Collateral Bloggage

Lisa is up first this week, and makes an amazingly dreadful song choice with “Because of You” from Kelly Clarkson. Seriously? Umm, Kelly has a big range. Lisa, well, doesn’t. Just not good enough. How many times have I said that about her?

Kellie takes the stage next, shockingly picking a Country song, “Suds in a Bucket.” Wow! That was powerful boring! It’s like she didn’t realize she was being recorded.

Attempting to show us a “rock” side is Ace, singing “Drops of Jupiter.” I actually liked the performance, because he picked a song he could do more vocals and less actual singing on. Don’t get me wrong…that’s a good thing. He just doesn’t have a very strong voice, so showing some vocals is a plus.

Clarification: there’s a huge difference between good singing and good vocals. Yes, you can have both: think Katharine and Elliott. Chris is an example of a vocalist, but not so much a singer. Ace doesn’t have a distinct vocal style, and doesn’t have a great voice, so that’s a problem for him.

Taylor, who is just a great vocalist, comes out and takes on “Trouble.” Very solid vocal to me, but the performance missed some fun this time. Still, quite enjoyable.

Bringing in some CHUTCH (sic) next is Mandisa, with “Wanna Praise You.” I like that she’s going out there with her faith on grand display, but I thought it was a bit over the top. The speaking at the beginning seemed to rob her of breath control for the first verse, and then she kinda yelled the rest of the song. Still, I couldn’t help but love it.

Chris is up next with, again shockingly, a rock song called “What If.” This was all Chris, definitely, but it’s getting a little monotonous to me. It’s kinda hard to tell if his singing is really all there when it’s all shouting. Still, there’s no doubt he had one of the O’s: Ownage.

Bringing us back to Pop is Katharine with the extremely humanistic “The Voice Within.” It’s official: she can sing anything. Christina don’t sing no easy songs, and Katharine nailed this one. She didn’t have Originality, but she definitely Owned.

Bucky comes in next, bereft of O’s, with “Real Good Man.” Maybe it’s just that my expectations are reeeeeeally low for Bucky, but I kinda enjoyed this. Not Idol-worthy by any stretch of the imagination, but at least he was in his comfort zone. Actually, I changed my mind…didn’t do it for me. I was just trying to get charitable. I’m over that now.

Reverting to Generic R&B Artist is Paris with “Work it Out.” Meh. This is the Paris I hoped not to see again. This did absolutely nothing for me. I have nothing against Beyonce, but she does not clone well.

Elliott finishes us off with “I Don’t Wanna Be.” I really like the song, and this was completely his own arrangement. And was that a bit of the George Huff Bounce he had going? Great way to end an otherwise mediocre night. Total double-O performance.

Rankings:

1. Elliott
2. Katharine
3. Taylor
4. Mandisa
5. Chris
6. Ace
7. Paris
8. Lisa
9. Kellie
10. Bucky

So, in this week’s edition of “Doing the Math,” here are the adjusted rankings (averaged over the three weeks – plus an adjustment from the Semis):

It was such a lousy week that I really have a hard time picking the losers. But I’ll go with my bottom three: Kellie, Bucky, and Lisa. I think Lisa will stick around this time, because Bucky and Kellie will split the tin-eared Country vote and one of them will go home. I’ll take credit for either.

Next up is Bucky, singing “Oh Boy.” Nope…didn’t like it. I thought it was an okay song choice for him, but he was off almost the whole way through. Yuck.

Paris comes in next with “Fever,” which is a great choice for her. I was looking forward to this genre for her, and she came through for me. She seemed to have some breath control at the beginning, but once she hit her upper register, she brought it home. I just like to see her not being Average R&B Singer. Loved the look, too.

Is it just me, or did Paula looked like she had tied one on before she show? Her eyes were just about half-mast the whole time…

Chris takes the stage next, with “Walk the Line.” He bottomed out a bit in the first little bit, but I absolutely loved the arrangement. I admit I liked the first part better, because it was just more musical, but it was all very cool. He could absolutely have a hit with that song.

Shifting gears just a bit is Katharine with a bit of Ella Fitzgerald in “Come Rain or Come Shine.” Whoa. She knocks it out of the park every week. It’s so unfortunate, though, how she strains for every note…hehehe. Has she broken a sweat yet? She’s a complete stud.

