Great idea. Take a hip hop song and turn it on its head with an acoustic guitar. Take a song with a dude rapping and a robot microphone and use clever phrasing over the rap and a quality voice instead of the robot man. This was very good for me. If you don't know the original this might not have been as good.

Adam Lambert- (Crying/Aerosmith) He didn't stray from the original very much, he just outdid it. This is exactly the type of thing I see Adam doing, too bad it isn't 1974. Ms. Lambert could be the front man in an awesome 70s rock band. I hope he can do something with his talent in the world today.

This was really hard to choose. I can see this going any which way tomorrow night. Gokey had the worst performance of the night with the TTD song, so I'd be happiest if he were gone.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Idol Rocks

Initial Thoughts
So this was rock week on American Idol. Because Slash was their mentor they had to do crazy hard rock songs? Or is that just what the producers made the contestants choose so that they could eliminate Kris or Danny? Either way this was one of the worst weeks of Idol in a long time. I like all three of the guys left but none of them impressed me tonight. At this point in the competition we should be getting to weeks like; Contestant chooses one, judges choose one. Let them be who they are, don't make Gokes sing Dream On, and force Kris to give Come Together a heavier edge. Oh wait they chose to do those things? Yikes.

The Duets
Danny and Kris- (Renegade/Styx)
Adam and Allison- (Slow Ride/Foghat)
For the first time in Idol finals history, they did duets during performance night. I think it was a nice touch, if only because it was better than them only doing one song each. Because God forbid we get rid of all the warmup videos and get eight full performances in.

I feel Danny and Kris's duet was better. Adam's fantastic work on Slow Ride couldn't make up for how much I wanted to kill myself listening to Allison interrupting him with her one note singing. I completely agreed with what Randy said after Kris and Gokes performed. Their voices sounded so good together. When they sung their own parts Danny was much better.

Eliminate Her
Allison Iraheta- (Cry Baby/Janis Joplin) This may be bias at this point, but I can't stand when she sings anymore. Maybe it's her ridiculously horrible personality or that she only sings one note every time on stage, but she is just the worst. I feel like I'm watching Amanda Overmyer over here. Not to mention that this was a really bad song choice. Cryyyy babyyyyyy, almost made me wanna cry.

Just Not Good Tonight
Kris Allen- (Come Together/The Beatles) So although I like this a bit more than the Gokes' performance, Danny was much better than him during the duet so I'm putting Kris in the three hole. I liked the small changes he made to the song, especially when he almost brought it to a hault a little more than halfway through. Overall though I felt like the song was a bit too big for him, and didn't suit his style.

Danny Gokey- (Dream On/Aerosmith) The slight edge has to do with his duet performance, because this Dream On wasn't getting it done. The middle was good where he was yelling in his growly voice, but the beginning was a bit dreary and off-tone and then we have the end. What a time to break out your falsetto Danny. The Dream On scream is so iconic and ridiculously tough that when Michael Johns did a good job of it last year, it still was a disappointment. The Gokes' falsetto sream was weak and his final note made me cringe a bit.

By Default
Adam Lambert- (Whole Lotta Love/Led Zeppelin) This is both sad and pathetic for me, because I feel this was Adam's least impressive performance to date. He made hardly any changes to the song and the song itself doesn't give one much opporunity to shine. On the positive sign, he sounded just like Robert Plant. But copy cat hasn't been Ms. Lambert's game, and that's what I like so much about him. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Zeppelin fan, but Adam usually improves a song greatly, this wasn't really possible with Whole Lotta Love.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Id'old' Blue Eyes

If the rumors of Simon leaving Idol after this season are true, it will be a very sad day. Listening to the judges is already unbearable, but at least I know there is some enjoyment when Mr. Cowell comments. Can you imagine listening to only Randy, Kara and Paula next year? Wow that would be rough.

Quote of the night- "He's got a little Sylar in him," Pops after watching Ms. Lambert's performance.

Last night was songs from the Rat Pack Era. Which means any song that Old Blue Eyes, Sammy D or Deano ever recorded.

Five--
Allison Iraheta- (Someone to Watch Over Me/Frank Sinatra) This girl needs to work on her diction, because I can't understand a single word she sings. That being said, she deserves to be in the top five, but not any further. This was good, but not great at all. All of the critics love her and I don't know why. Thankfully America doesn't seem to and hopefully she heads home tonight.

Four--
Kris Allen- (The Way You Look Tonight/Frank Sinatra) Again this was good, but nothing special. The beginning was great but I thought it got away from him a little through the second half. He tried to do too much with it and didn't pull it off. Also the falsetto in the middle didn't work for me at all, it was not nearly powerful enough. This was just so much worse than the original that it's hard to say it was a great performance.

Three--
Danny Gokey- (Come Rain or Come Shine/Frank Sinatra) Gokes started a little too slow again. The last third of this was so good that I feel bad not putting him second. His bluesy tone knocked the end of this song out of the park.

Two--
Matt Giraud- (My Funny Valentine/Frank Sinatra) Unlike Danny, Matt's performance held my attention from the first note to the last. I just listened to Sammy's version of this a couple of days ago and Matt's was wayy better. He kept his runs to a minimum in this one and when he brought them out they added a lot to the song. Also his falsetto was on point.

One--
Adam Lambert- (Feeling Good/Sammy Davis Jr.) Every night he does what he does with the utmost professionalism and makes every song his own. I will admit this wasn't one of my favorites of Ms. Lambert's, but it was still miles better than anyone else in the competition. Also his opening to the song was unbelievable.