Author: Mike Farley (Page 109 of 117)

Okay, I lied. I told you that my blog this morning was my last one of the season, but I couldn’t stay away from you guys. So I’m here to give you my take on the American Idol: Season 5 Encore CD that came out this past Tuesday.

Folks, there have been some really great singers in this year’s competition. Therefore I’m extremely disappointed by the quality of this CD. It’s not just the production, which makes the project sound rushed and like the kind of thing I could record on my little four-track. But some of the tracks are incredibly sub-par. It’s like someone decided to have a karaoke party and invited the “Idol” contestants. (If you need her, Paula Abdul will be the one standing near the keg).

To be fair, there are a few tracks on here that are standouts……Idol winner Taylor Hicks has a cool version of the Doobie Brothers’ “Takin’ It To The Streets,” and Mandisa wails on “I’m Every Woman.”
But when you hear Melissa McGhee singing Heart’s “What About Love” (who the hell decided to put this song FIRST on the album?), Kellie Pickler butchering “Walkin’ After Midnight,” or lispy Kevin Covais doing “When I Fall in Love,” you’re going to put this CD where it belongs — in the never-again-to-be-listened-to pile. Or you’ll give it to your ten year old niece as a birthday gift.

I’m sure this album will sell well enough, and the tour will generate a lot of business, but someone needs to let the “American Idol” brass know that they shouldn’t be feeding us a CD that is no more than dressed up karaoke. That’s it, now I’ll go back to my hibernation.

Vandalay, OUT.

Last night, America made a statement. Our country crowned Taylor Hicks, a 29-year-old gray-haired dude from Birmingham, the fifth “American Idol.” America chose charisma over beauty, and rightfully chose a guy who deserved to win. While many of us are annoyed by the hideous “Soul Patrol” refrain, we still couldn’t help but be entertained by Mr. Hicks, and it’s going to be interesting to see his career develop. But the best part about Hicks winning is this: here is a guy that would never be able to get a record deal the conventional way. Record execs are cruel and stupid that way. They would take one look at his gray hair and wave him off before even listening to his soulful, unique voice. Hell, even Simon Cowell did that during the auditions, and it’s a good thing Randy and Paula sent him through to Hollywood back in January.

But last night’s result was perhaps overshadowed by a star-studded finale that included performances by Meat Loaf, Mary J. Blige and Prince. Since this is the final recap of the season, let’s go to the videotape, shall we?

The show opened with the current Idol, Carrie Underwood, performing Barry Manilow’s “Made It Through the Rain” along with Katharine and Taylor. They then flashed to Birmingham, where the O’Donohue twins (remember them from the auditions?) were hosting a big gathering in support of Taylor…..and down the street in Los Angeles, where former Idol contestant Tamira Gray was leading the Katharine fans.

Then Paris Bennett came out and performed “We’re In This Love Together” along with Al Jarreau, and Chris Daughtry then got to sing with his favorite band, Live. Both were super cool performances and fun to watch.

Then they broke to the first comedy segment, “Puck and Pickler,” where Wolfgang Puck schooled Kellie Pickler on the finer points of fine dining. Kellie was practically forced to try eating escargots, and spit it out ala Jerry Seinfeld spitting out the mutton that Elaine’s cousin Holly cooked. It was clever and a good use of Pickler’s talents…there is definitely a future in “Hee Haw” type comedy for her.

After that, the first big star of the night was introduced, as Meat Loaf came out to sing Celine Dion’s “All Coming Back to Me Now” with Katharine McPhee. The fact that it was a Celine song was disturbing enough, but not nearly as disturbing as the way Mr. Loaf was shaking when he started to sing. I know I didn’t order a big vanilla shake with my meat loaf last night.

Considering that the producers had to fill two grueling hours before announcing the winner, they then began the “Golden Idol” awards, where Ryan Seacrest outlined some of the worst performances from the audition phase of the past season. The first award was given to the craziest guy, and that was Dave Hoover…remember him? He was like an escaped mental patient. Anyway, Hoover was actually on hand to accept his award and promptly did a stage dive.

Then the guys (the final six male contestants) did a medley of songs like “Takin’ Care of Business” and “Don’t Stop Believin'”, after which Taylor and Katharine were both presented with brand new Mustang convertibles for being the two finalists. Damn!

The next Golden Idol award was for Proudest Family Moment, which went to Elliott Yamin’s mom. Then Elliott got to perform U2’s “One” along with Mary J. Blige. Blige is releasing the song on her new album, which goes to show that most things on “American Idol” last night were about exploitation.
That you know Bono would think himself far too cool to appear on the show.

Carrie Underwood sang her single, “Remember Me,” which was okay…but can someone tell me where the hell Bo Bice was? Then Taylor Hicks sang Elvis’ “In The Ghetto,” a song that probably helped him earn a ton of votes a few weeks back. But as he was singing, out came Toni Braxton to help him out…she looked amazing, but was singing in a kind of half-singing style…..if any of you saw it, you know what I mean….it was hard to describe and really strange. But who cares when she looks like that? Then Katharine and all the girls sang a medley of woman songs like “I Feel Like a Woman” and “Natural Woman.”

