Neil Diamond has a wealth of strong (if somewhat dated) material. This should have provided the contestants with a lot to work with, but…
First of all, the reactions halfway thru:
Jason Castro was pretty embarrassing…too much playing around with his range. Better to have gone down the middle and worried more about communicating the song.
David Cook…not that special. Pretty much the “standard Cook treatment”. It may not have been a song anyone knew before…but it’s not going to be remembered a week from now, either.
Brooke White. Whew…at the halfway point, this is her night to leave. What a goofy performance. I can’t find one nice thing to say about it. Simply, a huge misstep.
David Archuleta. Well, he has that great voice…and it’s a great song. But he completely violated the melody right out of the gate. Amateur mistake. He’s got confidence in the wrong part of who he is. He’s really slipping.
Syesha Mercado. Simon was right that it was an old-fashioned arrangement and performance, but it was beautiful. It felt a bit rushed, because of the time-compressed arrangement. It was gorgeous, though. I’d buy it. Best performance of the night at the halfway point.
Jason Castro (Song #2) - September Morn is a real pretty melody, but Jason totally forgot to “sell it”. I just don’t think he’s got the sophistication to pull off story songs like that.
David Cook (Song #2) - Much better. Lots of dynamics…nice handling of a strong verse melody. Really good stuff. Tastefully done.
Brooke White (Song #2) - Much, much, much better on “I Am, I Said” than the joke rendition of “I’m a Believer” she did earlier. She came really close to making this one her own. She handled the melody deftly and brought some nice dynamics here. She may be around next week. She’s put Jason on the hot seat with that performance.
David Archuleta (Song #2) - “America” is a strong song…plenty of power built right into the melody…and this was such a tragedy. He just butchered it. Brought all kinds of oversinging flourishes (none of them interesting, by the way) and just totally missed the point of what he was singing about. Ugh. And incredibly, the judges was apparently asleep thru the entire catastrophe.
Syesha Mercado (Song #2) - “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” was a goofy choice, and to hear a black girl deliver such a white-bread rendition…well, it’s hard to know what she was thinking. Very forgettable. Simon came close to saying it well…she’s a very competent musical actress. She does not have the soul of a singer. She belongs in musical theatre.
Cook’s second song was the strongest of the night, Brooke’s second song was next best, but hot on her heels was Syesha’s first song. Everything else…simply forgettable.
Obviously…Brooke, Jason or Syesha leave tomorrow. I don’t really care which one. And David Archuleta needs someone to kick him in the butt to make this a more interesting competition. His game is WAY off at this point. It’s like he’s sleepwalking or something.
i totally agree with u …man