Taylor takes on “Not Fade Away” next, and it really left me cold. There was just way too much empty space in the song. Though he sang well, and I admire his dancing, and he performed well, it was just so-so for me.

Next up, wearing her “Kids Incorporated” best is Lisa with “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” She looked and sang her age tonight. Thanks for coming. Good afternoon, good evening, and good night. As Toad, of Frog and Toad, would say: “Blah.”

Charlie Brown, er, Kevin is next to the mike with “When I Fall in Love.” Three things need to happen before Kevin will be a star: 1. Growth spurt, 2. Speech Therapy (lisp), 3. Another Decade or so. This was a very “wedding singer” performance. Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now. But he won’t…

My man Elliott shows us how it’s really done with “Teach Me Tonight.” I’m having a hard time coming up with new ways to say what a stud he is. Just terrific, with the exception of a couple unfortunate notes on the word “learn.”

Kellie comes out and handles “Walkin’ After Midnight”. I loved the song choice, and actually really liked the singing, but she looked a bit bored through most of it. Also, her outfit just did not go with the song or genre. It was much better when I heard her from the other room than when I watched it back again.

Ace closes us out with “In the Still of the Night.” I liked the arrangment, but he started really weak. Fortunately for him, he worked it out a bit at the end. But, it wasn’t nearly in the same league as Elliott or Chris. Rankings

1. Mandisa
2. Katharine
3. Elliott
4. Paris
5. Chris
6. Kellie
7. Ace
8. Taylor
9. Kevin
10. Lisa
11. Bucky

It’s easy to predict the buh-bye this week. That’d be Lisa. She’s just completely out of her league here. As for the others in the basement, I’d predict Bucky and either Taylor or Kellie.

And in case you’re at all interested in my Doing the Math calculations, here’s what it looks like for this week:

Duh. This really shows who’s getting bailed out by tin-eared fans. Is it really that surprising that Bucky’s drawing votes from Country-listeners? I’m shocked at the lack of a discerning ear from those types…

It could be that I'm watching this at 11:23pm after a long day of moving, but Kellie Pickler and “Blame it on the Sun” nearly put me in a coma. It's the Incredible Disappearing Personality! Bore. Ing. The way she was grinding on the low notes made me think the song would get somewhat high…and then it didn't. Oh, and a side comment to the producers: please keep Kellie away from boys. She's just not ready to deal with them yet…

Elliott Yamin is next up with “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” and he doesn't really deliver for me. I was hoping for more of that last note in there, though. It's like he just didn't go for it. There just wasn't as much sparkle to it as there has been in his past performances. But he's still my man!

At this point, Simon's looking for the 'Wow' factor, and attempting to deliver is Mandisa with “Don't You Worry About a Thing.” I predicted you'd hear a lot of grinding on low notes because of the range of Stevie's songs, and Mandisa was a shining example of this. Overall, the performance was decent, but I think the song was actually a little too big for her.

Behind door number five is Bucky Covington, singing “Superstitious.” I actually really like the song, and I could see Bucky doing well with it, but I didn't like his vocals. He has a tendency to lose his pitch, even though I kinda like his tone. Not that good.

And my dark horse candidate, Melissa McGhee, is up next, performing “Lately.” Bummer. Hopefully my “reconnition misses,” or she could be in trouble. From the flubbed lyrics to the pitch troubles, it just didn't make it for me.

Now it's Lisa Tucker time, and she's singing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” There's a big voice in there, just begging to be let out, and it came out a few times during the song, which was good. The first minute or so was reeeeally boring to me, but once her voice came out (read: she kinda sang high), it got a lot better. But I still don't think she really has a shot at the title.

And with the current version of the Weekly Ewww, we have Kevin Covais and “Part-time Lovers.” Dude. It's an extreme song, both from a lyric and vocal perspective, and I was really worried about The Virgin Connie Swail, er, Kevin. But he actually sang reasonably well. Again, he's better than Ace. Might have been a bad move to get snarky with Simon, though. Of course, the closed captioning may not have captured his comments, so his fans won't mind…

Striking me dumb is Katharine McPhee and “Until You Come Back to Me.” Wow. That's what I was hoping to hear from Elliott. Just fantastic! I could go on and on, but I won't.

Up next, and very much in his element is Taylor Hicks and “Livin' For the City.” Spaaaaz! I thought that was just great…best of the men so far. I liked that he merged his sound into the song and made it sound like his. And it certainly looked like him.

