Yuku free message boards

MATT - During the opening part at the piano, it was painfully clear that Matt was oversinging this song. I was eating an orange and I ended up paying far more attention to the orange than to Matt, and next thing I knew, the song was over. I figured it wasn't fair to evaluate him without having paid attention, so I rewound it back and watched it again. I STILL wasn't able to focus on him through the whole performance, and at that point, I realized that it was not me - it was him. He is a deeply, deeply boring performer. It's not that he oversings, but WHY he does - his performances are about nothing but showing off with no genuine connection. Despite what Paula and Kara said, that sort of self-consciousness is deeply UNsexy. While I can see what Paula was saying about him not overembellishing it too much (it could have been even worse), I don't think it was "tasteful" at all because it was so narcissistic.

KRIS - I'm tempted to just say "ditto" to everything Kara said about this. I do like the ways that Kris made the song his own with changes in rhythm and phrasing. More importantly, I liked that the ways he did it were genuine and done in such a way that it was about the song rather than about showing off. And tonight, I thought Kris showed flashes of personality. It's not a big personality, but he was wry and engaged with his eyes in a way that I actually paid attention, unlike to Matt. He's an un-flashy performer, but he's consistently good vocally. Therefore, you can pay attention to the nuances instead of tensing in wait for the next clunker note. Overall, a job well done.

SCOTT - Is Scott gay? It had never occurred to me before (he's not attractive enough for me to think about sexually one way or the other), but the way he said that he is waiting for the right "person" instead of woman made it seem like that was the message he was sending. I thought that Randy was way too generous calling him a hotel singer. MATT is the hotel singer. Scott is more like a counselor at Summer camp who sings to the campers around a fire. He's okay (barely), but nobody is going to pay him to give a performance like that. Even in this not-particularly-impressive field of singers, Scott is out of his league. Worse yet, he knows it. His tentativeness comes across as abject terror and makes it really uncomfortable to watch him perform. I wish that when Paula made her comment about the backup singers being around the piano, Scott had responded with a surprised look and said "What? They were there?" That would have won me over!

MEGAN - People often talk about Idol performances being "karaoke", but this one was flat out DRUNKEN karaoke - especially at the beginning. Megan was practically stumbling and slurring and the notes were so far off, yet she was delivering it like she was Etta James or something. She thought that was good! If I'm being honest, the song did get better as it went along, but better as in from a "2" to a "4.5". It was just bad, dawg! At the end when they were giving out her number and Megan said something about her fans still being there, I was surprised. I truly believe that if several of the other contestants (God forbid, Danny) had said something like that, they would have been CRUCIFIED on the message boards for their arrogance. Something tells me that people aren't going to hold that comment against Megan in nearly the same way. Interesting…

ANOOP - Once again, I'm pretty much in line with Kara on this one. I've got to give it up to Anoop for degree of difficulty, alone. Who KNEW he had that kind of range. I differ from Kara, though, in that I think that his falsetto was mostly in tune. It was when he tried to hit high notes in his chest voice before rising up to the falsetto that he struggled and fell flat. I also agree with Simon, though, that he looked half asleep, especially on the chorus. His "baby baby"'s needed much more energy and power. It was almost like Anoop was singing everything except that and a weaker backup singer was stepping in for those words. Mostly, though, I'm impressed with Anoop's voice and vocal skills, even though his performance needs a little work. His chest voice has a nice smoky quality and his falsetto is beautifully pure, and yet the two work together without feeling discordant. It's impressive.

MICHAEL - Simon said that Anoop seemed like he was doing the song in the context of a musical, but I think that critique belongs with Michael. When Michael said he was going to "go to church" with it, I didn't think that he was actually going to deliver the song like a Baptist preacher in a bad sequel to "BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE"… And, worse yet, Michael is a bad actor, so the preacher persona wasn't even believable (unlike Danny last week when he gave us the revival-like version of "Jesus Take The Wheel"). Smokey drilled him on the meaning of the song, and yet Michael never lost his cheesy grin. Fail! As for his vocals, in addition to the numerous missed notes and cracked notes, I was mostly put off by the fact that he never sustained a single note in the whole song. Forget riffs and runs - I think that sustained notes are where you can tell if a singer is good. Michael jumped off of every note almost as fast as he hit it and gave the impression, at least, that he had missed the note and was trying to cover it up with a run.

LIL - Let's give it up to Martha (of Martha and the Vandellas). "Heat Wave" doesn't seem like it would be such a hard song to sing, but nobody else seems to be able to do it justice. The judges were too easy on Lil. That was downright bad. And more than bad, it was bad AND boring. And while the dress was pretty (don't get me started on the hair), it completely hid her chest and her butt, and those are her least boring assets! For an alleged front-runner, Lil doesn't seem to me to be a contender at all at this point.

ADAM - I congratulate Adam on toning down the look and the typical bombast of his performance. If this had been an audition for "Jersey Boys" (and mark my words - sometime in the next five years, Adam will headline a production of that show), I would have said it was brilliant. As a free-standing bit of entertainment, it didn't work for me. I was bored. And I REALLY don't get what the judges said about it proving that he is a "relevant" recording artist. In what universe could that be considered relevant? Now, I don't much care about that - it's their concern, not mine. Still, I do care about being entertained, and I wasn't. I definitely didn't love Adam last week, but I remember his performance. I won't remember this one.

DANNY - I thought that about 90% of his vocals were great, but the other 10% of it was filled with annoying tics (pronouncing it "ret-ty" instead of "ready") and tricks (the unnecessary mid-phrase leap to falsetto). He was just trying too hard to do too much. On the flip side, his performance was about 10% tolerable and 90% annoying, manic and overblown. Dude, relax and dial it back! It doesn't need to be a 14 when a 9 or a 10 would suffice! Now, I have to ask, what was with that shirt? On the left side of his chest, it looked like a ragged, bloody hole, like he'd been shot with a bazooka (a dream come true for many of you). Was that supposed to be a subliminal reference to Sophia and her bum ticker?!

ALLISON - What I have always really liked about Allison is her authenticity. I don't think she is ever trying to be anything other than what she is, organically. For the most part, this song was very well-sung and well-performed. For a bit (the 16 bars or so when she did the syncopated patter), it flashed on BRILLIANT. I just wish that I could understand her lyrics better. Allison's personality in the video packages is not terribly endearing, and I'm not surprised that she is not the most beloved contestant. However, onstage, she always delivers.


1. Kris
2. Anoop (although his vocals alone were more impressive)
3. Allison
4. Danny
5. Adam
6. Matt
7. Lil
8. Michael
9. Megan
10. Scott (he may not have been the worst, but he was by far the least enjoyable)

The bottom three were all atrocious. On any normal night, any one of them was bad enough to be the worst of the night. It was very depressing to have so many horrible performances in the same night. And Lil wasn't much better. If one of these three is not the one to go home tomorrow night, it will be a gross injustice! On the flip side, Kris, Anoop and Allison have been my top three two weeks running. While I wouldn't have called any of them my favorite, they are winning me over and if they remain consistent, I could happily support any of them lasting to the end.