Writer vs Musician: A.I. Performances (4/27/11)

Writer vs Musician: American Idol Performances (4/27/11)

Advisory: Only the performances are recapped/reviewed here because we feel the need to form our own opinion on the show. The Writer, or Average Joe, is Jeff Siler and the Musician is Topher Schaller, of St Louis Local band The Phranklyn Project, and we come at this show from both an “Average Joe” and a Musician’s perspective.

Performance Show

Songs from Carole King. Babyface joins the crew to help the contestants out. The Contestants are performing Solo and Duets this week

Set List

Jacob Lusk-  “Oh No, Not My Baby”

Jeff: Still not a fan of his voice, Performance wasn’t great

Topher: For the first time in several weeks it seems like Jacob actually wants to win.  Picking an upbeat song put a smile on his face and it showed in the performance.  Now on a technical standpoint it was a bit pitchy and his dance moves leave something to be desired, but as an overall feeling the performance was his best in a month.

Lauren Alaina-  “Where You Lead”

Jeff: Really liked the performance, She should be safe)

Topher: Jacob might have started the party but Lauren was the party.  She took a song that all in all was kind of a safe song for her to sing, but livened it up to something special.  The vocal performance was flawless and the way she strutted around the stage showed she knew she was in control.

Casey & Haley- “I Feel The Earth Move”

Jeff: Great duet

Topher: These two singers work well together, with enough growl and sexual desire to pull off the performance.  Hailey has really found her voice, and shows it off opposite Casey’s confidant performance.

Scotty McCreery- “You’ve Got A Friend”

Jeff: Didn’t care for the performance at all, too slow of a song

Topher: I’m usually a big fan of Scotty, but this week was not my favorite.  The song selection was okay, but the arrangement was awful.  Instead of sounding classic with a modern spin, which I thing a lot of his previous work does, this just sounded like a Roger Whittaker cover.

James Durbin- “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”

Jeff: Very Good Performance….as usual

Topher: The beginning of this song was awesome, a single chord strummed on the guitar and just his voice.  Once the band kicked in I was less impressed, but the fact that he would even attempt to tackle a song like this takes guts.

Scotty & Lauren- “Up On The Roof”

Jeff: Good pair and a good performance

Topher: On their third duet together the magic has started to fizzle.  Lauren shined like a star, while Scotty took the back seat and tried not to get lost in the mix.  After Casey & Hailey’s performance this one fell a bit flat.

Casey Abrams “Heidi Ho”

Jeff: Amazing as always

Topher: I’m always impressed by what Casey brings to the table.  He can pick any genre and make it his own.  This week he went for New Orleans’ Jazz, and it was good, not great.  After a three-week run of near flawless performances he got lost in his growl.  By over using his growl the song lacked any singing highlights, as a performer he can take on the best of them, but this weeks sing was lackluster.

Haley Reinhart- “Beautiful”

Jeff: Fell back off pedestal after last week, I didn’t care for it

Topher: She looked beautiful, she sang beautifully, and even the song was titled “Beautiful.”  But with all that beauty the performance was a bit bland to me.  Maybe it wasn’t the best song selection for her, but something about the performance was off.  It ended with all the gusto I wanted from her, but the beginning was a sleepy and lost my attention.

James & Jacob- “I’m Into Something Good”

Jeff: I actually didn’t hate this duet

Topher: Just the thought of these two powerhouse singers together sounds bad.  And it was.  Jacob and James did there best to mask the fact that some voices aren’t meant to harmonize with each other by dancing around and having fun with it.  But there wasn’t enough dancing to cover up the fact that these two guys shouldn’t sing together.

Jeff’s Opinion on American Idol: The Performances- Again this week I didn’t really care for a lot of the performance’s tonight. I mean I really only liked James and Casey’s performance. I just didn’t care for Scotty doing a slower, non-country song and feel that could, probably won’t, hurt him. Lauren had a kind of safe and a little boring performance, I did like it but I didn’t love the performance. I was huge on Haley after she tackled Adele last week and this week I was not impressed at all. Last, but not least, I am still not impressed by Jacob. He has not done a single thing to impress me on the entire show and I hope by tomorrow night he is finally sent home. Haley and Jacob have both been fixtures in the “Bottom Three” so my prediction is that one of them is going home this week.

Topher’s Opinion on American Idol: An overall pretty good week of performances.  Jacob finally acts like he wants to be there, but it might be a little too late.  Scotty should be sent to the bottom three, but his fan base will save him yet again.  James is easily the front-runner of this competition with the most consistent performances.  Casey needs to leave the growling along for a while or he is in jeopardy of being sent home again.  And Hailey has found her voice now she just needs to find the song for it.

Once again, here’s Our Personal Bottom Three and then I’ll give you America’s Probably Bottom Three

Jeff’s Bottom Three

#1- Jacob Lusk (Second Straight Week)

#2- Haley Reinhart

#3- Scotty McCreery (Three Straight Weeks)

With Jacob going home. He’s been in the bottom a lot and I think his time is up

 

Topher’s Bottom Three

#1 Jacob

#2 Casey

#3 Haley

With Jacob going home

 

America’s Bottom Three

#1- Haley Reinhart

#2- Jacob Lusk

#3- Lauren Alaina

With Jacob going home.

Jeff: Now I’ve been pretty good at predicting this the last couple of weeks so hopefully I got it right again.

© 2011 Jeff Siler and Topher Schaller