Then came one of the finest moments of the show this season. The Golden Idol award for the best impersonation went to this dude named Michael Sandecki, who during the auditions kind of thought he was Clay Aiken. Michael was on hand to accept the award (kudos to the producers of the show for recruiting all these crazy kids to return for the finale) and then Ryan asked him to perform Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” a song that Aiken performed on Season 2 en route to a runner-up finish. Michael started singing, and then the crowd went nuts as Aiken himself appeared on the stage. But the best part was that Michael was the last one to see him…..and when he did, Seacrest had to contain him to make sure he didn’t pass out before finishing the song with his idol.
You know, I think we’re going to look back on this as maybe one of the single greatest moments on television.

Then Burt Bacharach sat down at the piano and the top 12 contestants sang a medley of his songs. It’s pretty incredible how many hits that dude has churned out during his career. But of course, the producers had to fuck with poor Kevin Covais, by making him sing “What’s New Pussycat”…..those of you who have followed the show know that Kevin has sort of a lisp…..so I don’t need to tell you how that song turned out. Then Dionne Warwick came out for another medley, and even though she is aging, it was another pretty cool moment.

After that came the Golden Idol award for “Best Male Bonding,” which was given to the trio from the auditions that the show labeled as “Brokenote Mountain,” featuring that 16 year old kid from Wyoming who sings to his turkey. This was accented by the fact that they let these guys come out and perform live. Pretty funny shit.

Then after saying that the guest appearances were done, Ryan Seacrest was deemed a liar as Prince made an appearance and performed a couple of songs. Mrs. Vandalay questioned the significance of this, but really, Prince is a true American Idol.

After Katharine and Taylor performed “Time of My Life,” the results were made known. You could look at Katharine and just know that she knew what was coming. Hicks hooted, hollered and “soul patrolled” and then sang his horrible new single, “Do I Make You Proud?”

So that’s it.

It’s been a fun ride with all of you chronicling Season 5 of “American Idol” and look forward to doing it again. Till then,

Art Vandalay is OUT.

Last night the final two contestants on season 5 of “American Idol” performed for the final time before America lit up the phone lines to determine the winner. It was the “McPheever” of Katharine McPhee versus the “Soul Patrol” (sorry kittens) of Taylor Hicks.

And while you would figure both of them would leave it all out there on the Kodak Theater stage, there were moments when you weren’t sure if either one really wanted to win this thing. Here’s the Vandalay recap:

KATHARINE McPHEE

Katharine started off with KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” a song that she sang about a month ago which validated her status as a contender. Randy said it was fun and Simon said it was “Good with a small ‘g'”…..in other words, she didn’t dazzle like she should have on the final night of performances. Her second song was “Over the Rainbow,” a tune that earned her a spot in the finals last week, and it was once again very very good. Simon said it was even better than last week….but I don’t think it was. She finished with an original song, and her first single that will be released some time in the next few months, depending on if Katharine finishes first or second. The song, “My Destiny,” was absolutely awful. Randy Jackson even said he didn’t like the song, but that Katharine sang it okay. Simon said she went from brilliant to “quite good” in one song, and that’s being generous. I think the song sucked, and she butchered it, plain and simple. That said, Katharine has one thing going for her that’s going to earn her votes….she is undeniably hot.

TAYLOR HICKS

Taylor started off with Stevie Wonder’s “Living For the City,” and he absolutely nailed it, something that Randy Jackson said he was nervous about when he heard the song choice, based on the fact that Stevie is Stevie. Simon said it was a smart choice and great start for Taylor. Paula said something in her drunken stupor, and I think she dug it. Taylor’s second choice was Elton John’s “Levon,” and it was a bit boring and uninspired for some reason. Simon correctly said that Round 2 went to Katharine. Then Taylor sang his single, “Do I Make You Proud,” a better song than Katharine’s but still quite lame. However, the difference is that Taylor left it all out there like he really wanted to win. Simon declared that Taylor probably won based on that performance, and I’m going along with that since I’ve been touting Taylor as the favorite for the last month or so.

A side note on songwriting……look, I know that songwriting is kind of a lost art now that radio congolmerates have done their best to homogenize stations, songs, and advertising. But please…..those two songs that were performed by Katharine and Taylor were horrible. Both songs are likely the result of industry powerhouse songwriters sitting around in a room, putting formulas of hit songs into a computer, and spitting out a new song that sounds like, well, regurgitated crap. The songs had no feeling or emotion, so how then were Katharine or Taylor supposed to convey those things? Well, Taylor for the most part did, and that’s probably why he’s going to win.

But back to songwriting….you want a great song? Daniel Powter performed to close out the show…..his hit song, “Bad Day,” has been the anthem for contestants of “American Idol” getting voted off each week. Granted, the show has helped Powter become an overnight success, but here is a great song with a great melody with a hook and with feeling….and when he performed it, it made those other two songs look like the crap that they are.

Okay, so I had to get that rant out of the way. Now it’s on to business…..and likely crowing Taylor Hicks, the gray haired wonder from Birmingham, the next American Idol. See you tomorrow for the recap of tonight’s 2-hour finale.

Vandalay, OUT.