From under the weight of my expectations emerges Paris Bennett with “All I Do is Think About You.” I watched her twice because I needed to make sure I really liked it. Yep. Much better than her work in the Semis. I think she got lost once or twice in there, but she did aight, as Randy would say. After sleeping on it, though, there's still something that left me cold about it. Hmmm…

Closing us out is Chris Daughtry with “Higher Ground.” And I mean closing us out. Way out. I recognize that it was a good performance, and that it was totally him, but I really didn't care for it. But I can't fault him for being true to himself. I just wish there would have been some, let's see, singing in there. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

Rankings:

1. Katharine
2. Taylor
3. Elliott
4. Paris
5. Lisa
6. Mandisa
7. Chris
8. Kevin
9. Melissa
10. Kellie
11. Bucky
12. Ace

So, predictions. Hmm…tough call. I really think Ace needs to go, and I don't know what kind of fan support he has. I think he's actually in some danger, but Bucky and Melissa are in dire straits. I could see those three at the bottom, but Mandisa might actually sneak in there, too. We'll see.

What the stink was going on with the sound tonight?  Half the time, it was hard to hear the vocalists over the band.  I hope at some point, somebody will remember this is a *singing* show, and we should be able to, you know, hear people.  Balance, please!!!

And now, on with the show:

Tomorrow, I’ll post my inaugeral “Doing the Math” column, in which I take my somewhat arbitrary rankings and figure out who belongs in the Finals.  Stay tuned!

Lisa Tucker - “Where I Stand” - A bit nasal at times, and there were a couple of trouble spots, but this was a *very* strong performance. And this coming from someone who’s been a tad critical. What I liked was, it seemed genuine.

Melissa McGhee - “What About Love” - I love the effort she puts into her performances. Not that she looks like it’s tough for her, but she just seems to be *trying*. Hmm…there’s no way to make that sound positive. Anyway, she seems to be taking things seriously and using her full range. Was it great? Not totally. Was it bad? Definitely not. Will I be moving on now? Like, yah.

Kinnik Sky - “If I Ain’t Got You” - Taking on Alicia Keys? Seriously? That. Was. Horrible. Nice that even Paula could only come up with fashion comments. I agreed with Simon and Randy that she was terrible at the end, but I think they must have heard a different beginning, because it was abysmal, too. The end wasn’t absolutely brutal, but the overall impression was painful.

Katharine McPhee - “Think” - Glad to hear the affair with Kevin didn’t result in an unfortunate love child. It would have been a badly timed distraction to a stellar performance this week. Just great. I just hope she doesn’t go the way Diana DeGarmo went after singing that song in Season 3 (read: Diana tanked afterwards - even though she somehow made the Final 2).

Ayla Brown- “Unwritten” - Terrible song choice, and either the key was bad, or the song was too rangy for her. Either way, it was completely lacking. Actually, there’s no range to that song. Randy nailed it about the song not being “a singers’ song.” Paula’s comment about her “working her (excluded for my family) off” is *not* a positive comment to me. While Melissa worked hard on a hard song, Ayla worked hard on a song that didn’t need that kind of effort.

Mandisa - “I’m Every Woman” - She just makes me smile. I thought the song got away from her in places, but it’s only because she was actually *performing*! She’s just great. I still liked Katharine better, though.

Kellie Pickler - “I’m the Only One” - Doh…she’s gonna make me eat my words about not making the finals. She’ll slide on through just on the strength of her tarty “shake my hair into my face” move. And the past two weeks, she’s chosen perfect songs for her voice.

My final Rankings (I’ll do the math before Thursday to figure out who *should* make the Finals):

Katharine
Mandisa
Lisa
Melissa
Kellie
Paris
Ayla
Kinnik
The easy bottom three this week are Kinnik (gone), Ayla, and Melissa. I won’t be truly surprised if Americer agreees with Mr. Cowell, but I think Melissa deserves a spot in the finals, so I’ll cut Ayla.

So, what does that do for my prediction accuracy factor (PAF)? Well, I’ll take one point apiece for David, Heather, and Brenna, but only a half point for Sway since I only had him as a possibility. That means I am now 7 of 8, or (shockingly) 87.5% for my PAF. That’s two weeks in a row with a B+…

Unfortunately, one of my finalists (Sway) is gone. I didn’t want him as a Finalist, but I *did* predict it.