This week, the kids can choose what they like - something that's supposed to represent who they are or whatever.
Holy schamoley, that's a giant stage for a kid to cover.
Ben - Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning" which will forever remind me of the time Jason Smith danced to the song on Dancing With the Stars. I really love how it suits his voice and all but let's face it, the song isn't all that exciting. It's enjoyable and sweet and *nice*, just like Ben is, but I think you need to come out firing with something more than nice. Mark seems to agree with me. I am scared. Everyone else loved the song choice. Kyle thinks it was "perfect". This is probably just because Kyle actually recognises the song, though, so let's not get too excited.
Mark - "Vertigo" from U2. It seemed a little cheesy to me, but I suspect he was a little overwhelmed by that huge space on stage with no band to play off. It's completely foreign to anyone singing music of his genre. Good effort, but I don't have much to say about it and neither do the judges. I think it was a bit of a safe choice, too.
Lana - Natalie Imbruglia's "Shiver". Really nice song choice, and I just plain like this girl for some reason. I get all protective of her and it's freaking me out. She does a better job of holding back the theatrical hand gestures and I think she can still improve as she goes on. More to the point, I think I *want* to see how she improves.
Daniel - Ooh, I like his package. Not *that* package - we covered that last week - but his little "this is where I grew up etc" thing. I love that he lives in a pigsty! And he collects junk from garage sales! And he goes to the dogs all the time. Heh. HOLY FREAKIN' SONG CHOICE BATMAN! Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River". It's a funky little arrangement to bend the song to his own style but it's lacking something, and I think it might be his voice - not strong enough to compete with 5 billion instruments running over the top of him. I don't think he exactly needed the giant string section along with the screaming guitar and huge drums. Kyle says it sounded like a bit of a sloppy mess. Mark agrees. I do, too. Eek! Marcia chooses to remind him of his hotness and "found it incredibly exciting". Somewhere backstage, Carl gets jealous.
Carl - If it helps your jealousy, baby, I think I love you. It's kinda awesome that so far everyone's packages have introduced their single parent, sad adoption, parental divorce sob story, and Carl just rocks up with a "this is my mum and dad, we're a normal family and I love them" and it's, like, sometimes I think it's his *normalcy* amongst everyone else that actually makes him a stand out. Crazy, huh? (Then he goes and blows it by giving his "serving in Iraq" sob story, but he did kinda downplay it, so I'll forgive) Speaking of Crazy, Carl sings a swing version of ... ... "Waltzing Matilda". I kid you not. He comes out in a shirt & tie and the daggiest hat you've ever seen (which I suspect may have been his dad's because they have that rule about wearing awful shirts on the boat the BUILT TOGETHER) and he bops and shooby-doos his way through probably the most performed Australian song ever and...HE PULLS IT OFF. I was cracking up and WTF?ing throughout the entire thing simply because it *should* have been bad, but it wasn't. I'm on board the Carl train. Judge I can't recall: "Waltzing was the last thing on Matilda's mind, if you know what I mean?" Yes. Yes I do. Ahem. Everyone loved it except Kyle who hated it and said the song was naff. Hey Kyle, at least you'd heard it before!
Holly - Holly makes a emphatic point of telling us she may be a country girl, but her music is all rock. I really like her. WAIT WTF? Did I just hear Andrew G right? *music starts* YES! She's actually doing "Standing in the Way of Control". That's a fave song of mine, Holly! YOU ARE MADE OF AWESOME. She rocks out, way more than Mark has, and I think the only thing wrong is her drag queen up-do which she seems slightly uncomfortable with (Kyle describes her look as "Patti Newton on crack" and it's surprisingly apt). It would have been much cooler to be able to flick that hair around on stage a bit. Dicko is worried there will only be a few voters who even know of The Gossip. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK? Marcia admits she's never heard the song before. HAS EVERYONE TURNED INTO KYLE? Mark brings up Reigan doing the Karnivool song last year and...oh, maybe he has a point. But, no, because I'm sure I've seen that Gossip video on quite a few morning music video shows, maybe even on commercial tv, but I could be wrong. And I *often* see Beth on the front of (heh) gossip mags because of her, well, fashion sense/body shape combo, mostly. I'll admit to being a bit of a fan of her, but it's not like they're completely unknown. It's kinda telling, though, that nobody commented on the political meaning of *this* song like they have with that Pink song last week etc. So Holly wins for singing about gay marriage rights. GO HOLLY! (btw, James is pretty darn impressed with her song choice, you can tell). It's interesting that Holly chose this song after reading people in forums associating her with country music (I read posts like that last week and wondered where it was coming from!)
