American Idol Review – Top 4 – Rock’n Roll Hall Of Fame

Posted on 08. May, 2008 by Per Bristow in American Idol, Performance, Singing

Four people are left in American Idol.  And frankly, I thought last night was kind of funny.  It was more interesting than previous week for a couple of reasons.  First of all they had more song choices rather than being stuck  in a limited genre that doesn’t fit them.  Then of course we had Jason Castro.  See the videos and read my thoughts and leave your comments

David Cook – Hungry Like A Wolf

He started off okay, but it never went where it could have.  David Cook has greater ambitions than to sing in a band in small clubs.  Right now he’s on one of the world’s biggest stages and I guess he’s planning on continuing being there. I love David, but here’s the thing. David sings aggressively, but is way too tentative on stage. Here we had another great example. He starts off okay, he’s close to the audience. He’s involved in the dong. Then he tentatively touches somebody’s outreached hand, but he does it as if it’s not part of the song. He doesn’t use it.  And then when the song is supposed to build (we always want a song to build), what does he do?  Reach out to more people?  Become even more engaged with the audience and the song? No.  He backs up and goes to his comfort spot behind the mic stand.  I saw it coming a long way.  It was as if he went “I’ve been out here way too long, this is getting uncomfortable, let me go back to my comfy mic stand so I have something to hold on to”.  Why am I tough?  Cause he’s a world-class singer, that’s’ why, 

Syesha – Proud Mary 

Now that was hot.  I really liked it. The problem is that is such a difference from the nice girl we’ve seen before, that it almost feels a little strange, it makes me a tad uncomfortable. It positions her as the copycat performer again, like I wrote about before.  If we hadn’t seen her before I think we would have liked this even more.

Jason Castro – I Shot The Sheriff

Come on judges. This was one of Jason’s better performances. He’s obviously pretty comfortable with this song and he sang out more than he has. It was fun.  He was grooving.  Then of course he’s going to be compared to Bob Marley. Of course, he’s no Bob Marley. Then again, Bob Marley was certainly no better vocalist (but he was Bob Marley).  Imagine standing up there and getting hammered by the judges like that. I love the way he takes it. It’s not his fault that he his popular and people have voted for him making him stay longer than he should by virtue of his vocals.

David Archuleta – Stand By Me

In contrast to David C, David A really built this song. I wasn’t overwhelmed in the first half of the song, but then he really put some extra into it towards the end.  Good.

David Cook – Baba O’Riley

That was a whole lot more exciting, don’t you think? This time he built the song. It started out great. It was really passionate and believable. I definitely like David more with the rock ballads.

Syesha – A Change Is Going To Come

As soon as I saw her outfit, I didn’t like it. Once again Syesha is taking on the part of the Chameleon. Who is she?  It’s like she’s taking on all the characters to show off what she can do, but it’s hard to identify with her. I’m really concerned about her future as she will have to compete with so many other talented singers. She will probably do fine because of her exposure here.  I suspect Broadway may suit her better which seems what she enjoys – to get her into many different characters. She does it well though – very well. She struggled more than usual in this song because of the range. Most of the song was very low for her

Jason Castro – Mr. Tambourine Man

Jason makes me crack up.  Na na na na na nana na,… hey why not? Everybody talks about Jason losing the lyrics as if he’s made the biggest mistake on the planet.  If this wasn’t a contest but a live show, it could be an amazing hilarious moment. Even here he kept going and almost cracked up himself.  I cracked up. It made you pay attention didn’t it?.  I saw a show once when the performer completely cracked on the high note. He stopped and with humor suggested he try it again. It was a hilarious moment that showed great artistry and made it a memorable funny moment.  Jason is a great artist when he stops apologizing. I almost feel like buying Jason’s CD just out of curiosity what he’s going to come up with. It could be really interesting. Again, it’s not his fault that people keep voting for him while he’s ready to go home.

 So what was most memorable from this show?  Leave your comment