Matt - Aw, what a cute baby photo montage. This of course is to remind us that he's *still* a baby. Heh. And again with the choosing of my fave songs! "The Scientist" is my favourite song off that Coldplay album and I *was* a little worried, but Matt does it justice because he *feels* it. I even forgot to be jealous of his pretty, pretty eyes about half way through the song. How does a sixteen year old boy understand that song so much? This kid really *could* be worthy of the attention he's getting.
Natalie - POWDERFINGER! Nat does "On My Mind". It's cool and toned down to an almost jazzy vibe that builds up to the rockin' and OMG Natalie is great. She *knows* her songs, and she's just stunning to look at, and I'm glad she made a much better song choice than her initial top 24 one. Natalie is one of my faves.
Jacob - Jakey B! Again with song choices just for me. The Killers are a perfect choice for him, and Jakey doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but I heart him. I liked that he stepped up the tempo from his last Chasing Cars performance and got to jump around and be Jakey B again. Fun and accessible to the Idol audience in a way that other rockers like Mark and Holly won't (or even want to) be. He could do well in this competition.
Tarisai - Ugh. Alicia Keys. If you were my woman, Tarisai, I'd tell you to shut the hell up. (ahahaha, I want to delete that joke because of wrongness, but let's just leave it in for now.) Boring, boring, boring. Kyle starts talking about legal midgets, but I'd tuned out by then so didn't quite catch it.
Marty - Hee, all his mates look like stoners, too. And the judges mention his pre-show nerves. *g* Maybe he didn't have access to his usual relaxation techniques. There was nothing really special about that Police song, but he does still have the cruisy coolness. He just doesn't leave a lasting impression.
Brianna - She's adorable. And Brissy FTW! And YAY! another fave song of mine. I'm loving Idol's choice night this year much more than any other previously and I think the diversity shows. Not long ago, Ben Kweller did "God Only Knows" on Like a Version and talked about it being the perfect pop song and one of the best ever written and I've gotta agree. It's also got that Big Love association of late, too. Bree puts her own little quirky touch into it and, dare I say it, she verges on encroaching into Carl's swing territory at times. I love the flute. And Dicko might be tired of the cutesy, but I'm nowhere near it. She's *performing*, guys. I appreciate that because when someone sings, I like them to draw me into their story rather than make me stand back as they scream at me (a la Tarisai). There were so pitch issues, but nothing too distracting, and I just dig the colour and fun she brings to this thing, and every time she sings, I fall a little bit more in love. Kyle admits to actually enjoying some of it despite his better judgment. Civilisation begins to crumble.
My Top 12 in order (bearing in mind that for once, I liked almost all the performances and keep changing my mind about everyone other than the bottom 5):
Natalie
Carl (the "dork horse", as I like to call him)
Holly
Brianna
Ben
Matt
Jacob
Mark
Lana
Marty
Daniel
Tarisai
I have a feeling the judges are right about song obscurity for the COMA FM crowd, and Holly will be out tomorrow. Possibly Daniel if they want to even out the genders more because there is more than enough boy candy to look at this year.
ETA: Forgot to mention something that pissed me off. STFU KYLE. When will people realise that pale skin on white people = NORMAL! Brianna doesn't look *too pale*, she looks perfectly healthy and NORMAL. Seriously guys, every time a judge makes a comment on a contestant's weight, there's a giant eating disorder outcry, yet you're allowed to tell people they're too pale and the media doesn't seem to rush to get quotes from the cancer council or anything. I don't care that Kyle suggested "spray tan" and not "go bake in the sun for a few days" because it's still suggesting that girls have to be orange to be beautiful and it's WRONG. Thank you, Brianna, for not conforming. Thank you for the example you set. Melanomas aren't beautiful.